Words: Helena Morgan
When Government House Queensland took the plunge and adopted swipe cards as a form of access and control management, the heritage application was 80 pages long.
“Being a heritage-listed building, it’s not as simple as repainting a wall or fixing the tiles, it requires input from heritage experts and heritage exemptions,” says Ty Beale, acting facilities manager and sole Sergeant-at-Arms of Government House Queensland.
He says the complexities of such a simple change illustrate the unpredictable task of conducting maintenance on heritage-listed buildings, but staff feel privileged to be caring for a sacred bit of local history.
“Once history is gone, it is gone,” Beale says. “We’re all focused on maintaining the importance of the history of Government House.”
The site is a compelling case study in the need for a skilled and interdisciplinary facilities management team, involving priceless heritage fabric and heritage-listed bushlands, an ongoing biodiversity project and event management.
A masterclass in operating a multi-purpose community facility
Beale is new to facility management, but not the big house. While he’s only been acting facilities operations manager for the past year, he has spent 17 years onsite as the Sergeant-at-Arms. It’s not a building he’s in any hurry to leave.
“I love being out there,” he says. “Seeing the joy people get when they come, especially from the Christmas lights, the kids just absolutely love it – I’ll be able to bring my kids and my grandkids here and say, ‘I’m responsible for that’.”
A desire for public service has defined Beale’s career. After starting out as a mechanic in Darwin, he worked for the Australian Federal Police, ending up as one of two security management officers in the Prime Minister’s office.
Following a move from Canberra to Brisbane, Beale spotted a job for a Sergeant-at-Arms at Government House. “It was similar to what I was doing in the Prime Minister’s office and I thought, ‘I’ll give it a go’,” he says.
A house for all Queenslanders
Located in the Brisbane suburb of Paddington, the 14-hectare, hilltop Government House site was built in 1865 and dubbed Fernberg House by the original owner. In 1910, Fernberg was leased by the government and every governor since has lived on-site.
“They still maintain other houses but they live here as part of the job, and all upstairs is their house and downstairs is our house,” he says.
The estate has four residences allocated to staff. Beale says this is reminiscent of an era when staff were required to be on-site for immediate responsiveness. On-site staff include a chef, driver, facilities manager and a Sergeant-at-Arms.
The house operates on a structured hierarchy evocative of the military. As the Sergeant-at-Arms, Beale is the designated second-in-command to the facilities manager.
“Sergeant-in-Arms and facilities work hand in glove, but really I pick up the day-to-day stuff,” he says. “We’re very structured.”
Beale oversees events, on-site maintenance and security, whereas his counterpart covers strategy. He takes up the helm of a bustling ecosystem of staff devoted to maintaining security, and the smooth operation and pristine presentation of the house.
“We have 18 security staff over a 24-hour roster,” he says.
There are many star players on-site, notably a resident horticulturist as the head gardener. The house also boasts a painter and a carpenter, and Beale functions as an on-site IT specialist to manage projects, deliver support and facilitate initiatives to enhance service delivery.
A packed calendar
The Governor’s busy timetable usurps all maintenance tasks. Beale says an event such as a Premier visiting means the drawing room does not get painted, even if the schedule demands it. Works are often suspended, therefore the house looks for contractors willing to raincheck.
“The Governor’s program comes first. It’s critical that we manage our program around that and schedule our works as best we can, and have contractors that are understanding,” he says.
“If the Governor is on-site, it’s event-focused, so we’ll be supporting events as well as doing maintenance that is urgent or can be facilitated without impacting on the program.” However, Beale reveals that when the Governor is off-site, the frequency of maintenance work skyrockets – the team will not let upkeep go astray.
In the current Governor’s first year, she had nearly 900 events, although many were off-site or regional. The high frequency of events is an organisational feat that requires front-of-house composure and grace. Behind the scenes, it’s a commotion and a cacophony of open communication.
“I think this last financial year, there were 190 receptions and afternoon teas at Government House,” Beale says.
“We’re like a duck on the water. Underneath the surface, our feet are going flat out.”
Beale emphasises the value of open and ongoing communication to ensure the successful delivery of events.
“We need to make sure that we’re all aware of what’s going on,” he says. “We’ve got to make sure we get the right equipment, personnel and resources in place for the events.”
Maintenance versus event management
One of the biggest priorities for Beale and the team during busy event periods is lawn maintenance. “Maintaining the lawn and trying to find the right time to renovate and allow the lawns time to fully recover is a challenge,” he says.
The house’s grounds are currently undergoing the spring renovation – a cumbersome yet necessary task. “We aerate all the lawns, we scarify them and top dress them. They’re brown for a couple of weeks but that’s why they look so good all year round,” he says.
The team also works tirelessly to maintain the pristine condition of the surrounding bushland, which is one of the oldest remnant bush sites in Brisbane. “We really strive to keep it like that,” Beale says.
Beale is well accustomed to people assuming facilities managers are caretakers and handymen. Although he still participates in traditional maintenance work, he emphasises the need to have a tight grasp on future-proofing and strategy.
“We have a conservation plan for the house and a conservation plan for the gardens,” he says. “We have a bushland management plan, so all these different documents and plans are in place to drive maintenance and renovations.”
The facilities team approaches maintenance and conservation with an attitude of proactiveness, in addition to demonstrating commendable environmental accountability and responsibility.
“If we lose a tree from a storm or something, we take it out or replace it with five trees,” Beale says.
“We’re doing a bushland track project at the moment – trying to seal some pathways so we can open up more of the estate, and part of that required some trees to be removed,” he says.
Beale further underscores the house and surrounding estate’s pride in maintaining a sense of environmental responsibility.
“We have around 57 species of birds that reside on the estate, and so we have a nest box program,” he says. “One of our gardeners maintains a log online – the Birds of Fernberg Estate – and he reports any new birds.”
Witnessing transformative periods in the house’s history
Beale has relished the varied opportunities of his role – mainly the ceremonial aspects and the chance to lead many transformations and renovations.
“I’ve been involved with the security operations for eight royal visits,” he says. “I’ve done 20 or 30 open days and eight years of Christmas lights – the Christmas Lights run over nearly seven nights, with up to 2000 or 3000 people on site each night.”
Beale was also part of the management team that spearheaded a transformative security review in 2012 that elevated the sophistication of technological processes and enabled greater interdepartmental collaboration. A fairly outdated security camera system was also given a revamp.
“I think we now have 40 cameras and 30 odd security beams – which means more infrastructure and equipment failures, but that’s the joy of having the house in a bushland environment.”
Beale has also overseen hefty yet rewarding renovation projects. In 2015, the estate’s heritage quarters were reworked to boost the house’s hosting capabilities.
“We renovated the quarters into six ensuite bedrooms, so when there are guests, we can accommodate them,” he says. “We have 10 rooms that are suitable to host the king when he travels here.”
BMS at heritage-listed buildings akin to squeezing a triangle into a circle
Working with heritage fabric demands attentiveness and a generous helping of compromise and patience. For instance, inserting contemporary accessibility and safety standards into 100-year-plus buildings can be akin to squeezing a triangle into a circle. Beale says air conditioning was only installed in the house over the past 15 years, while the installation of equitable access lifts was a 10-year process.
Despite a number of automated systems in place, the heritage listing means the house is unable to fully subscribe to the latest technology – such as building management systems (BMS).
“Building management systems are obviously something we’d love to have, but unfortunately it’s sort of a cost-versus-reward case, and trying to actually achieve it in a 150-odd-year-old house,” Beale says.
He applauds the Sydney Opera House’s skilful implementation of BMS as such procedures demonstrate how such processes can be harnessed to enrich user experience.
“They have a BMS that has oxygen sensors in lifts and foyers,” Beale says. “It detects the amount of people from the oxygen levels and then turns the air conditioning up or down, or it detects faults in air-conditioning handlers hours before people would actually feel the room getting warm or too cold.”
The dynamism of a facilities team
Whether it’s overseeing renovations, revitalising the lawn or hosting royal visits, Beale says there is an expectation for staff to adopt an all-hands-on-deck mentality to distribute workloads and pressures.
“There’s staff doing multiple jobs – it’s not like a government department where people might have one role,” he says.
“Most of us have three or four different areas of operations that we look after, so we juggle that and make sure that we don’t impact the Governor’s program, because [we’re here] to make sure she achieves what she needs to achieve.”
Beale delights in staff willingness to abandon stringent understandings of workplace responsibilities. “The team is so dynamic – I’ve got gardeners moving furniture,” he says. “And you’ve got to have that attitude when you work here. If you don’t have that attitude, you’re just not going to enjoy working here – there’s never a quiet day!”
Photography supplied by Government House Queensland.
A version of this piece appeared on fmmedia.com.au