Spending her first few days meeting members of the community, Ms Thompson is looking forward to being part of a long list of projects either nearing completion, in progress or at the foundation stage.

Ms Thompson said there were varying contrasts but also similarities from her previous appointment as a former director at Whittlesea Council.

"There are common issues whether you are the fastest growing place in Australia or here at Northern Grampians," she said. "It's all about, what is our purpose of being? Our purpose of being is to provide great service for the community. It's just on a different scale."

Ms Thompson said driving great service to the community drives her passion.

"It's about building great communities," she said.

READ MORE: Liana Thompson will take the reins of Northern Grampians Shire Council on November 25

"The reason I applied for the role at Northern Grampians was for a couple of reasons. The shire has an amazing track record of being innovative and doing things outside of the box of any other 79 local governments in Victoria.

"The shire has always taken risks and has always made sure as much as possible can be driven is, from the small monies that they've got."

Ms Thompson said taking calculated risks was really important.

"Doing things the same old way will give us the same old results," she said.

"The thing we always need to remember is what is it, we are trying to achieve, and how can we get there?

"There are still people who say we should just be about getting on with the roads.

"We haven't been about roads for 25 years. If we started to pull out of everything but roads, the community would suffer.

"People don't realise the work that we do and the service which we provide."

RELATED: Northern Grampians chief executive Michael Bailey resigns

Ms Thompson is the vice president of LGPro, the leading voice for local government professionals, and is a former president and founder of the peak body, VLGA.

"There are a lot of people who look towards Northern Grampians for their foresight," she said.

"The thing that I love about Northern Grampians is the willingness to give things a go. That's not the case everywhere."

Ms Thompson was a member of the CWA in Melbourne and is hoping to be invited to join a CWA in the region.

"For me, baking is my downtime," she said.

"Really, I'm getting people hooked on sugar. I'm not particularly great, but I love it."

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