Alan Kerlin
President



I'm very pleased to be able to represent the Gungahlin community as the president of the Community Council.

I was born in Queensland and spent the majority of my life there - mainly on the Sunshine Coast. However, I have a connection with Canberra going back to when we lived here in the 1960s and 70s. Some of my earliest memories include watching Neil Armstrong step onto the moon on Red Hill Primary's only black and white TV, and being among the first students at the new Scullin Primary, when it was right on the outskirts of town adjoining sheep paddocks.

So to now find myself living on the very outskirts of town, opposite sheep paddocks, in Wells Station has a certain amount of deja vu! We - my wife Gaylene, two young children and me - were I think the fourth family to move into Wells Station. And we are here for the foreseeable future, having now moved into a wonderful passive solar designed house that we designed ourselves, and rates better than 6 Stars on the energy efficiency scale.

Canberra is a gorgeous city with postcard pictures everywhere you go, and it's a wonderful place to bring up children. If only everything weren't so expensive.

My recent work history, and experience I bring to the GCC, include:

• elected Councillor on Maroochy Shire Council, with emphasis on town planning, environmental policy, and airport management
• Brisbane City Council's greenhouse team, where I worked on the Sustainable Housing Code - a draft policy for all the Councils of South East Queensland and which has now been adopted in large part by the Queensland Government
• managing a large and very successful Landcare group in Holbrook NSW
• now work in the employment side of DEEWR.

So clearly, I have an emphasis on planning and environmental issues in this role - I think they are critical things to get right when you are building an entire community in a few short years as is happening here in Gungahlin. It has to be right, because we are stuck with the consequences of poor decisions for decades.

But something I learnt as a Councillor was that while you are focussing on the big picture issues, you also have to keep a watch on the basics as well. So I do my best to help with the "roads, rates, rubbish"-type issues as and when needed.

I enjoy working with the people of Gungahlin to help build a community of pride and belonging.

Alan writes on many issues other than related to Gungahlin on his blog "The Beach House" at http://alankerlin.blogspot.com/

Matthew Connors
Vice President

I have been a resident in the Gungahlin area for about 3 years after moving back to Canberra from Sydney. I have only been a Canberra local since 2000 moving to Canberra from Adelaide to undertake a Bachelor of Laws at the University of Canberra.

I work as a consultant for Jacobs Australia, specialising in commercial, contract, procurement and project management advice to Commonwealth major capital acquisition and sustainment projects. Prior to joingin Jacobs I was a contracting and procurement adviser in the Defence Materiel Organisation specialising in maritime (Naval) projects. You can view my LinkedIn profile at www.linkedin.com/in/matthewconnors76.

I have a keen interest in community development, town planning and design and local business development. I'm certainly keen on the idea that town planning and design needs to be more than terrace houses lining the streets.

I volunteered for the GCC to play an active part in my community development and planning and to see Gungahlin as a modern and vibrant city in the Canberra Region.

When I'm not drafting contracts, project plans, tenders or providing commercial advice I enjoy spending time at home with my wife and our fur kid Bosely.

Amy Braddon
Secretary

Kevin Cox
Public Officer, Gold Creek Homestead Committee

I have been a resident of Ngunnawal since 1998 and previously built a house in the green fields site of Evatt in the early 1970's. My daughter and family live in Ngunnawal.

My professional background includes time as a Civil Engineer building dams and roads but most of my life has involved building and designing usable computer systems. See a Win interview on Water Rewards at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJrxLiiZD08.
Visit http://m.fasfind.com/wwwtools to view a newsletter published since 1996 on using technology in education.

Read my blog at http://cscoxk.wordpress.com to see ideas on what happens when we give each of us power and control over our electronic online information. Visit http://www.edentiti.com to see the work of the company I founded in 2005 to help make this happen.

Visit http://mealsatourplace.blogspot.com/ to see a few of the meals we have had at our place.

Francis Stiegler
Treasurer

I have been a Palmerston resident for the past 7 years after moving to Canberra from Melbourne.

I am a retired professional engineer with experience in machine design, estimating, customer service, etc.

Since my retirement I have been actively involved in a number of different volunteer roles.  As treasurer for the Gungahlin Community Council I hope to assist in achieving the Council’s objective of improving the overall well-being of the residents of Gungahlin.

Sean Downes
Gungahlin Smokesignals Editor

Damian Schroeter
Gungahlin Smokesignals Advertising Coordinator

I am an Industrial Designer with a keen interest in business management, retail marketing, and design. I graduated from University of Canberra in 2003 from a bachelor’s degree and have since worked primarily in the retail design and marketing industry excelling in the areas of furniture design and marketing. 

I worked for one of Australia’s best known furniture retail companies as the Product Design Coordinator for Fantastic Furniture. It was in this role that I developed the ability to work to a budget and very strict deadlines producing designs for domestic furniture and home wares that were sold in retail stores around Australia.

In 2006, I took over the management role of Product designer & Marketing Manager at Canberra’s Whitewood Warehouse, furniture retail company that has been in operation since 1977. In this role, I turned a simple furniture retailer into a business that offers custom design, import and export, and affordable solutions for domestic and commercial markets.

In this extensive role, I designed furniture for production, produced engineering drawings for local and international production, managed advertising budgets and scheduled advertising placement on TV, radio, and in print. In addition to this, I also produced content for radio and television advertisements. I also managed the importation of products from China and Malaysia and the national distribution of exclusive designer furniture ranges. I have built a reputation in Canberra’s advertising circles for getting the best deals for clients which stems right back to the earlier days negotiating production costs with furniture manufacturers for Fantastic Furniture.

In addition to supporting the GCC in the voluntary role of Advertising Coordinator, I also manage a creative design and marketing company (nFlame Creative) with a particular focus on cost effective design and marketing solutions for small to medium sized businesses in the Canberra region.

The broad experience that I bring to represent a business is not found in any other agency in the ACT. I have the ability and desire to understand client requirements to deliver projects on time and on budget.

A Canberra boy through and through, my involvement with the GCC allows me to have a connection to the local community and enables me to “give back”.

Dave Bockett
Website Administrator

Having grown up in New Zealand, I have done what most Kiwis do and moved to Australia to make my fortune! After completing my IT degree in Palmerston North, I spent 2 years in Wellington before moving to the UK to see more of the world. After a number of extensive overland trips to South America, the Middle East and thru northern Asia I ended up back in Christchurch. After a couple of years I moved to Australia and now find myself happily settled in Canberra for the foreseeable future. My wife and I have been in Ngunnawal since March 2007 and plan to be here for sometime.

When I am not working at Oakton as Consultant or spending time with my 3 year old son, my wife and I also run DIY Pizza Ovens which keeps us very busy.

Estelle Sydney-Smith
Committee Member

I have been a stay-at-home mum for about 27 years now, punctuated by five years of volunteer work for a  organisation a couple of decades ago where I did pretty much everything one way or another, and a couple of other paid positions: designing and maintaining the website for a small IT company, and working for a women’s think tank.

I am working quite hard with the ACT Council of P&C Associations to resolve a lot of issues our parents have surrounding special ed.

Boni David
Website Builder

Boni manages Optimum OSS Technologies - specialising in web design and hosting services.

Boni is a strong advocate of the Open Source software movement. The GCC website is based on the Open Source platforms of Joomla content management system, Rocket Theme templates, and MySQL database.