And he says he has a big to-do list.

Mr Young has been appointed general manager of Upper Macquarie County Council (UMCC), which is the control authority for weed biosecurity in the Oberon, Bathurst, Blayney and Lithgow council areas.

The core business of UMCC is to make sure private and public landholders manage their properties to minimise the weed risk. 

Mr Young was most recently the general manager of operations at the Sydney Olympic Park Authority and had prior senior roles working with the Olympic Co-ordination Authority, Ku-ring-gai Council and the Shire of Sherbrooke in Victoria. 

UMCC chairman Ian North said the council was pleased to have secured the appointment “of a highly experienced senior executive with a substantial record of success in dealing with the complex operational and administrative aspects of public land matters, including protection of the environment, regulatory compliance and enforcement and stakeholder management”.

“Mr Young only started six weeks ago and is already well underway, providing strong guidance to council in redefining its long-term financial and operating plans and refreshing the policy and organisational framework so the county council can become a leader in weed biosecurity,” he said.

Mr Young, who has lived in Oberon for nearly 10 years, said there is a lot of work required to get the council business back in order “after several years of decline associated with funding shortages, staff departures, and some out-of-date or incomplete business systems”.

“There were also major changes in 2017 to the legal framework under which the council operates,” he said.

"There is also a lot of work to be done across the district to make sure that those farmers and other property owners do a good job controlling problem weeds on their properties and are not compromised by the actions of those few that don’t do much, if anything, to fulfil weed control obligations.

“It only takes a few recalcitrant property owners letting weeds - like blackberry or serrated tussock grass – get out of control on their land to provide the source for these weeds to reinvade neighbouring and more distant properties in the surrounding area, causing other landholders lost productivity and greater weed control costs for years to come. 

"I have been surprised to find a largely new and very committed team of county councillors, and a full complement of recently recruited and very competent biosecurity officers on board.

“Now we are in a position to start making the council very good at what it needs to do about weed biosecurity."