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 our local governments and share some valuable knowledge to other place makers across our nation. This edition, we spoke to the City of Maitland.
What is the population size and land area of your council?
Maitland City Council sits in the heart of the Hunter, spanning 396km² of verdant countryside, new and growing suburbs, and established town centres.
Maitland is one of the fastest growing local government areas in New South Wales, with a population of around 95,000 people now and an expected population of 145,000 people by 2041. That means we welcome around six new residents every day.
How many employees work at your council?
Maitland City Council’s headcount is around 650.
Who is the mayor?
The Mayor of Maitland is Cr Philip Penfold. Born and raised in Maitland, Mayor Penfold was first elected as a councillor in 2008 and has served as mayor since 2021. His priorities include sound financial management, a focus on sporting and recreation infrastructure, and improvements to roads and traffic congestion.
Who is the CEO?
Maitland City Council’s General Manager is Jeff Smith. Jeff boasts an impressive 30-year career in both the private and public sector and has previously worked in senior roles at Port Stephens, Randwick and Northern Beaches councils. Since joining Maitland City Council in July 2023, Jeff’s focus has been on shaping organisational initiatives, continuous improvement, asset revitalisation and renewal, and establishing a fresh corporate vision.
What is the council’s annual budget?
For the 2024-25 financial year, Maitland City Council is working with a $216 million operating budget. The budget includes $156 million for service delivery and $60 million for a comprehensive infrastructure program.
Can you give us a breakdown of spending for the budget year ahead?
For the 2024-25 financial year, $60 million of our overall operating budget is allocated toward a comprehensive infrastructure program.
A large percentage – 41 per cent – of the budget for that infrastructure program will be spent on improving, maintaining and expanding our road network, which currently spans more than 780km.
Parks, playgrounds, recreational facilities and sportsgrounds are a major focus too, as we cater to the needs of a rapidly growing population of young families moving to the region. In 2024/25, $13.1 million is allocated for recreation works, as well as $1.7 million for cycleways and footpaths to forge connections between our suburban areas and improve our walkability.
Major projects for 2024-25 include:
- The replacement of Melville Ford Bridge ($8.2 million)
- Upgrades to the intersection of Raymond Terrace Road and Government Road, Thornton (now complete, $26 million)
- Stage two works at the Maitland Resource Recovery Facility ($3 million)
- Upgrades to Max McMahon Oval in Rutherford ($3 million)
- Gillieston Heights Skate Park and Playspace – (now complete, $927,000)
- Thornton Skate Park (now complete, $627,000)
What is your council’s vision for the community and
its future?
Our vision for Maitland’s future is a connected city with thriving communities. Our new ten-year Community Strategic Plan, titled Maitland’s Future, reflects the aspirations and values of the Maitland community, with insights from over 2,000 residents and 3,700 contributions gathered.
The shared vision is underpinned by four key focus areas: liveability, sustainability, vibrancy and achieving together. These focus areas are integral to the future of Maitland and the next decade is set to be an exciting and rewarding time for all of us as Maitland embraces new opportunities and growth, becoming a dynamic place where people can live, work, enjoy and succeed.
What makes your council area special?
Maitland is one of the oldest regional centres in Australia and sits on the banks of the Hunter River, centrally placed between the Hunter Valley’s vineyards, the hustle and bustle of Newcastle and its popular beaches.
It’s the heart of the Hunter, within touching distance of everything the region has to offer – the perfect blend of city convenience with a warm country charm.
Maitland is proud of its rich heritage. The historic township of Morpeth played an important role in the settlement of New South Wales in the 1820s, as one of the first and most important river ports to establish a trade route with the colonial outpost in Sydney.
Morpeth’s beautifully preserved buildings, uneven cobblestone paths and storied sites are rivalled only by Maitland’s town centre, with its charming and historic High Street.
Sitting centrally on High Street is Maitland Town Hall, which was built in the late 1880s and played a key role in Australia’s federation. Our first Prime Minister Sir Edmund Barton opened his government’s campaign on its doorstep ahead of the first Federal Election in 1901.
Maitland is also well known for its vibrant and eclectic events calendar, with long-running festivals such as Hunter Valley Steamfest, Maitland Riverlights, Tocal Field Days and the Maitland Show playing a key role in attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors to our city every year.
What are some of the unique challenges the region faces, and how does council overcome these?
Maitland is in the midst of rapid growth, with a changing demographic profile and an average of six new residents arriving every day.
Our local government area ranks among Australia’s top regions for millennial inflow, largely due to domestic migration from nearby areas such as Lake Macquarie and Newcastle.
As such, housing demand in Maitland continues to grow, however the coordination of state infrastructure to support our growing community continues to be an issue.
We’re geared to contribute approximately 25 per cent of the region’s required dwellings over the next two decades.
Our healthy supply pipeline of residential land ensures Maitland is well equipped to meet these targets, with an average of more than 1,000 lots approved each year.
In the medium to long-term, the need to focus on vertical growth – building up rather than out – will provide a wider variety of housing stock for our growing population. Currently, the ratio of greenfield to infill development sits at 90:10.
How is your council addressing climate change and reaching sustainability goals?
In 2023, we adopted our Environmental Sustainability Strategy 2030 – a first-of-its-kind document that marked a major milestone in our journey towards a more liveable and sustainable Maitland.
The strategy outlines 13 targets across four theme areas, providing a roadmap for how we’re going to protect important natural spaces and deliver functional biodiversity corridors, increase active and sustainable transport opportunities, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and better understand and plan for climate risks.
Since adopting the strategy, we’ve made big strides in reaching our sustainability goals.
As of 1 January 2025, our electricity supply is 100 per cent renewable. We signed a new partnership with green energy utility operator Iberdrola Australia in September last year, and this means that more than 10,000 public streetlights that are now over 85 per cent high efficiency LED, as well as all our major community facilities – like our libraries, pools, art gallery, town hall and office spaces – now run on energy sourced from renewable sources like solar and wind.
Not only does this put us ahead of schedule to halve our emissions by 2030, but it will also result in cost savings of around $564,000 or nine per cent compared to previous rates over the life of the six-year contract, allowing us to redirect that spend back into providing key services and infrastructure for our community.
Our community told us they’d like to see a greater push towards a circular economy where valuable resources are kept in production for longer and wastes are designed out of the system, preservation and protection of healthy green and blue natural spaces, more resilient and liveable communities, and a stronger focus on sustainable living practices.
Flooding has played a significant role in Maitland’s history, with this February marking 70 years since the 1955 Hunter Valley floods that, to this day, remain one of Australia’s worst natural disasters.
Climate change will only make the impacts of flooding more profound over time, so a significant focus of our Environmental Sustainability Strategy is planning for climate risks and increasing community preparedness for natural hazards such as flooding.
Right now we’re in the midst of delivering a four-stage transformation at our waste facility. More than $18 million is budgeted for this work, which will result in infrastructure that provides our growing community with access to a modern waste management facility in Maitland for the long term.
Landfill airspace at our waste facility won’t last forever, so we’re committed to providing future-ready infrastructure. This project will increase our capability for recycling and resource recovery, with flexible spaces that can accommodate different automatic sorting equipment based on the availability of markets for resource streams.
And speaking of resource recovery, in June this year, we’re introducing a FOGO service to all households, to reduce the amount of household waste sent to landfill, as we build towards reaching an 80 per cent diversion rate by 2030.
What is an exciting community program or initiative council has coming up in the future, or already underway?
Conversations: Art and Dementia is a free social and creative tour of current exhibitions that supports people living with dementia and their carers.
Held twice a month at Maitland Regional Art Gallery (MRAG), the program aims to improve mental wellbeing, combat social isolation and help attendees develop ongoing quality relationships.
The program uses artworks and artmaking activities to trigger conversation and connection between people with dementia and their carers, encouraging attendees to share stories and express their thoughts and feelings.
Conversations: Art and Dementia is also delivered via outreach programming, enabling local care facilities to engage in the program at their own site or through organised transport to the Gallery.
MRAG recently received $50,000 in grant funding from the Primary Health Network to research the psychosocial benefits of Conversations: Art and Dementia in partnership with the University of Newcastle, as well as exploring ways of addressing barriers that may prevent people with dementia from participating in creative activities.
Can you tell us about an interesting urban development project in
the region?
Over the past decade, Maitland Council has gone to great lengths to reinvigorate the city’s central business district and historic High Street, injecting vibrancy and colour into what’s now known as The Levee precinct.
Sitting centrally in The Levee is our award-winning Riverlink building, which forges a connection between The Levee’s pedestrianised thoroughfare and a scenic walkway that winds its way along the banks of the Hunter River.
The Riverlink brings the two spaces together and serves as a dramatic backdrop for many of the events that Council holds in the centre of town, such as Maitland Riverlights festival and our annual New Year’s Eve fireworks display.
Not only that, but more than $35 million – $22.2 million of which was contributed by the NSW Government – has been spent on expanding the sports and recreational facilities in the centre of town.
Delivered over four stages, the Maitland Regional Sports Complex ties together a revitalised number one sportsground, brand new athletics centre and parkland, so that Maitland’s central business district can play host to major sporting events and cater for the needs of our growing community into the future.
With the finishing touches made just last year, the complex is already a popular destination for families and a drawcard for sports clubs, with our sportsground welcoming the Newcastle Jets for A-League and Australia Cup fixtures last year and Harold Gregson Park regularly playing host to live music, market stalls and food trucks.
The cherry on top of Maitland town centre’s transformation is the improvements made to Maitland Town Hall.
Improved facilities at Town Hall have brought the historic venue into the 21st century, with changerooms, kitchen facilities and a stage loading dock making it an appealing multipurpose entertainment venue that can host business roadshow events one day and sellout standup comedy the next.
How is your council embracing digitisation and growing its technological capabilities?
In 2018, we undertook an extensive review of our customer service functions and found that we needed to make some changes.
We found that outdated systems and legacy infrastructure limited our ability to keep pace with customer expectations, which had pivoted towards fast, digital-first self-service experiences.
These systems also led to a fragmented service delivery, with multiple touchpoints and disconnected platforms leading to inefficiencies and poor visibility of incoming or open requests.
As a result, we embarked on what was termed our ‘customer-driven transformation’, a multi-year program of projects all centred around the desire to make all interactions with Council as seamless, effective and simple as possible for all our residents.
A key component of our customer-driven transformation was the development of a bespoke digital channel, where fragmented systems were consolidated into a single platform. Dubbed the MyCouncil portal, this solution has marked a major step forward by streamlining customer interactions with Council services. What’s more, the portal was developed collaboratively with residents, through interviews, live testing and workshops spanning an 18-month period.
As a result, Maitland residents are now empowered to report issues, track the progress of their requests, and access a variety of services online, all within a user-friendly and secure platform.
We integrated a Salesforce CRM with other systems, like CFSuite and new Enghouse contact centre software, to unify and simplify the flow of information as community requests come in.
The implementation of MyCouncil has been transformative on customer experience and operational efficiency; our first-call resolution average has jumped from 43 per cent to 75 per cent, and average call time has decreased by 33 per cent.
Real-time dashboards in Salesforce have also unlocked data-driven decision-making, improving both resource allocation and strategic planning; better still, contemporary tools and streamlined processes have improved job satisfaction for our customer experience and frontline staff. We estimate that, as a direct result of the switch to Salesforce, that we’re saving $200,000 per annum.
The next, and current, phase of our customer-driven transformation sees us in the middle of an intense two-year implementation of a new enterprise resource planning solution, to further bolster and better our internal systems and processes.
