Career in council.
I was elected to the City of Ballarat Council in November 2012, as a South Ward Councillor.
In 2013, my Councillor colleagues elected me Mayor of Ballarat; a role I serve with great honour.
Born and bred in Ballarat and the father of four young children, I am passionate about making our beautiful city a great place to live now and in the future.
I am a physical education teacher at the Darley Primary School where I am currently on leave for 12 months to commit full time to the mayoral role.
Outside of work I enjoy spending time with family.
I am fortunate to be the father of 4 young children, aged 5, 3, 2 and 16 weeks, so I try to spend as much time with them in between mayoral duties.
I also enjoy running to stay fit when I get a chance.
Fast growing regional city.
With a population of 100,000 people, Ballarat is the regional capital of Western Victoria.
The municipality encompasses the entire urban area of Ballarat and several outlying townships including Buninyong and Learmonth.
Ballarat is a thriving regional centre serving 400,000 people.
It offers premium job opportunities, world-class education, affordable housing, exciting restaurants and retail options, accessible community services, beautiful heritage and a great lifestyle for all.
As one of Australia’s fastest growing regional cities, our biggest challenge is planning for our city’s growth and ensuring we have the infrastructure needs to cater for our growing population.
The biggest investment development project in the region is the Ballarat West Employment Zone (BWEZ).
BWEZ is a long-term project to unlock land for industry and has the potential to deliver 9,000 local jobs for our community & inject $5 billion into the economy annually.
Another major project for council is the Ballarat Western Link Road.
When completed, the 16-kilometre road project will link the Western Freeway to the Midland Highway and provide an important road connection between Ballarat and its surrounding areas.
The City of Ballarat was also recently selected to receive an IBM Smarter Cities Challenge Grant.
The grant will see a team of IBM experts work with us to analyse existing data to help the city make more informed decisions about its waste management systems.
Last year, following a storm event in Ballarat, I had the opportunity to personally visit affected residents and help facilitate Council services and personnel that made a significant difference to their situation.
Finding solutions to the small issues that are important to our residents has been particularly rewarding for me.
Active participants
Being a younger mayor I hope that the community will view the role of mayor and councilor in a different way.
I hope I can bring a lot of energy, drive and fresh perspective to my role as Mayor of the City of Ballarat.
I would also hope I can inspire other young people to be active participants in public life in our city.
One of the strengths of our council is our diversity, of age, gender, professional background, political ideology.
Working together as a group achieves great results for our community.
I am passionate about ensuring our city supports the whole of life of its residents.
I want Ballarat to be a city that caters for residents of all ages.
The most satisfying part of my job is seeing projects delivered upon from start to finish and the positive impact they have on the community.
Recently, seven of our city’s kindergartens were upgraded, seeing children learning and enjoying their new surrounds was particularly rewarding.
I was also part of the longest running Council meeting on record in Ballarat, 7pm to 3.40am!
