Technical Officer Arboriculture

• Start in the New Year and Advance Your Career in North QLD
• Consulting vs Practicing Arborist Focus | No Climbing!
• Up to $82K + 13.5% Super + RDO + Relocation Assistance

About Townsville

Providing a laid back tropical lifestyle that is complemented by capital city comforts, no other Australian city boasts the resilience, diversity, lifestyle and economic potential that the Townsville North Queensland Region enjoys.

Known as the Second Capital of Queensland and with a population of approximately 193,601 people, Townsville offers a dynamic lifestyle coupled with strong economic prosperity. Townsville is a thriving precinct with access to a variety of world class education facilities, leading edge health care, affordable housing, unique retailing, spectacular events and entertainment, dining precincts and a wide range of outdoor recreation options. With over 300 days of sunshine each year, Townsville’s lifestyle is second to none.

About Council

Townsville City Council is the largest regional council in Queensland. Council strives to facilitate sustainable economic development for the region, enhance quality of life for their residents, and identify and unlock the potential of the City through inspired leadership, co-design of services with the community, and sustainable and innovative business partnering.

Townsville City Council recognises the condition and quality of public spaces as a highly valued liveability attribute for the Townville community. It includes open spaces like parks as well as assets such as streets, street trees, landscaping, and public footpaths. This typically ‘green infrastructure’ is of critical value to a city’s well-functioning infrastructure network. Trees in the urban landscape have innumerable benefits including public health, reducing heat, combating climate change, stormwater management, biodiversity and supporting enjoyable, safe, and healthy communities. Good quality public spaces not only reflect a well-functioning city, but a well-cared for city that is loved by its residents.

Council’s goal is to prioritise the delivery of quality public spaces and continuously improve the condition of public spaces, with a focus on providing for and valuing the city’s green infrastructure. Underpinning this was the recent adoption of a Public Tree Management Policy to guide and inform the process around managing trees that form the public tree network.

About the Position

As a Technical Officer Arboriculture, you will report initially to the Team Manager Open Spaces and provide specialist knowledge of tree assessment processes, risk assessment, tree and plant species identification, pest and disease identification, vegetation planning and revegetation for Council’s parks and open space assets. You will ensure risk exposure is minimised through completing proactive, reactive, and emergency tree risk assessments across the region, including following up and monitoring of trees with pest, disease or other health and structure concerns.

Making the role your own will give you responsibility for reliable urban tree management for the community, with an emphasis on efficiency for customer service requests, tree applications and assessment of development applications, and effectively enforcing Council's tree preservation measures and its related policies. Providing accurate and effective technical assessment and recommendations relating to tree management and public risk matters and understanding the relevant Australian Standards will be essential.

This is a supportive and tight knit team that will ensure you get the training and development you require to realise any future career ambitions.

A Copy of the Candidate Briefing Document can be accessed HERE

About You

To be successful in this role your experience and qualifications will include the following:

• Demonstrated experience role modelling a positive safety culture and adherence to the Health Safety Management Systems through visible leadership and exercising due diligence and management of compliance and legislative obligations.
• Experience in tree assessment at a consultancy level, including however not limited to; maintenance and risk management practices, interpretation tree morphology/ structural integrity, and hazard and risk identification.
• Demonstrated understanding of managing trees on development sites, and mitigating development impacts.
• Demonstrated knowledge of tree and plant identification, pest and disease, plant biology, pathology, physiology and biomechanics, plant propagation and cultivation.
• Demonstrated understanding of soils and their properties in relation to soil erosion, declared weeds and environmental weeds, land rehabilitation and revegetation.
• Understanding of wildlife habitat and conservation values, ecology, and habitat corridors.
• Knowledge and understanding of the interaction between urban and rural landscapes and processes involved to retain and improve the environment.
• Demonstrated ability to use technology as required to capture, locate, name and map parks and open space assets.
• Diploma in Arboriculture
• Either TRAQ or QTRA Certification

There is a big appetite in Council to save trees and is therefore high on the Council’s agenda. Your specialist knowledge of tree assessment processes including the information above will ensure you can make a meaningful contribution and importantly allow you to obtain experience that would be hard to equal elsewhere.

Why this Role?

With 400 Parks and 182 open spaces, Townsville is the only place with a diversity of both dry and wet tropic species. Being involved with 3 Botanic Gardens across the City your work will also include the Palmetum which has the largest collection of Palms in the Southern Hemisphere.

For someone who is keen for a new challenge and perhaps a lifestyle change to tropical North Queensland this is a genuine opportunity to leverage and broaden your experience and enhance tree planting and management with the largest regional Council in QLD.

Some of the appeal of the role is being exposed to some unique situations eg saving important trees in the Botanical Gardens, continuity of work and for the role you can play in influencing future planning and plantings for both residents and businesses in the city.  The position is a 50/50 desk and field role with no hard labour or tree climbing requirement. Outcomes focus means if you are doing the required number of inspections Council are also open to being flexible around your personal working requirements.

A salary of up to $82K + 13.5% Super + fortnightly RDO and relocation assistance will be discussed with the successful candidate. Future Learning and Development opportunities are also supported. You can also enjoy Christmas knowing you have a new role to start in 2024!

PEAK Services is working in conjunction with Townsville City Council, exclusively on this position. We offer local government expertise across a wide range of professional fields, providing tailored solutions for councils and other similar organisations. We work with our clients to deliver meaningful outcomes in recruitment and contracting services. 

How to Apply

Before you apply for this position, please read the details and in the Candidate Briefing Document above carefully to assess your eligibility and suitability for the position.  You will be required to answer a few questions that relate to the criteria on the online application below.  Please note that you cannot submit your application without attaching your resume.  A cover letter is not mandatory but may be added if so desired. When uploading your Resume or documents please ensure file names should only include 'A-z', '0-9', '.' and '-' characters.

PLEASE NOTE: Once you have commenced your application you cannot save and continue at a later stage. 

For a confidential conversation, please call Rona Horsfall - Principal Consultant at Peak Recruitment Services on 0438 943854.