General News
6 January, 2026
BEST OF 2025: Commended for aged care
First published June 12, 2025. Gilgandra Shire Council (GSC) have taken home the Highly Commended Award at the 2025 NSW Local Government (LG NSW) Excellence Awards, for their project ‘Future-Proofing Aged Care and Disability Services in Gilgandra’.
On Thursday, June 5, 2025, GSC director of aged care and disabilities, Donna Dobson, Cr Nick White, and executive assistant Julie Prout attended the LG NSW Awards Dinner as category finalists for the ‘Special Project Initiative – under 50k population’ category.
The highly commended project was a result of workforce skills shortage and difficulty recruiting in our regional and remote location, impacting on Gilgandra Lifestyles’ and Orana Living’s ability to recruit and retain staff.
The consistent vacant positions in an already difficult to fill industry was further overstretched by the Royal Commission enforcing the requirement for staff ratios.
GSC took the initiative to look beyond borders and partnered with Groworx, a skilled workforce solutions company for healthcare providers to assist in providing a staffing solution.
After months of preparations, Gilgandra welcomed the arrival of 16 care workers from the Philippines in late 2023 and early 2024 to start their employment with Gilgandra Shire Council’s Aged Care and Disability Services.
The staff were a mix of overseas trained registered nurses and care workers, arriving on student visas and in the final stages of completing a certificate III in Aged Care with an Australian training organisation.
