City’s CEO reflects on 2025

AS 2025 draws to a close, it is worth taking a moment to reflect on what has been an extraordinary year of collaboration and progress for the City of Greater Geelong and our community.

This year has been shaped by the pace of growth across our region and the responsibilities that come with it.

In fact, Geelong is growing faster than almost any other regional city in Australia, and our population is nearing 300,000.

That growth is visible in new housing areas, increased demand for services and the need to plan carefully for the future.

In 2025, the City delivered a significant program of works across the municipality.

A total of $17.5 million was spent on civil construction, with most of that work undertaken by local contractors.

During the year, 79 capital projects were underway, valued at $191 million. Of these, 29 projects were completed, delivering $56 million in new or upgraded community infrastructure.

There are many other extraordinary numbers across the City’s operational services.

Our kerbside services completed 10.5 million bin collections, including 59,000 tonnes of garbage, 21,000 tonnes of recycling and 35,000 tonnes of green organics.

We also completed more than 20,000 bin repairs and 35,200 hard waste collections, including nearly 18,000 mattresses.

 

Our City Works crew repaired 8,637 potholes, swept 28,370km of streets and cleared almost 6,000 incidents of dumped rubbish.

Meanwhile, Reserve Maintenance teams cared for the equivalent of 218sqkm of open space this year, and we secured more than 220,000sqm of new open space for future generations.

Pleasingly, our urban forest continues to grow, now at 190,000 trees, a 5.9 per cent increase since April last year.

Our Geelong Major Events Strategy delivered an impressive $93 million boost to the local economy and drew 499,000 people to 12 major events sponsored by Council.

The Avalon Australian International Airshow, the Festival of Sails and the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race all attracted significant crowds and reinforced our region’s reputation as a host of world-class events.

The new Geelong City Market has quickly become part of many residents’ weekly routine, attracting about 8,000 people each Saturday and adding colour and excitement to central Geelong.

Alongside this work, Council made important decisions focused on health, wellbeing and inclusion.

We introduced the Fair Access and Fair Play policies to improve equity in sport and recreation.

We adopted our new Health and Wellbeing Strategy, secured more than $15 million in external funding for community sport, and continued to deliver in-home care.

Council also made several important decisions about how the organisation will operate in the years ahead.

In 2025, the new Council Plan, the Long-Term Financial Plan and the 2025-26 Budget were adopted, providing a clearer framework for priorities, investment and accountability.

In 2026, the organisation will continue its focus on service improvement, organisational culture, financial management and planning for our region’s continuing rapid growth.

This work relies on the commitment of our staff and the leadership and governance of our Mayor and Councillors. I thank them for their contribution throughout the year.

As families across our region enjoy time together over summer, I hope there is a sense of pride in what we are building together.

Greater Geelong’s best years are still ahead, and we head into 2026 with momentum, clarity and purpose.

Ali Wastie

Chief executive officer,

City of Greater Geelong