Woodend residents could be forgiven for taking pride in the knowledge that Victoria’s Valuer-General also chose the area to call home.
Robert Marsh has lived in the district with his family – wife Victoria and daughters Lucy and Sophie – since the late 1990s, originally on a farmlet just out of town but now in central Woodend.
Robert said his own childhood spent growing up on 10 acres surrounded by bush in Park Orchards on the border of Warrandyte was a wonderful experience.
“I wanted my children to have the same opportunity,” he said.
“Our children were born in Hawthorn and my wife’s parents had a place at Mount Macedon so we started looking up that way and after about six months found a place on the edge of the Kerrie Valley. We raised the kids there and loved it.”
Robert has been awarded a Public Service Medal in this year’s Australia Day Honours for his significant contribution to the property and valuation sector in Victoria.
Undertaking the role of the state’s Valuer-General for more than 10 years, his office is responsible for making valuations for the state of Victoria and government property transactions, as well as property statistics for government use and assets evaluation.
“Every year we do three million valuations for rating, taxing and levying purposes, and 4000 government transactions per year,” he told the Express.
Robert began his career as an assistant valuer for the City of Melbourne and worked his way up the ranks to become Valuer-General.
His career highlights include implementing the Fire Services Property Levy, which was a recommendation from the 2009 Black Saturday Fires Royal Commission, and more recently implementing the centralised annual valuation process for rating valuations for the state of Victoria, which he describes as “probably the biggest change in the delivery of statutory valuations since the commencement of the Valuation of Land Act in 1960”.
“It’s a change that we’re very proud of,” he said.
Robert also uses his valuation and leadership skills to support Victoria’s firefighting efforts, most recently by leading multidisciplinary teams in bushfire rapid risk assessment to help communities and government prioritise recovery efforts.
He said he was “very and pleasantly” surprised to receive the Australia Day honour.
“I feel very honoured to have been nominated and to receive the award,” he said.
