Cr Amos takes over from outgoing mayor Chrissy Weller, who was in the role for two years.
Cr Weller was re-elected as mayor in November 2021 for a second one-year term, with last week’s change at the top coming at the end of her elected tenure.
Also at last Friday’s meeting, Cr Colleen Gates was re-elected to the role of Deputy Mayor. Both Cr Amos and Cr Gates have been appointed for one-year terms.
The role change is the second high-profile replacement in less than a month at the council, after Pauline Gordon took over the role of chief executive officer from interim chief Tim Tamlin.
The changes in leadership come during a turbulent time for Campaspe Shire Council, with the region still in the middle of dealing with the major flood crisis.
Floodwaters from the Campaspe, Goulburn and Murray rivers have inundated hundreds of homes across the shire, severely impacting Rochester in particular, where more than 1500 homes were impacted.
With the flood crisis still unfolding and more rain and ongoing high river levels predicted, council urged the community to prepare for some tough months ahead.
“Our key focus will be supporting the community as we work our way through this flood event,” Cr Amos said.
“We are experiencing the worst flood in more than 50-plus years which has devastated many areas across our shire, and we must all work together and support our communities as we begin the long journey towards recovery.
“We need to harness the strength, community spirit and pride we have in our community.
“It’s a team effort with our community and emergency services. And we know we have a long way to go.”
With many people from across the region impacted by the flooding, Cr Amos encouraged those who need assistance to reach out for help.
“We are really concerned for the wellbeing of our residents who continue to be flooded or landlocked,” he said.
“Residents who haven’t sought help are strongly encouraged to do so. If staying in a flooded area, access to supports for day-to-day needs are limited, such as accessing food and medical supplies, disposing of household waste, accessing mail, impacts to sewerage or water supplies.
“While our staff are not authorised to enter flooded areas, or flood landlocked areas, we are operating the Echuca Relief Centre. This is where our team can help those in need.
“The safety of our community is our priority.”
Cr Amos was first sworn in as a councillor representing Echuca Ward in November 2020. Cr Gates was also sworn in at the same time, representing Kyabram Ward.
As the floodwaters slowly recede, the focus of Cr Amos, Ms Gordon and the council will turn to the clean-up and recovery efforts across the region, as well as plans to protect communities in the future.
“There will be an absolute opportunity for all of state and local government to really review what happened and I am making that commitment to you from our council and from myself as the new CEO,” Ms Gordon said.
“We really sit down and look at the lessons learnt from this and what we are going to do going forward into the future.
“We are all responsible for how we fix this going forward for future events.”
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