Politics & Council
7 January, 2024
Community values: Craig Niemann’s journey from Yarrawalla dairy farm to Victoria’s biggest inland city
FAMILY life on a Yarrawalla dairy farm was all about community for a young Craig Niemann. His parents were on local committees and he would pull on the boots with the Yarrawalla Football Club. There was also the early ethic of doing well at school...
FAMILY life on a Yarrawalla dairy farm was all about community for a young Craig Niemann.
His parents were on local committees and he would pull on the boots with the Yarrawalla Football Club.
There was also the early ethic of doing well at school and on the football field. He would win a best and fairest and complete Year 12 at East Loddon P12 College after starting school 13 years earlier in Pyramid Hill.
But another six months in the classroom at Bendigo College of Advanced Education, now Bendigo TAFE, expanding his knowledge in an accounting course was too much.
“I wasn’t enjoying it all the theory and no practice,” Craig said last week on the eve of stepping down after 16 years as chief executive of the City of Greater Bendigo.
That decision back in the middle of 1983 saw him win the job as junior clerk with the Borough of Eaglehawk and the start of more than 40 years in local government.
“I found the right place for me ... there was an element of accounting, I wanted to learn on the job and there was also the element of community,” he said.
At the time there were 210 councils in Victoria - a decade before a local government restructure slashed the number to 79. He worked towards gaining the municipal clerk’s certificate, a prerequisite to become a shire secretary or town clerk along the way landing the job of assistant shire secretary with one of the councils that would be abolished, East Loddon.
“That would be a stepping stone to finding the way up the municipal ladder,” Craig said.
“Money was tight (in East Loddon), the population 1350 people, but I got to do everything in local government.”
He spent 14 years living in Serpentine where East Loddon was based, played with the local football club after earlier lining up with brother Scott who coached Mitiamo before the pair donned Serp’s jumpers.
When amalgamation came in 1994, Craig was appointed director of corporate services with the new Loddon Shire. By now a qualified municipal clerk, he was on the ground floor of a new era in local government, meeting the challenges and making the new shire structure work.
The community ethos was again in demand, as the new council’s executive and later councillors visited towns drawn from four former municipalities.
“We had people who wanted to have a go ... people (still) wanted their own identity,” he said.
“And there were challenges around making the administration base in Wedderburn work. Some people thought they had lost the local in local government.”
Craig said a key legacy from the early days of amalgamation had been the exercise of setting up community plans and council helping to deliver projects while still having ownership in local communities. “The plans helped communities understand and prioritise with limited resources.”
Within two years, Craig was CEO of Loddon Shire, continuing that work of strengthening communities.
It was only in 2005, with a young family now at school in Bendigo that he made the decision was made to make the move. He was recruited in a restructure of the city’s executive team.
“I needed to try a bigger municipality, to bring rural local thinking to an urban area and learn,” he said.
Again within two years, he was the CEO of Bendigo with the city on its way to becoming Victoria’s largest inland city.
“I still pinch myself and have pride in the role.”
Craig once more talks about community and making sure the staff he has had in the role “understand we are here for the community”.
“You can’t make everyone happy but you make decisions on what you think is right and for the greater good.”
He says the approach of local government to decisions has changed. There is a broader regional view of decisions. “Over time local government has changed a lot. People move much more across municipal boundaries these days.”
Craig said the regional approach applied to projects, policies and resources.
“It’s a two-way street,” he says of movement between council areas and the links between city and rural communities where he grew up and later became the council CEO. He says there will be investment in the future of the region and that required proper planning. “Things change over time and for that you have to plan”.
His grounding across the Loddon Shire came from parents Bill and Evelyn who now live in Eaglehawk - Bill turned 87 a fortnight ago - and he recalls the words of astute farmers including Don Pickles and Jack Vinnicombe or councillors who served in the early days after amalgamation like Frank Maher and John Donaldson.
Craig says those early years at East Loddon and support from then shire secretary Mark Johnson helped nurture his local government career.
“I have seen a lot of great people come through executive teams in the councils. It is a team effort,” he said.
Craig said it was time for a break in a local government career where he has spent more than half the time as a CEO.
He has no plans at the moment although a return to milking cows for pocket money is unlikely to tempt a return to dairying for the local government veteran.
And again, he takes the conversation back to community and family.
“Mum and dad worked hard to make sure we had a good start in life,” he said. “And we were involved in everything in the community - the church, footy, tennis.”
Veteran Loddon Shire councillors have often remarked: “We helped train some very good CEOs.” Maybe said in jest, but spot on for the boy from Yarrawalla.