After 12 months in the lead role at Walgett Shire Council, Megan Dixon is realistic in her achievements and challenges.

The former head of RDA Orana where she had led comfortably for seven years, arrived in the chair as general manager of Walgett Shire in a turbulent time.

The outgoing GM had just been dismissed, and controversially, the Council had decided to decommission the Walgett pool the week before she started. In her first six months there was a tragic death in the workplace, bushfires and even a flood in Lightning Ridge. “It was an intense time within Council and externally we had all of these events that were pushing our resources and our abilities.”

Mrs Dixon’s arrival was akin to boarding a plane mid-air, during a meteoric storm. But she’s stayed the course and has called on her strengths in networking and strategy to build consistency and efficiency with a cohesive oversight.

Add to that, that no-one was officially flying ‘the plane’ at the time she arrived and you can imagine the challenges. Of this chapter she acknowledges the trauma felt amongst the staff regarding the dismissal of the previous GM. 

Now, 12 months later, with the value of hindsight, one gets a sense it was not perhaps a matter of building the plane on the runway, but rather, landing one and re-establishing the flight path.

“It was a really challenging time, and became a challenging year. But I’m immensely proud to say that we rose to those challenges,” Mrs Dixon said.

She highlights the delivery of a council restructure as one of her biggest achievements. “We also got the pool back online and opened for the summer,” she said.

“I feel like there’s a lot of work that we’ve been doing that is not necessarily visual to the community. When I arrived we had 40 projects funded and outstanding – the team has done an amazing job to push those projects forward. Some hadn’t even been started 12 months ago.

“Some of them are little projects but they mean a lot to the community.”

Leadership restructure a highlight

Mrs Dixon cites the restructure of the leadership team as one of the biggest achievements for her initial 12 months.

“It’s been about putting in place proper leadership to deliver efficient and effective services to the community.”

The restructure has her excited about the future.But she is not discounting the work that will be required to keep things moving.

“We’ve got a couple of big projects ahead of us. One of the biggies is the development of our new community strategic plan. The non-negotiable is that we are delivering ‘place plans’ within that.”

With nine villages across the Shire, the strategy aims to get a strong understanding of the priorities for each village to guide planning and funding for those priorities.

With Council elections this month, there will be more settling and cohesiveness required on the ‘Walgett Shire flight path.’

“The year ahead for me will be about bedding down the new council. I’m not sure how many new councillors we’ll have.

“One of the things I’m keen to do is to work with council on improved policies. Doing that work with the new council will be quite exciting.

“We’ve got some other deliverables with projects ongoing in most areas. 

“Having them delivered well and on budget are key things that will be a challenge, but we’re on track to seeing that delivered.”

Foundations of the future

“But for me, those channels of communications into government that I had established before I arrived, have really benefited Walgett and the community. I came into the role with very strong links and relationships.

“There’s never a dull day in this job. It’s a big job and there are a lot of challenges. I feel like I’ve got seven-ten years more to give in terms of getting things going to where I think, and to where the opportunities are,” Mrs Dixon said.

“There is no doubt that both personally and within the organisation, we are going through a change process. That’s challenging for everybody.   The key is being patient as we go through that. It’s also about remembering that we do serve the community and the changes are about serving in a better, more accountable, more transparent way.

“For me, I am building the foundations and being patient with myself.  Having the community be patient with council as we build the foundations of a better shire is really important,” she said.

“Those foundations are about people, about planning, doing the work is really quite important.”

With 12 months quickly moving into a new chapter, Mrs Dixon said it was rewarding to reflect and acknowledge the hard work done by all the staff at Walgett Shire. “I feel very blessed to be surrounded by such a loyal and committed group.    This is really refreshing. And that’s the joy of working in a smaller community organisation -  you get to experience and witness your achievements with your staff.”