Departing Shire of Denmark president Ceinwen Gearon proud of community resilience: ‘It’s time for a refresh’

After eight years as a councillor, including the last six as Shire president, Ceinwen Gearon’s time as an elected member at the Shire of Denmark will draw to a close this week. Cr Gearon has served two terms as a councillor after she was first elected to represent the Town Ward in 2015. Only two years in, her fellow councillors voted in favour of her leading as the Shire’s president following the 2017 ordinary election. She now says the time is right for a refresh. “Everything has its natural cycle and I think now is a good time to step away,” she said. “There are a good group of people running for council, the Shire officers are very stable and we have a fantastic new chief executive. “I think this is a really good time to take that opportunity and let someone else take on that role.” During Cr Gearon’s time leading council Denmark has faced times of adversity, not least of which during the Bayview Rise bushfire of 2022. She said one of the things that made her proudest was seeing how the community responded at the time and over the subsequent 18 months. “In the first instance more than 30 per cent of this community did as they were asked and left — that was an amazing thing for the community to do,” she said. “Since then, the bush fire ready program has exploded in Denmark. “We already had one highest number of bush fire ready households, but what I’m most proud of is this magnificent community and how it has responded to different things.” Her advice to whoever takes on the new role is simply “take it as it comes and be yourself”. “I think that it really is a privilege to be a Shire president — there is no getting away from that — and it’s a privilege to work with the other shire councillors, and with such a capable group of staff,” she said. Her advice to any new councillors elected on Saturday is that it will take time to get used to the role. “My advice to new councillors is to listen — really listen carefully — and to read and to use your fellow councillors who have more experience as a source of mentorship,” she said. After officially stepping away from the role at the end of the week, Cr Gearon said she was looking forward to no longer having to “hide in the freezer section” when shopping. “It can be quite an interesting thing in a very small town to be in this sort of role,” she said.