AMRRIC Member of the Month February 2010 Nicole Howcroft

Nicole completed a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Health in 2002 and moved north from Brisbane to Bundaberg to work for the then Bundaberg City Council as an Environmental Health Officer. She worked with Bundaberg City Council and then the amalgamated Bundaberg Regional Council for six years. During this time she worked on numerous projects (in addition to regular environmental health inspections) including running the Immunisation Program for the entire Bundaberg Region, assisting in the development of the local Food Hygiene Course, was a leader in the Council’s Local Disaster Management and Welfare Group and implementing the many legislative changes for Environmental Protection and Public Health legislation. She also worked tirelessly to promote her profession throughout the Queensland Central Region and served as Secretary/Treasurer and then President of the Australian Institute of Environmental Health – Central Group (now Environmental Health Australia) for five years. At the end of the first year with Bundaberg City Council, Nicole was nominated for and received the Young Environmental Health Officer of the Year from the Australian Institute of Environmental Health.

 

In January 2009, Nicole went on holidays to the Torres Strait; a move that would change the course of her career. She saw the need to improve the environmental health standards within the Torres Strait and wanted to ‘make a difference’ rather than continue the assessment of development applications, licence applications, inspections and late night noise testing of businesses she was currently doing. Within one month she had applied for and accepted the recently created position of Manager Environment and Health of the then newly amalgamated Torres Strait Island Regional Council. As a part of this position, Nicole manages many areas including animal management, environmental health, waste management and the environment for the 15 communities which comprise the TSIRC Council. She thoroughly enjoys her work and loves working with her employees and the Torres Strait Island community.

 

In the nine months she has spent with TSIRC she has achieved many of her goals, but is particularly proud of a one week training workshop she prepared and held in Cairns for 35 of her employees (including Animal Management Workers (some of them pictured with her below) in August 2009. She has also actively recruited additional Animal Management Workers to increase her Animal Management team from three employees to thirteen and has organised training opportunities for all animal management staff members. While Nicole is new to the animal management field, she is keen to improve her knowledge in this field and in 2010, aims to run responsible pet ownership programs, finalise the implementation of an animal registration program, improve the communication network between animal management workers within her Council area and ensure all Animal Management Workers are provided with the equipment needed to successfully do their jobs.

 

She looks forward to forging a good working relationship with AMMRIC and improving the standards of environmental health for all Torres Strait Islanders.