General News
6 June, 2025
Interim CEO Sally Jones reflects on role
With the appointment of Peter Harriott as the Central Goldfields Shire Council’s new CEO, The Advertiser sat down with outgoing interim CEO Sally Jones to discuss her time locally.
Joining council in September last year following the departure of previous CEO Lucy Roffey, Ms Jones has spent 10 months with the Central Goldfields — this is what she had to say about her time here:
What was the point of an interim CEO position and what were you tasked to do?
I had been looking for a new role and it became obvious through recruitment and the sector that council was looking for an interim CEO.
I had mainly worked at metro councils but I’d also worked at Moorabool, so I’d had a go at a more rural locality.
What I found is that I loved it, people in rural councils do so much across the board and when this came up, I thought it would really suit me.
We decided when I started that there wasn’t going to be any wholesale change, there didn’t need to be, but if I saw any opportunities to improve efficiencies or process improvements then I would work on those as a priority.
That meant an incoming CEO wouldn’t have to spend time with that, they can hit the ground running.
How did you find the transition from metro areas to a rural shire?
I grew up with a mother who loved Ned Kelly and we spent winter school holidays most years driving around the state, particularly to areas like this with gold mining history and areas Ned had been to.
The countryside itself and the history of the buildings was not unknown to me.
Coming here, I think what took my breath away was I’d never stopped and really appreciated the history that shows in architecture in these towns — the railway station here in Maryborough still takes my breath away.
Starting with council, I found the councillors have been some of the most supportive councillors I’ve worked with, they really do want it to work.
Council also employ around 150 staff which is pretty lean for the amount of services we provide and it’s a great workforce, we’re able to achieve a lot with the staff we have.
What was it like living in the community while working here?
I’d often go for walks around the lake and people would wave and say hi, I’ve found it to be a friendly community.
It’s important for people to see you in the community as a CEO but you’ve also got to cloak yourself for privacy, not that I’ve felt my privacy has been impinged at all.
I know there’s a big call to have a CEO who lives locally, but it’s a triple edged sword.
As a CEO, your family may not want to hear or see what gets said about you publically. You’ll want to go out and celebrate or catch up with friends and not have someone question you in a work context, but there’s also the insight you get from living in a community which is a positive.
Ultimately whether the new CEO lives in the community is entirely their decision, I don’t believe it’s a fair expectation that someone should make that move.
Why didn’t you apply for the substantive CEO position?
For the first four or five months, I thought it was a really good role and I could do it moving forward — it was more about travel over anything else.
In that time though my daughter had a baby and my mum’s health took a turn, I realised that if I went for the position moving forward, I’d be in Maryborough thinking I should be home in Melbourne.
That’s when I started to realise that as great as the role is, and I’ve kind of made it my own, I need to hand it over because I knew the position wouldn’t suit me in 12 months’ time.
I’ve really enjoyed my time here and I will find it hard to leave — the position just doesn’t work for me and where my life is at the moment. I need to be closer to my family and more present with them.
What’s next for you?
After here I’m going to have some time overseas and with family.
I am on secondment and I’ve spoken to the CEO of my usual workplace and said it’s unlikely I’m going to come back.
Being interim CEO has been such a great experience for me and I don’t want to go back to that old role I was doing, I think it might spoil this experience for me.
I know I’ve been given a great opportunity and I hope that council itself will be better off, I think it will be.