For more than 25 years we've worked with Gippsland Water, helping to ensure safe and reliable drinking water to the people of Gippsland and the Latrobe Valley.

Or team provides 24-hour mechanical, electrical and instrumentation maintenance services helping to ensure water flows to more than 70,000 households and maintaining wastewater services to more than 60,000 households.

We also deliver a range of asset renewals, minor capital works as well as professional and administrative services including an after-hours call and dispatch service.  

We do this across Gippsland Water's region that covers more than 5,000 square kilometres. From Drouin in the west to Stratford in the east, and from Mirboo North in the south to Rawson in the north.

Innovations drive improvement  

A lot can change in 25 years and a lot has changed since our early days working with Gippsland Water. One of the most significant changes has been the introduction of new technologies that have improved work order management and ensured our people are safer. The streamlined and efficient systems that we utilise today are a long way from the systems when we first started. 

"At first the jobs were all done via paper, with the person in the office printing off work orders, filtering them by trade, area and then putting a pile into pigeonholes to be collected by the team"

"At first the jobs were all done via paper, with the person in the office printing off work orders, filtering them by trade, area and then putting a pile into pigeonholes to be collected by the team," said Russell Ludbey who is the Maintenance Coordinator and has worked on the contract for 25 years. 

"Once a month team members would drive from their base to the Traralgon workshop and grab their paperwork, that would be their orders for the month," Russell said.  

"They would then have to get completed work orders back by end of month to be filed into the system." 

The introduction of a number of technology systems has made that old system obsolete, providing the opportunity to not only reduce handling and travel but also deliver a greater volume of work where we are able. 

Over recent years the team has also looked to drive greater productivity improvements, through the development of a range of Microsoft Power Apps.

One of the most significant has been the development of the 'Cal App' which has streamlined the process of managing all the data associated with calibrating a whole range of instrumentation across the network, ensuring that data is automatically uploaded to the Gippsland Water asset management system. 

Amongst the many improvements that this innovation - which was developed with the support of our client Gippsland Water - has created, is the removal of 300-400 pages a month of paper calibration data sheets. The solution also gives our team and client real-time visibility of the status of instrument calibration across Gippsland Water's network.  

Lending a hand in challenging times  

Over the years there's been times when our team have been called upon to support Gippsland Water manage unexpected incidents or circumstances, and our team have gone above and beyond to do so.  

Having a team that lives and works in the local community, is customer focused and that is passionate about the region means that when these times come, the team is willingly straight into action. 

Major weather events such as floods, is a great example of this. 

"The team will just put in what they need to do and are more than happy to help - whether it's rain events, fires, everyone chips in to help out," says Russell. 

"The team will just put in what they need to do and are more than happy to help - whether it's rain events, fires, everyone chips in to help out," says Russell. 

23 years LTI free  

This care for people and the community is a key ingredient to another significant milestone this team has achieved, recently marking 23 years support to Gippsland Water without a lost time injury.

To be able to reach such a milestone is a credit to each individual who has worked and works across the contract who have been able to live the promise of putting the health and safety of our people above all else.