Margot Stork is CEO of Macedon Ranges Shire Council, in Central Victoria, a popular tourist destination known for its forests, food/wine, autumn colours and iconic Hanging Rock.

Our shire shut facilities quite early in COVID-19 because we quickly realised this was going to be a long-term issue and we had to do whatever we could to help flatten the curve. My daughter was working as a paramedic in London, so I had some insight into how bad things could get. Over the same weekend the Australian Grand Prix was cancelled, we closed our Visitor Information Centre and then pools, gyms, halls and museums in quick succession.

We brought in a risk professional to analyse all our business units and inform our response, and now at the other end, we’re building on that risk assessment to guide how we reopen everything.

Other measures have included:

• Developing an Alternate Work Arrangement process to gradually move staff off-site, initially prioritising the vulnerable, those living with high-risk people and those with children.

• Providing daily (now weekly) bulletins to staff and using Microsoft Teams for regular staff meetings (the first had 270 staff online at once).

• Opening a Community Recovery Centre in partnership with other services, to share ideas, resources and referrals and assist the community through this health and economic crisis.

• Conducting Victoria’s first official virtual council meeting online, after earlier staging a socially distant open-air meeting in the Japanese Garden behind chambers in Gisborne.

• In Kyneton, residents themselves set up the KindTown Facebook page to support each other.

Council is now hiring 92 staff under the State Government’s Work for Victoria scheme for people who lost jobs due to coronavirus. Our new employees will deliver a range of innovative podcasts and other projects designed to help build community connections.

The response of our council and community has been a highlight of this period and it never ceases to amaze me how emergencies seem to bring out the best in people.

Margot Stork
Chief Executive Officer
Macedon Ranges Shire Council