Flinders Highway & Gulf Road Trip

Jeremy Walker, Senior Engagement Manager

As one of the newest additions to Local Buy’s growing team, August was an exciting month for me, hitting the road for the first time to begin face-to-face introductions with our North Queensland councils.

If you have never driven the Flinders Highway, between Townsville and Mount Isa or made the journey to the Gulf of Carpentaria, I highly recommend it!

I was warmly welcomed for meetings with the CEOs and their operational teams at:

• Charters Towers
• Flinders
• Richmond
• McKinlay
• Cloncurry
• Mount Isa
• Mornington Island
• Doomadgee
• Burke
• Normanton
• Croydon

The insights they shared and their openness to provide feedback and collaborate were particularly valuable to me and greatly appreciated as a newcomer. I also had the pleasure of being the first to educate some new council staff about Local Buy and how using our arrangements, technology and services can support council’s strategic plan, corporate governance, procurement operations and council suppliers.

In summary, these council visits allowed me to support a keen interest, expressed by various council staff, to understand more about:

• Local Buy’s procurement technology
• Local Buy’s 2024 Procurement Conference
• Co-hosting supplier information events with Local Buy
• Local Buy’s current arrangements
• Local Buy’s supplier support

In addition to this, I had the opportunity to represent Local Buy at the Moreton Bay Supplier Information Briefing and at the LGMA Annual Local Government conference at the Sunshine Coast. Both events provided a fantastic opportunity for me to meet more of this wonderful Queensland Local Government community and those who work alongside it.

You could say that August has been a busy month for me, and you wouldn’t be wrong, but, as someone who spent the formative years of his life living in Arnhem Land NT, I am loving the opportunity to get out of the City and see this great state! Queensland is such a diverse and beautiful part of the World and I am thankful to be able to experience the places and people who make it so.

I am writing this update from Cairns and I look forward to meeting more of you soon.

If there is anything I can help with in the meantime, please do let me know; I am happy to be of service.

Yours sincerely 

Jeremy