Published on Friday, 20 October 2023 at 10:56:25 AM
Shire President, Tony Dean, recently received an Eminent Service Award at the 2023 WALGA Convention.
The award is presented in recognition of:
- Distinguished contributions to WALGA, Local Government and / or the Local Government sector
- Demonstrated leadership and commitment to Local Government Tony Dean
Tony has worked for local government and state government for nearly three decades.
From 1994, Tony was a Councillor for the City of Bunbury. During his seven years as a Councillor there, Tony was Chair of the Back Beach Reconstruction Committee, Chair of the Airport Advisory Committee and Chair of the Recreation Centre Redevelopment Committee.
Then, from 2001 to 2005, Tony was a Member of Parliament for the Seat of Bunbury.
After this time, Tony returned to Nannup and from 2007, became a Councillor for the Shire of Nannup. From 2011, until now, Tony has acted as Shire President for the Shire of Nannup. If re-elected at the next council meeting, Tony will become the longest serving Shire President in Nannup’s history.
Asking Tony what he loves about serving the Nannup community as Shire President, Tony explained that he was born and raised in Nannup. His father, grandfather and great grandfather are buried here. He has a long history with Nannup and understands it well.
Tony explains that Nannup’s population previously supported a thriving town, with services, schools and industries strong. With the decline of primary industry, the population of Nannup declined. Tony states that it has been wonderful to see the population of Nannup increasing again since 2016 and he attributes this to being open to change and diversifying industries.
He explains, ‘the Shire of Nannup is 87% bush so we are never going to get to the position where we will be like Margaret River. We do not have the space for infill urban development. But I would like to see the population of Nannup increase to 2,000 to 2,500 so that the school, businesses and industries can have increased opportunity to thrive here in Nannup. When I grew up in Nannup in the 1960s and 1970s, there was a population of roughly 1,800 people with busloads of kids from farming and milling families and DBCA had 65 workers in town, working in trades and machineries.’
The Shire of Nannup would like to thank Shire President, Tony Dean, for his long and loyal contributions to the Shire of Nannup. We congratulate him for being acknowledged for his service with the Eminent Service Award at the 2023 WALGA Convention.
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