In every edition of Council magazine, we choose one local government from across Australia to shine a spotlight on. Whether it’s new infrastructure, an innovative technology project, a leading sustainability initiative or a community connection, we want to highlight the best of local government and share some valuable knowledge to other place makers across our nation. This edition, we spoke to the City of Palmerston.
1. What is the population size and land area of your council?
Situated approximately 20 kilometres from the Darwin central business district and 10 kilometres from Howard Springs and the surrounding rural areas, the City of Palmerston is home to 41,054 people and encompasses an area of 72 square kilometres.
2. How many employees work at your council?
Council employs 100 staff.
3. Who is the mayor?
Athina Pascoe-Bell is the Mayor of Palmerston. With 20 years in spatial science, split between private and public sectors in New South Wales and the Northern Territory, she brings extensive governance and planning expertise to the role. Mayor Pascoe-Bell prioritises sound decision-making and quality outcomes and is eager to collaborate with diverse community groups within the Palmerston community and beyond.
4. Who is the CEO?
Andrew Walsh is the City of Palmerston’s chief executive. An experienced and transformational leader in local government, Walsh brings over 13 years of public sector leadership and an impressive track record of delivering community-focused outcomes, driving growth and strong governance. Walsh is an authentic leader, with a strong history of fostering a workplace culture where staff feel valued and engaged, prioritising the delivery of services and ensuring the community continues to thrive.
5. What is the council’s annual budget?
Council’s annual budget is $51.4 million.
6. Can you give us a breakdown of spending for the budget year ahead?
In this year’s Municipal Plan, City of Palmerston has divided our total rates earnings across the following areas; 29.3 per cent employee benefits and costs, 0.67 per cent borrowing costs, 14.3 per cent capital expenditure, 1.08 per cent loan repayments, 1.03 per cent elected member allowances, 0.83 per cent elected member expenses and 52.8 per cent materials, contracts and other expenditures.
Additionally, in the 2025 Council Budget, we have dedicated $1.44 million to our roads capital program, $607,328 to the development of pathways and laneways, $100,000 to public art and creative industries, $311,000 to the development and maintenance of public lighting, $350,000 to upgrades for animal management facilities, $250,000 to our community funding program, and $650,000 to playspace renewals and upgrades. After a few years of building extensive new infrastructure, this year will be all about focusing on keeping these facilities in good working order.
7. What is your council’s vision for the community and its future?
Palmerston is ‘A Place for people’. The people are really at the core of all that we do here at City of Palmerston. Our community plan was developed for the people, by the people, and everything we do lies within the outcomes of the community plan.
8. What makes your council area special?
Even though we are a fast-growing city, there is still a nice small community feel.
Our council hosts a huge program of free events and initiatives to the community each year, as well as offering free access to our local Swimming and Wellness Facility (SWELL) community halls.
We also have a generous grant program, extended operating hours and a brilliant library service.
We are consistently listening to our community to identify their needs and will advocate for federal funding to help us deliver future development through infrastructure.
9. What are some of the unique challenges the region faces, and how does council overcome these?
Safety is often a challenge and City of Palmerston works with local organisations as well as the NT government and NT Police on ways to partner to reduce crime and increase safety, security and cleanliness. We are currently acting on some recommendations around improving the design and layout of the CBD to help drive visitation and support businesses. Through activating the city spaces, we hope to increase visitation and reduce safety issues.
10. How is your council ad dressing climate change and reaching sustainability goals?
We have a sustainability strategy and one of our community outcomes is environmental sustainability. A few points we work towards include replacing all lighting with LED; ensuring all facilities and buildings have solar (and are consistently audited); delivering a free pre-cyclone clean up (hard rubbish) every year at no extra expense; providing free entry to our waste facility; and developing improvements to the facility to improve recycling.
11. What is an exciting community program or initiative council has coming up in the future, or already underway?
Our extensive programs and events guide aims to activate the Palmerston region including parks, lakes and CBD.
One of the larger events we run is the Palmerston Youth Festival, now in its seventh year. Palmerston Youth Fest brings local organisations, groups, businesses and youth to celebrate culture, diversity, showcase talents, and encourage participation.
12. Can you tell us about an interesting urban development project in the region?
Our Zuccoli community hub is a staged development project that proposes a number of elements, including a dog park and public toilets (already completed), a pump track, walking trail, skate park, seating and BBQ areas, exercise area as well as a playground, library, community centre, event space and a garden area.
In 2025 the Pump Track will be completed with funding allocated in the current budget.
13. How is your council embracing digitisation and growing its technological capabilities?
We’ve recently upgraded our website making more services accessible online – such as planning applications, payments, and customer service requests – enabling residents to engage with us quickly and conveniently. In addition to this, we are investing in data analytics to ensure we can continually optimise the website to improve outcomes and usability.
Internally, we’re modernising our IT infrastructure and going through the process of implementing an Enterprise Resource Program so we can internally process work more efficiently and effectively, which will have a huge impact on our staff and the community.
Looking ahead, we’re exploring emerging technologies such as AI chat on our website, and automation on our phone services to enhance efficiency without removing the ‘people’ completely. We have a diverse community whose needs are broad, therefore we are committed to ensuring no one is left behind as we progress more towards digitisation.
