Council’s Senior EHO wins Environmental Health Australia (TAS) Award

Huon Valley Council’s Senior Environmental Health Officer (EHO) Amigo Huber was among the winners at this year’s Environmental Health Australia (Tasmania) Awards, held as part of the annual EHA (TAS) State Conference which took place in Hobart from 4–6 September 2019.

Council’s Environmental Health Cadet Ben Granger joined Mr Huber at the three-day conference, which offered a rich program of speakers and presentations focusing on the topic of mass gatherings and related public health matters, in line with this year’s theme of ‘50 years since Woodstock: Public Health & Mass Gatherings – How far have we come?’.

Mr Huber looked the part at the awards evening on 5 September as per the ‘Woodstock’ dress theme, and came away with the Tasmanian Early Career Environmental Health Professional of the Year award for his outstanding career achievements since starting out in environmental health less than five years ago.

Mr Huber started his first environmental health position at the City of Launceston in 2014 while finishing his final year of university practicum. In this role Mr Huber was proactive about gaining hands-on experience in a broad range of issues that environmental health officers face. Displaying a talent for the work, he achieved highly in the role and was able to quickly pick up on and think about public health issues while out on supervised inspections.

“After graduating Amigo joined us at Huon Valley Council as an EHO,” said Huon Valley Council General Manager Emilio Reale. “He made the move down south with his family which showed commitment, and we were pleased that Amigo was able to quickly adapt his learnings and build his skills and knowledge with true enthusiasm and professionalism.

“Since joining our organisation Amigo has been involved in a wide range of environmental and public health issues, including emergency management activities relating to the Huonville flooding events in 2017, and the bushfires we experienced early this year,” said Mr Reale. “Amigo has stepped up to the mark time and time again, and we have seen him grow into a practical and hardworking EHO for the Huon Valley community.

“Due to his excellent work and dedication, Amigo was recently promoted to the Senior EHO position – an impressive accomplishment for someone who graduated within the past five years. He is very much a worthy winner of this award.”