Graham Gardner
Former Director of Planning and other matters at both Taree and Gloucester Councils
What’s your connection to the MidCoast?
I have lived, worked and raised a family on the Midcoast since moving to the area from Sydney in 1986. My wife Margaret and our one year old son David moved to Forster, where I took up a job as a town planner with Great Lakes Shire Council. I have since worked at Great Taree City Council and Gloucester Shire Council, having spent approximately 30 years as a Director of Planning and other matters at both Taree and Gloucester.
My involvement in each of the three local government areas now amalgamated into Midcoast Council has given me an opportunity to extensively learn about and understand each of these areas and the communities. It has been a privilege to be involved in the growth and development of the local area at an active level.
I have developed a deep love for the wonderful country and opportunities that are available in this place we all share. It is a place with natural beauty and significant opportunities for the future.
My family built a house at Cape Hawke in 1988 and we continue to live there. I have children and grandchildren living here and believe we can continue to create great opportunities for people to live and learn in this wonderful place we call home.
Why TUC? What does this project mean to you?
I love the organisation that TUC has become. It supports local students to gain qualifications whilst being connected to their family and community. I grew up in Tamworth and left to study at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. I understand the challenges of leaving home to study.
The TUC gives local people an opportunity to take up the benefits of gaining a tertiary qualification whilst keeping connections to the home country. Online study has some advantages but being able to get the support in that study from TUC is a great advantage. The opportunities to meet other students and be connected to workplaces are significant.
It can be hoped that such connections may help build long-term relationships that will enable growth and development of the broader community.
I am also very pleased to see the tangible acknowledgment and support TUC is providing to the local aboriginal community. We are blessed here to have strong retention of language and culture which is continuing to be developed and acknowledged at a broader community level.
What does success look like for you and TUC?
I hope to see more local students taking up the opportunity provided by TUC to gain the advantage of achieving tertiary qualifications from their local base in family and community. This will strengthen and help develop the wonderful place we all share.
TUC is structured to support the regional community of the Midcoast area, and as it expands its activities into Forster/Tuncurry and Gloucester it will help build the sense of this bigger community in which we all live.
By expanding the hopes and aspirations of school students, supporting them through their tertiary studies, and connecting them to local work opportunities we will build a better and stronger community in the Midcoast area.
The creation of learning opportunities about Gathang Country language and culture will also build stronger and deeper understandings of aboriginal culture and the Midcoast country.
TUC has established a long-term commitment to this community. I look forward to supporting that commitment.