Risk excellence in action
Published on 20 October 2026
From real-time flood monitoring and heat-risk modelling to stronger safety culture and better-informed decision-making, four Queensland councils have been recognised for outstanding approaches to managing risk.
Cassowary Coast, Mackay, Maranoa and Sunshine Coast councils are the recipients of the 2025–26 LGMS Risk Excellence Awards, which recognise outstanding risk management activities, commitment and innovation by LGMS member councils.
Eligible initiatives are assessed against a range of criteria, including alignment with the Australian Standard ISO 31000 risk management guidelines, their effectiveness and impact in reducing risk and progress in improving risk management maturity.
This year’s winners, announced at the 130th LGAQ Annual Conference in Cairns, demonstrate the breadth of risk management across the local government sector, from using new technology to protect communities from flash flooding to changing the way an organisation thinks about workplace safety.
Cassowary Coast Regional Council: better information when every minute matters
For a region accustomed to intense rainfall and flooding, access to accurate information as conditions change can be critical.
Cassowary Coast Regional Council has begun a three-year trial of a network of real-time flash flood sensors at high-risk locations, integrated with Council’s existing Disaster Dashboard.
The project addresses a significant information gap. Previously, decisions during rapidly developing events could rely on regional data, manual observations and delayed reporting. The new network provides localised, real-time information on rainfall and water levels, giving Council, emergency services and the community a clearer picture of conditions as they develop.
Twenty-one sensors are already installed and reporting, including at known trouble spots around Mission Beach. Data from the sensors has been passed to the SES and Queensland Police Service to support proactive patrols when water levels rise.
Importantly, the system can reduce the need to send Council staff into hazardous conditions simply to check water levels. It can also support decisions about when roads need to close and when they can safely reopen.
The three-year trial will use observations, photographs and feedback from residents and emergency services to verify sensor readings and evaluate how effectively the network provides early warning of flooding and inundation.
Mackay Regional Council: putting risk appetite into practice
Mackay Regional Council took a collaborative approach to one of the fundamental questions in risk management: how much risk is the organisation prepared to accept in pursuing its objectives?
Council’s Performance and Risk team brought together elected members, executives and key internal and external stakeholders, including LGMS, for a workshop reviewing the organisation’s risk appetite statements.
Participants explored both the principles of risk management and how risk appetite applies in practice, before working through its application in breakout sessions.
The result was a revised set of risk appetite statements designed to more accurately reflect the Mayor and Councillors’ appetite for taking risk and provide clearer guidance for organisational decision-making.
The approach also provides a useful lesson for other councils: involving elected members, executive leaders and key stakeholders in the process can produce stronger risk appetite statements and a shared understanding of how they should guide decisions.
Maranoa Regional Council: making safety everyone’s business
Maranoa Regional Council has focused on something less tangible, but just as important: organisational culture.
Council deliberately set out to move Work Health and Safety beyond being seen primarily as a compliance function, instead embedding greater risk awareness, accountability and ownership throughout the organisation.
Supported by the CEO and Executive Leadership Team, Council established an Injury Prevention Working Group comprising seven senior leaders from different areas of the organisation.
Rather than approaching safety issues in isolation, the group used HSEQ analysis, including incident trends, training information and lead and lag indicators, to examine how decisions and behaviours across Council contributed to risk.
That work identified 38 opportunities for improvement. Using a risk-based approach, they were prioritised and consolidated into five strategic initiatives.
One practical focus has been operator competency. Council identified the need for plant operators to have a stronger and more consistent understanding of the machinery they use, improving safety while also increasing efficiency, consistency and workforce capability.
The initiative demonstrates how risk management can move beyond policies and procedures and become part of everyday organisational behaviour, with responsibility for managing risk shared across leadership, supervisors and frontline operations.
Sunshine Coast Council: rethinking the risk of heat
Sunshine Coast Council is taking a highly targeted approach to a growing workplace risk: the impact of heat on outdoor workers.
Its Workforce Heat Risk Project combines hyper-local environmental modelling with physiological risk modelling to understand how heat affects particular workers undertaking tasks in particular locations.
Working with the University of the Sunshine Coast and University of Sydney, Council is modelling air temperature, humidity, radiant heat and wind at a resolution of one metre, rather than relying solely on broader weather-station data.
It is combining that information with factors including the type and duration of work, physical exertion and individual vulnerability to develop tools supervisors can use to assess the actual physiological risk facing their teams.
That allows Council to consider targeted responses, such as rescheduling higher-risk work, changing work practices, redesigning assets or selectively automating tasks, rather than relying on blanket restrictions or work stoppages.
The project is already informing safety protocols and monitoring for higher-risk teams. Its methodology and proposed physiological heat-risk web tool also have potential application for other councils with outdoor workforces.
By bringing together climate science, workplace health and safety and day-to-day operations, the project is helping Council treat heat not simply as an environmental hazard, but as a risk that can be better understood, planned for and managed.
Sharing better ways to manage risk
While the four winning projects tackle very different challenges, they share a common approach: identifying risk clearly, using evidence to understand it and putting practical measures in place to manage it.
The Risk Excellence Awards form part of LGMS’s broader work to engage, support and enhance risk management across its member councils.
Each recipient receives funding for a targeted risk-management maturity initiative or service, as well as sponsorship for a Council representative to attend the National Local Government Risk Management Conference.
Just as importantly, the winning initiatives provide ideas, approaches and lessons that can be shared across the LGMS membership, helping councils continue to strengthen their risk management and resilience.