Western Downs Regional Council mayor Andrew Smith reflects on first team and what’s to come in 2025

After the highs and lows of 2024 which featured opposition to a major project and some fresh faces on council, Western Downs mayor Andrew Smith has looked back on his first year in the role.

Western Downs mayor Andrew Smith has repeatedly defended plans to build a cultural centre at Dalby's Thomas Jack Park which caused controversy in 2024.

After almost 10 months in the role, Western Downs mayor Andrew Smith has reflected on his first term and is now looking ahead to 2025.

During last year’s election Mr Smith, who served four terms in council, with the last two as deputy mayor, received more than 75 per cent of the votes for mayor to beat out opposing candidate Glenn Strandquist.

Mr Smith said he was proud of his first term and was grateful to be in the role.

“I’m really proud to be mayor of the Western Downs, it is something that comes to mind every day, I’m very respectful of the role and the fact people have put faith in me,” he said.

“We are in a lucky part of the world at the moment. We are seeing significant growth in our region and that makes it easier for a mayor to be dealing with growth rather than decline.

“We have this amazing diverse economy which gives us so much opportunity, the role of mayor and council is take advantage of that opportunity and I think we are doing that really well.”

Western Downs Regional Council has released concept designs for the Thomas Jack Park Cultural Centre. Opposition to the development has dogged the council during 2024.

Mr Smith said there were a number of achievements he was proud of after his first year.

“My number one priority was to bring the boardroom together, we have been extremely fortunate over the last couple of terms of council to have a very united boardroom,” he said.

“I treat the boardroom like a rugby team in that we must be playing together, we don't always agree in the boardroom, but we are united and in my mind that has been the greatest success.

“From a budget perspective we have continued to grow liveability in our region, we have continued the Dalby Cultural Precinct which will be a wonderful project for the region, we are also looking at our asset replacements, the new Chinchilla Pool is a good example of that.

“In our other communities such as Tara, Wondoan, Miles and Jandowae we are looking at what we can do to increase the liveability in those regions looking at parks and open spaces.”

Mayor Andrew Smith and councillors George Moore, Greg Olm, Sam Condon, Sophie Bougoure, Kylie Bourne, Kaye Maguire, Peter Saxelby and Megan James

Mr Smith said he was now looking ahead to the new year.

“Advocacy is extremely important as mayor and it is really important we build relationship with state and federal politicians,” he said.

“We will continue to advocate strongly and I believe we are more organised than we’ve ever been in regards to advocating on long term water supply, we will also continue to advocate for communications in regional areas.

“Another priority for our region is advocating to the state and federal government for more support regarding roads as the Western Downs region has the largest council road network in Queensland.”

Mr Smith said they were in a strong financial position which allowed them to better serve the region.

“It’s really important to me we maintain our financial strength, we are one of the few debt free councils in Queensland and I am proud of that,” he said.

“In our 2023/2024 budget we had around $16 million come into our budget through interest on our cash balances and that is critical to helping us build our communities.

“I know at times we get questioned on having cash balances but the proof is in the pudding and something we want to continue as a council is to maintain and build cash balances because we see the benefits.”

Originally published as Western Downs Regional Council mayor Andrew Smith reflects on first team and what’s to come in 2025