Staff Profiles

David Heritage

Operations & Maintenance

David Heritage joined Shepparton Urban Water Trust, a predecessor of Goulburn Valley Water, 24 years ago as a maintenance employee. He is now the Works Coordinator for the Corporation's Central Operations and Maintenance (O&M) district. In his role, David is responsible for ensuring that calls that come into Goulburn Valley Water’s 24 hour Customer Service Centre for Central O&M are acted upon quickly and in the most appropriate manner. When a call is received David prioritises and forwards issues it to the most appropriate staff member for action as quickly as possible. This may also involve hiring contractors to carry out repairs with Corporation staff members.

One of David’s tasks is to complete a daily program of works and preventative maintenance for Goulburn Valley Water’s assets. Also included in this program are new works such as water main tappings for new buildings and sewer point connections along with construction of new water and sewer mains by contractors. In addition there are meter replacements and meter readings to obtain daily, notices for water main shutdowns and answering a variety of questions from consultants, contractors and other departments within the Corporation.

David also carries out site audits to maintain a high quality of workmanship in the repair of water and sewer mains, and new works where required. He reviews all completed complaint forms before they are processed into the Corporation's Asset Management software, Hansen.

On a weekly basis David is responsible for keeping track of all road signage and ensuring that repair sites have been cleaned up properly and roads reinstated, in addition to programming the following weeks work. He works closely with the storeman to ensure that supplies of essential items for repair works are maintained and ensures that vehicles in the Central O&M fleet are properly maintained.

David completes a monthly works program, which involves assigning tasks to all staff for the month in advance. He also assists his District Manager in updating monthly district reports and keeps track of the budget.

In the various tasks that David undertakes the most important one is to make sure that Central O&M maintains a quick response time to all queries, complaints and requests for water main shutdowns.

David’s most challenging experience since working at Goulburn Valley Water has been undertaking and completing the Frontline Management Course. David found this course to be of interest due to the different styles of managing personal and human behaviour, which can make or break a team. David said that all employees would benefit from sections of this course, particularly working in team environments.

In the future David believes that Goulburn Valley Water will continue to grow and improve all of the Corporation's systems as new technology comes along. He has seen significant improvements over the last 24 years and he is sure this trend will continue. David is looking forward to developing new systems to improve the Corporation’s performance and putting new ideas into practice.