Retirement is not the end of the road. It is the beginning of the open highway.

Life doesn’t always go to plan.

 After 48 years and 4 months in the public service I’m spending my last week in isolation; not what I had envisaged. I was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Monday. The time away from work has given me some time to reflect on my career and the people that I’ve worked with.

 As you can imagine, I’ve met a few interesting characters along the way. I can honestly say that I have really enjoyed the people I’ve worked with, which is probably why I’ve stayed so long within the public service.

Compared to 48 years ago, the work landscape is very different, and despite knowing the majority of change has been for the better, I have to admit that I miss the social culture of the former Lands department.

I started my career in the Lands department in George Street, Brisbane on 14 January 1974, just 2 weeks before the 1974 floods. The work environment was a big shock, my day-to-day duties were in an office full of men, about 24, the majority of which were smokers (and I’m not). The early part of my career was spent learning the trade so to speak, of land administration. Every 2 to 3 years I was reassigned to another area of the department to develop my knowledge and skills and it wasn’t until after, that I valued how important this was in expanding my relationships with people.

1994 was a year of big change, as the government decided to regionalise the department’s business.  This initiative brought about what I call a ‘spill and fill’, where all positions across the department were declared vacant, many were reassigned to the regional centres, and all staff that wanted to stay on had to apply for a position. Many staff took the redundancy packages on offer, others looked to pursue their career in the regions.

At the time, I had a young family and was working in the Development Branch of the department which saw many new residential and industrial estates established in the urban environment of towns across Queensland. (The development of Point Lookout is just one example of this work.) Thankfully as it turned out, through the ‘spill and fill’, I was successful in my appointment to lead this Branch. Looking back, this marked the beginning of my leadership journey in the organisation. This function moved from a solely Brisbane-based role, to one where it was lead from Brisbane but the function delivered through regional centres in Townsville, Rockhampton and Nambour.

From here, I moved onto numerous ‘property’ based functions of the department, many of which tied back to the core land administration commitments. 

About 10 years ago, and as a consequence of one of the many Machinery of Government changes that have occurred through my career, I found myself in the Policy space. This saw me leading the Vegetation Management team in the development of a Bill to significantly change the vegetation management framework in Queensland. I was an absolute novice with this content, but the team had a great depth of knowledge and an abundance of patience as I endeavoured to consume what was important to know in a very challenging policy initiative. Needless to say, the success of getting this Bill through parliament can be attributed to the hard work and dedication of the team. 

From the Policy space I moved into where I finish my career, with Native Title and Indigenous Land Services. 

For the past six years, I have been part of a professional and passionate team that works with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. We have a clear goal – that the government recognises their spiritual, social, historical and cultural connection to land. Of all the work that I’ve collaborated on throughout my career, this work stands out for me the most, as it delivers tangible outcomes that affect and change people’s lives for the better.

Early in 2021 and as an outcome of another Machinery of Government change, I was asked to lead the State Land Administration team for 8 months.

What an absolute honour, to lead a team that was performing a function that I had started my career in back in 1974. This was a very special time for me, and something that I could never have imagined would happen when I joined the department some 48+ years ago.

A bit of trivia – across my career I worked in 7 departments (always in what is currently known as the Land Division) and served under 19 Ministers and 9 Premiers.