Stephen Farrelly (pictured) was formerly the assets services manager for $4.5 billion worth of infrastructure owned by the New South Wales State Water Corporation, before entering his new role in Mount Isa on September 30.

He is spending “a lot of time in the office to get up to speed as much as possible” but was so far enjoying the “extremely friendly” city. 

Mr Farrelly said the Mount Isa Water Board infrastructure was well set up, considering it included a pipeline from Lake Julius which needed to shift water about 100 metres uphill and was about 70 kilometres long.

He said a colleague was amazed at how far the water board was pumping water. 

“That was a big investment made in the 1970s. Not many towns would have the level of water security that you guys have with Lake Julius,” Mr Farrelly said.

Mount Isa Water Board customers were already receiving water being pumped from Lake Julius, he said. 

Mr Farrelly said his job as chief executive was leading the water board’s team in implementing the values of “reliability, safety, integrity, respect, teamwork and transparency in supply water to our customers’’.

“The buck stops at me in terms of our operations,’’ he said.

“The thing that gets me to work every day is adding value.

“I’m excited by the opportunity to add value to the Mount Isa community.”

Mr Farrelly acknowledged there were many challenges such as water quality and supply which the Mount Isa community was faced with.

“We are all in this together, aren’t we? The mine needs the water; the town needs the mine,” he said.