In recognition of his significant career in planning and development, Bundaberg Regional Council’s Regional Growth and Development General Manager Michael Ellery has been elevated to Fellow membership of the Planning Institute of Australia.
The recognition was received at the 2025 Queensland Awards for Planning Excellence Gala Dinner held earlier this month.
The Fellowship is one of the highest honours that an individual Town Planner can receive in Queensland and is well-deserved recognition of Michael’s exceptional contributions to the planning profession and the broader community.
Michael said he was humbled to be recognised by his peers with this honour.
“It is very nice to think that the all the work I have put into trying to make the communities where I lived and worked better places has been acknowledged and is worthy of recognition by my peers,” he said.
“But it also makes me reflect on all the amazing planners and other professionals I have had the great fortune to work with, and I know I couldn’t have achieved what I did without them.”
Michael has extensive experience in Local Government planning and development spanning almost 30 years.
A drive to find a secure career to support his young family saw Michael set his sights on the industry when he made his start at Ipswich City Council in 1996.
He worked in Ipswich for a number of years before moving on to Hervey Bay Council.
In 2012 he arrived at Bundaberg Regional Council as Group Manager Development and now coordinates a wide variety of teams within the Regional Growth and Development directorate in addition to continuing to provide strategic leadership for planning and development.
Reflecting on his career in light of this milestone, Michael said he’d had many career highlights over the years, working on some fantastic developments and helping them come to life.
“In my time at Bundaberg, working with the Council team to approve the Kepnock District Activity Centre and the original approval for Elliot Heads Estate were noteworthy achievements,” he said.
“Seeing the Bundaberg Regional Council adopt its first planning scheme in 2015 and then more recently supporting the team to deliver the amendments to better protect nesting sea turtles on our coast was also very satisfying.
“And I am proud of what I achieved with my teams in leading reforms in the way development assessment is done at both Fraser Coast and Bundaberg Regional Councils, including working through the review of the Development Group done in 2018.”
Michael said he was also proud to see many of the young planners, engineers and administration professionals he had worked with have successful careers and achieve their own accolades.
He said his job was very different now to when he started out in planning, having joined Ipswich City Council Planning and Development team taking front counter enquiries while studying planning by correspondence at the University of New England.
“I don’t have as much time to spend on planning as I’d like these days, but I know that it is being well looked after by the Development Assessment and Strategic Planning teams,” he said.
“The thing that I enjoy most now is my team.
“They are just an amazing bunch of people that I love working with and also helping them to develop both professionally and personally.
“Sometimes they don’t even really need much help, just permission to go out and pursue great ideas.
“Seeing the team do well, either individually or together, brings me a great deal of satisfaction and happiness.”
