Annual Report

Throughout 2023/24, Baw Baw Shire Council achieved a number of important milestones on our mission to promote the sustainability of our towns and villages, and ensuring our community continues to benefit from our beautiful rural and natural environment for years to come.

Largest ever funding grant received for Baw Baw Culture and Connection Precinct

This year, Council was awarded its largest ever funding grant for a capital works project. Our application for $14.5 million from the Federal Government’s Growing Regions Program towards the construction of the Baw Baw Culture and Connection Precinct (BBCCP) was announced in May 2024, with the library and learning centre to be the first stage of the project to be built. Advocacy efforts to receive this funding included rallying the community to support the project and lobbying State and Federal governments for funding.

The Library and Learning Centre has been designed by Melbourne-based architects Croxon Ramsay, and Council is targeting Green Star 5 Certification for the project. This means that it will be at least 30 per cent more energy efficient than similar buildings, running on 100 per cent renewable energy and taking advantage of natural lighting, shade, and ventilation. 

Launch of the Baw Baw Waste App

The Baw Baw Waste App was launched in March this year, available to residents for both iPhone and Android devices. This app was well received when launched, providing residents with useful information on which bins to put out and when and what household items can be recycled.

The launch of the app has helped Council to reduce its environmental footprint by moving away from bulk mail-out waste booklets and the annual bin collection calendar. As of 30 June 2024, more than 2,000 residents had downloaded the app.

All Council sites and street lighting powered by 100 percent renewable energy

As of January 2024, Baw Baw Shire Council is sourcing 100 percent renewable energy for all of its major electricity contracts. All of Council’s contracts for small sites, large sites and public street lighting have been moved to the Victorian Energy Collaboration (VECO), which provides members with renewable energy generated from wind farms in Victoria. Council’s small sites electricity contract consists of 116 sites and includes buildings, public toilets, security lights, fountain pumps and public barbecues.

Road maintenance continues to be a focus

Council has significantly increased its investment into its roads contract. This has seen huge outcomes for the state of roads across Baw Baw Shire. There has been a 25 percent decrease in the number of customer requests being reported, and the customer requests that Council does receive are inspected and responded to within 3.4 days. In the last financial year, 1,002km of road grading and 749km of unsealed shoulder grading were also completed.

3,300 trees and shrubs planted in reserves around Baw Baw Shire

During the 2023/24 financial year, 3,300 trees and shrubs have been planted in reserves around Baw Baw Shire as part of targeted revegetation efforts by the Natural Environment team and with community participation through events like National Tree Day. A community planting event was held in July for National Tree Day, with around 30 community members joining Council staff to help revegetate the Robin Hood Reserve in Drouin by planting just over 800 trees.

More than $40 million in capital works projects delivered

In the 2023/24 financial year, Council completed more than $40 million worth of capital works projects. Community sporting facilities in Baw Baw have received several highly anticipated upgrades and improvements over the last year.

The new multi-use pavilion and soccer pitch upgrades at Drouin’s Bellbird Park were completed, with the pavilion including a female-friendly multi-use community facility. The newly redeveloped pavilion at Baxter Park in Warragul was finished, which includes female-friendly player and official changerooms, an improved carpark, and pitch lighting upgrade.

The Warragul Leisure Centre was completed and included new basketball courts, a new café and kitchen, new changerooms, and improved pedestrian and parking access.

Council is committed to providing a healthy community for all Baw Baw Shire residents. Throughout 2023/24, Council recorded a number of major achievements in support of our goal to support healthy people in connected, inclusive and resilient communities.

Adoption of the Youth Strategy 2024 – 2028

Following months of community engagement with some of Baw Baw’s youngest generations, Council adopted the Youth Strategy 2024 – 2028 in March 2024.

The strategy outlines Council’s commitment to support the health and wellbeing of young people, aged 12 to 25, in Baw Baw Shire and incorporates five key priority areas:

1. Voice and Leadership,
2. Support and Services,
3. Safety,
4. Learning and Growing,
5. Health and Wellbeing.

Set to be implemented over the next four years, it is expected that the strategy will increase the health and wellbeing of younger people by creating inclusive practices at Council and foster opportunities in the community for young people to become better connected with services, feel safer, learn and grow. 

Development of the Municipal Early Years Plan 2024 – 2027

In February 2024, Council formally endorsed the Municipal Early Years Plan 2024 – 2027.

Council undertook a Provide, Partner, Promote (PPP) approach to the development of the plan, which included a substantial consultation and engagement process to capture a wide range of voices and perspectives.

A specialised, targeted program of consultation in which all primary schools and kindergartens in Baw Baw Shire were invited to participate, resulted in 185 children, eight schools, five kindergartens, one long day care service and 761 individual responses recorded.

Adoption of a Place and Feature Naming Policy

In March 2024, Council adopted the Place and Feature Naming Policy, a policy that provides a coordinated and equitable approach when assessing and recommending naming proposals and ensures naming is consistent with community expectations and Council strategies and policies.

Baw Baw Shire Council is among the first Councils to adopt a policy of this nature.

$300,000 awarded to 69 community projects in the Shire

Each year Baw Baw Shire Council’s Community Grants program supports not-for-profit community groups and organisations with hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding towards projects that help to build a thriving, healthy and sustainable Baw Baw.

In 2023/24, Council awarded more than $300,000 to 69 community projects across the two program categories, Minor Capital Works and Community Projects.

Playground renewal projects and upgrades to dog parks

Each year, Council’s Playground Renewal Program sees a series of playgrounds across Baw Baw refreshed with new equipment, safety improvements and minor landscaping to improve the experiences of residents and visitors of all ages.

In 2024, Council upgraded playground equipment at six playgrounds across Baw Baw Shire including;

• Bellbird Park in Drouin,
• Toy Park in Longwarry,
• Noojee Riverside Playground in Noojee,
• Dowton Park in Yarragon,
• Apex Park in Trafalgar,
• Briona Court Playground in Trafalgar.

Following community consultation, Council also undertook upgrade works at three off-leash dog parks, being at Brooker Park in Warragul, Bellbird Park in Drouin and Hollydell Park in Trafalgar to enhance the existing facilities to create a more enjoyable and safer environment for dogs and their owners.

Council supports Live4Life

Throughout the financial year, Council continued to support and enhance the lives of Baw Baw Shire’s young people through the support of the Live4Life program – a dedicated program nurturing the mental wellbeing of young people, specifically in rural and regional communities.

Celebrating its third year after launching in 2020, the Live4Life program has seen many achievements this past financial year, including:

• Scheduling of weekly lunches for students to help enhance and foster positive conversations,
• Facilitating Teen Mental Health First Aid Training sessions, attended by more than 800 local Year 8 and Year 10 students, 
• Socialising and connection building sessions.

The 2023 end-of-program gathering was attended by 40 members from seven local secondary schools. Council is proud to support Live4Life, and sees the program as an important community resource for Baw Baw Shire’s young people.

Council is committed to supporting thriving, diverse and resilient communities. Throughout the 2023/24 financial year, Council recorded significant achievements to support a strong economy, deliver education, tourism and cultural offerings to help our region flourish, and build and maintain future ready infrastructure.

Advocacy efforts increase with $18.65 million in grants received

Baw Baw Shire Council continues to increase its advocacy efforts across the board with roads and local community infrastructure remaining top of the list.

Council put forward pre-budget submissions in both the State and Federal Budgets in 2024 and in the last year, has secured $18.65 million in grants from both the State and Federal governments.

These grants have covered a range of different facilities and improvements across the Shire, from new buildings to sport and recreational upgrades, road improvements and grants for future kindergartens as well as funding to help parts of Baw Baw Shire transition away from native timber harvesting in state forests.

Coffee Vibes celebrates first birthday at West Gippsland Arts Centre

The social enterprise café Coffee Vibes, which supports and employs eight local all abilities young people, celebrated its first birthday in May at West Gippsland Arts Centre.

The café boasted an impressive first 12 months in operation. In August 2023, the team welcomed six new supported employees, bringing the total to eight staff. The café has also gone from serving approximately 1,300 customers per month, to almost 2,000, demonstrating the growing popularity of the local café.

West Gippsland Arts Centre supports local creatives

The West Gippsland Arts Centre performed a landmark year and supported 49 performances for local theatre companies and schools.

Council supported the first ‘Art in the Street’ event in December which showcased 33 local artists as they created works live along the main streets of Warragul.

A number of free live music concerts called ‘Forecourt Fridays’ were held for the community over the summer period.

Baw Baw Shire’s first Early Years Careers Expo

The free Early Childhood Careers Expo ran for the first time in May at West Gippsland Arts Centre.

This expo brought sector partners together to promote early years careers, with guest speakers and stall holders present. The event was attended by school students as well as adults seeking a career change.

Throughout the 2023/24 financial year, Council recorded major internal organisational achievements which support and enhance Council’s capacity to deliver on the Council Plan’s strategic initiatives.

Creation of the Strategic Service Plan

Council is committed to delivering the best possible service for our growing population, and a growing population creates a need for smart service delivery.

The Strategic Service Plan is a 10-year plan for our services, and has been developed to inform all long-term service design, planning and delivery decisions, as well as priorities for service reviews and service innovation.

This important program will enable Council to identify the possible range of future service demands to cater for the expanding population, whilst meeting the changing communities’ needs.

Encouraging Community Engagement

This year saw big steps for Baw Baw Shire in the form of community consultation, as a new online engagement tool was launched to foster community participation in Council projects.

Baw Baw Connect is Council’s dedicated online engagement tool for community consultation and feedback activities, and offers residents the opportunity to share ideas, discuss important topics, provide feedback and participate in projects straight from their devices.

During the 2023/24 financial year, 27 community consultation opportunities were undertaken on Baw Baw Connect, and the platform was visited more than 18,000 times by the community.

Engagement is a valuable tool for ensuring transparent and inclusive communication with the Baw Baw community, and Council will continue to encourage the community to have their say.

To learn more, visit Baw Baw Connect

Face-to-face customer service returned to Warragul

This financial year marked a significant post-COVID-19 milestone for Council, as the in-person Customer Service Centre returned to Warragul after ceasing face-to-face operations in late 2021 in response to COVID-19 health advice and Victorian Government restrictions.

In September 2023, residents were able to resume direct access to staff at Council’s Customer Service Centre within the West Gippsland Arts Centre in Warragul for enquiries and payments. Providing good customer service is important to Council, which is why it was important to return the option of in-person assistance to the community.

In addition to face-to-face contact with the Customer Service team in the Warragul and Drouin Council offices, customers are also able to contact Council online, by phone, and by post.

Venue bookings made simple with ‘Bookable’

Council oversees and maintains a large number of venues across the Shire, and 17 of those venues are now available to be booked for community use on Council’s new booking platform – ‘Bookable’.

‘Bookable’ is a purpose-built platform that allows customers to search for venues, make and manage their own bookings, and make payments, all on the one platform.

Launching this new platform has enabled Council to bring more choices to the community to consider when looking to book a space, whilst promoting the existing Recreation and Community Venues.

Venues available for community hire include meeting rooms, community centres, sports facilities, multi-use spaces, public halls and kiosks.

This process improvement has also allowed for futureproofing of Council’s venue hire, and has opened the possibility of expanding the service in the future.

For more information, visit Bookable.

Optimising Council Meetings

In a move to make Council meetings more inclusive, from February 2024 Council optimised the Council meetings schedule and began trialling monthly day-time meetings.

This change from fortnightly to monthly Council meetings meant that Council agendas are published seven days in advance of the meeting, giving the community more opportunity to stay informed, and more time to make written submissions.

This trial was successful, and saw an average increase in attendance of 40 percent compared to the fortnightly meetings at the monthly Council Meetings.

Accessibility to Council Meetings is important, and in addition to attending in person, the community can watch meetings through a livestream on Council’s website and can make verbal submissions remotely.