{"id":422014,"date":"2026-01-18T22:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T22:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/422014\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T22:15:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T22:15:12","slug":"tony-clark-hopes-to-inspire-new-generation-as-hepburn-shire-council-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/422014\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Clark hopes to inspire new generation as Hepburn Shire Council mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the official opening of the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens Day Basin, councillor Tony Clark asked attendees to close their eyes.<\/p>\n

“Embrace the true beauty, not just the visual beauty, but the true beauty that this new area has to offer,” Cr Clark said.<\/p>\n

“Hear the birds, the wind through the trees \u2014 it’s not just about how things look but all the other senses involved as well.”<\/p>\n

It was just one part of the unique perspectives Cr Clark said he hoped to bring to his new role as mayor of Hepburn Shire Council.<\/p>\n

\"Tall<\/p>\n

Tony Clark says his lived experience with disability should be considered a strength. (Supplied: Hepburn Shire Council)<\/p>\n

Legally blind since he was 20, Cr Clark, now 56, became the first person with a disability to hold the role of mayor in Hepburn Shire when he was elected to the position in November 2025.<\/p>\n

“I’m sure there are some people out there wondering how you can do the job of mayor when you’re blind,” Cr Clark said.<\/p>\n

“At the end of the day, we are all a prisoner of our own personal experiences and I think people fear difference.”<\/p>\n

Cr Clark said his lived experience with disability would “change how we do things and think about things” for the better.<\/p>\n

“Making our services, particularly in places like government and local council, accessible \u2026 actually improves it for everybody and that’s what we’re here for \u2014 making a better quality of life for everybody,” he said.<\/p>\n

On the job<\/p>\n

While the job of mayor remains the same, how it is done is being put to the test as Cr Clark employs assistive tools to get around his vision impairment.<\/p>\n

“I use adaptive technology [such as] a program called JAWS which actually reads out everything that I need to access and puts it into audio form, and I listen to it at 450 words a minute,” Cr Clark said, adding that people speed reading could reach about 350 words per minute.<\/p>\n

His workplace has also made other adjustments, including conducting specialised training on how to present to the council in an accessible format and accommodating his guide dog, Timmy.<\/p>\n

\"Close<\/p>\n

Tony Clark’s guide dog Timmy joins him in the office.\u00a0 (ABC News: Eden Hynninen)<\/p>\n

Hepburn Shire CEO Bradley Thomas said some of the workplace adjustments had been really simple, “while others have been a little bit more complicated and taken some time to implement”.<\/p>\n

“I certainly don’t think we’ve got it 100 per cent perfect,” Mr Thomas said.<\/p>\n

Mr Thomas said Cr Clark had been a valuable asset to the workplace and his community.<\/p>\n

“Tony, in terms of his disability or impairment and being blind, has also brought a really great focus on us as an organisation around some of our inclusive behaviours,” Mr Thomas said.<\/p>\n

“It does give you a really clear reminder that people of all abilities can [drive] themselves to do these great roles.”<\/p>\n

\"Grey<\/p>\n

Bradley Thomas says Tony Clark has been a valuable asset to the community. (ABC News: Eden Hynninen)<\/p>\n

Message to future disabled leaders<\/p>\n

Cr Clark said he hoped that by sharing his story, he could inspire the next generation of disabled leaders.<\/p>\n

“That lived experience brings immense value,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It shouldn’t be looked at as a negative, it’s actually a strength.<\/p>\n

“One of the key things I’ve harnessed throughout my life is my lived experience because it has to be that philosophy of ‘we need to focus on what we can do, not what we can’t do’.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the official opening of the Wombat Hill Botanic Gardens Day Basin, councillor Tony Clark asked attendees to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422015,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,17956,222074,99,2467,7110,89346,222071,222072,18404,222073],"class_list":["post-422014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-blind","tag-bradley-thomas","tag-business","tag-council","tag-disability","tag-guide-dog","tag-hepburn","tag-hepburn-shire-council","tag-mayor","tag-tony-clark"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}