Premier opens new headquarters
Thursday 8 April 2010
Premier Kristina Keneally, Minister for Water, Phillip Costa, and Member for Dubbo, Dawn Fardell, today officially opened the new State Water Corporation Headquarters in Dubbo.
The Corporation’s Dubbo office was relocated to the Blue Ridge Business Park in February, and will be the financial and operational hub for State Water across entire country NSW.
The new head office brings together many of the operations of State Water into one location.
The new office employs 70 people in the areas of Finance, Human Resources, Communications IT, Water Delivery, Customer Operations, Major Projects, Business Improvement and Maintenance and Services.
The new headquarters is also home to the Central West Flood Operations Response Team, which coordinates State water services in the event of a flood in the area.
The team is responsible for:
• Co-ordinating operations of the dams, weirs and other infrastructure to mitigate the impact of flooding on regional communities; and
• Utilising local knowledge of experienced river operators combined with real-time technology to remotely monitor storage levels, inflows, releases and flood levels to and from 21 major dams and their receiving streams state-wide.
Ms Keneally said Dubbo has experienced relatively good rainfall through the start of this year and is currently coming out of drought – so it is important to manage the State’s water supplies.
“I am very pleased to be officially opening State Water Corporation’s new premises in Commercial Avenue,” Ms Keneally said.
“Through this upgrade, State Water has reinforced that its base is here in Dubbo - in the heart of regional NSW.”
Mr Costa said the relocation of the office from its previous site made logistical sense, as the former premises themselves could have been subject to flooding in an emergency event.
“Not only is this move reducing rental costs, it means the water operations are further away from the floodplain,” Mr Costa said.
“That means in the event of severe flooding, a response team can be pulled together in Dubbo to coordinate actions and mitigate the impact on regional NSW.”
Ms Fardell welcomed the continuing commitment of the State Water Corporation to her electorate. “The State Water Corporation provides local jobs, specialist engineering expertise and growth opportunities for the area,” Ms Fardell said.
“I am very pleased that the Corporation has cemented its roots in Dubbo, and welcome it continuing its important work on behalf of the entire Central West.”