Dustie

It's always a bit of a joke, first thing in the morning, because everyone's arriving and everyone's wondering whether the whole crew's turned up and if they haven't you're jostling around, trying to get a good spare man to come with you.

[whistling]

The normal crew is three loaders and a driver but if everyone's turned up at work that day, well then they give you a spare man as well, so you go out with five. And all the blokes that are spare, they have to try and get on a good job too because some of the runs are much harder than others or have, on that particular day, have a much heavier day. And if you know for sure that a bloke isn't coming in and you say "well look, this bloke is definitely not coming in," "can I take his place?" and they'll say, "oh that's okay." And then that means that they squared up and that run can leave and they don't have to worry about it anymore. And then it depends and whoever's got the book that day, what sort of mood he's in and whether he's agreeable or not.

There's a few there who seem to be sort of in charge, in varying degrees of importance. The foreman [Alec], they call him the pipe. He doesn't say much but he seems to rule the place.

Everything depends in getting out of the yard early, getting a good start, and you're away and you'll find that everyone works like a bomb. It's always miserable when it rains. The sacks are wet and heavy and all the rubbish is soaking and it's slippery underfoot. You know, you have to watch your footing all the time and you just generally slow down and you get sort of sick of it.

The weather ruins the sacks too. Once sacks have been used for a bit and they get really wet, they're never much good after that. They fall to bits. Originally, they'd use these old tin buckets, which could only hold about one rubbish tin. So, it'd mean going up and down to every house individually. Be impossible. In fact, you wouldn't be able to get nearly as much done, they'd have to have much bigger crews.

It's always slower in the winter though. Everything's slushy and wet. It doesn't often rain for the entire duration of your work. It's mostly showers, which come and go.

In most other towns, they have to pull their bins out into the street and they just drive the truck along the road and throw the bins and the hopper and empty them. Of course, this would never work in Wellington because they're so steep. Some people'd have to walk down about 300 steps to the road to take the bin down. Of course, all these old people wouldn't have a show of doing it and it works very well for us because you can go up with the sacks, get about four done before you have to come down again.

Perks are always important. People leaving out the beer and money. Christmas is the best time of the year because it's summer then and a lot of the people go away on holiday and so on so there's less rubbish but you also get all the perks as well. Never had to buy any beer over that period. Each day we'd share it up between the four of us, or five of us, depending on who was there. Split it up each way. Everyone trying to grab your favorite brands and lots of squawking over the beer that no one liked.

Bob comes up with the truck and picks up the sacks. The driver is actually employed as a driver, though, and he has to do a certain amount. Some drivers are worse than others. Bob's good and he gets stuck in all the way.

(Bob) Since I was 11 years old, I start driving. This is back home in the Cook Islands. Then I came to New Zealand and drive for the dusty. (Worker) You have to know exactly where to stop the truck, otherwise you have to walk half a mile up the road towards it.

(Bob) You don't have to -- there's no certain place of you stop there or stop there. Once that bag is on the street there, you move the truck and empty it.

(Worker 1) As far as I'm concerned, you earn your daily bread, so why worry what occupation you've got? I mean, someone's got to do it.

(Worker 2) I'm from Gisborne, East Coast. I've been on the Dusties, ah, 12 months. It's a good job, for a family man anyway. Got four children now and I spend a lot of time with my children. Some jobs, you, you're hardly home. Working all day and you get tired in the afternoon. Just have your tea and straight to bed.

(Worker 3) I mean it's all life, isn't it? Just making money and spending it. Really, when you boil it all down, I mean, that's what the average person tries to do is just sort of get some dough and spend it.

(Worker) So rubbish varies greatly. Some parts of town it's absolutely filthy, it stinks, it's full of maggots, it's wet. Get about two bins in your sack and you can hardly pick it off the ground. You don't actually really have to take that, legally, the rubbish has to be clean, it has to be wrapped. No broken glass or stuff like that -- any sharp objects. A lot of the boys get cut. Most people out in the suburbs are pretty good. The rubbish is usually wrapped, but every now and then there's a bad one or when it's been raining they leave it full of water, then we don't take it. But you have to remember to report it when you get back, or else you get sent out again.

And different sizes of rubbish tins are bad too. Some people have things like petrol drums, which they cut in half and they're chock-a-block and they've got no handles on them or anything. But the people are all supposed to have the same rubbish tins, City Council regulation size.

(Worker 4) That's what really cheeses me off about some of these householders, like, you know, they'd come out, they'd come out sort of with this extra rubbish and they sort of just look at you and say, "take this". No "please" or "good morning", "how are you?" or "would you mind?" or --

(Worker) Quite often they come out and abuse you for sort of getting their washing dirty when you go past but that's their fault. They know when dustman comes, they should keep it out of the way. Just an occupational hazard. They moan if you leave a mess sometimes, and this happens quite a lot if your sack's got holes in it and all the stuff falls out.

(Worker 5) It's a hell of a hard job, it's no joke. I told this householder one day -- this is no lie -- he comes up to me and he says to me "Um, you see all that rubbish in the corner," and I says "Yes, I can see all that rubbish in the corner." He says to me, um, "I want you to take it." I says "You want me to take it?" And he says to me, "Yes, it's your job." I said "I know it's my job" and I says, um, "Good manners doesn't cost much." I says, "I'll tell you what, I'll take all those extras, if you can lift this bag of mine up."

(Worker) 'Course most people feel duty-bound to greet the dustman. If you see them in the garden, you give them a big cheerful hello and they give you one back again. And one of the big jokes each day is when you're going up the side of a house and you hear sort of the keys scrambling in the kitchen door to lock it. I don't know what they think they're going to do. Most of the housewives don't look too good at that time of the morning themselves. You just hear the sort of locking of keys all [laughing] along the street.

(Worker 6) The only people that respect you is the old people. These pension people, yeah. Because you, you go to their houses, you have a look at they're bins, they're clean and ah, the rubbish all wrapped up properly. And you never see their rubbish up to the top.

(Worker 7) A couple of people that worked with me at, like um, the refuse and all that were just filthy people, you know.

(Worker 8) The refuse collectors, that's us, in my opinion, are the cleanest people in New Zealand. Who has a shower every day? But, I mean, who does have a shower every day?

(Worker 9) It's essential to have a pace-maker on a run. You have to have that pace-maker. Well everyone moves, you see, because they sort of compare themselves with that pace maker and I'll tell you what, if they can sort of keep up the pace, well they don't sort of feel manly or they feel as if they're sort of amateurs.

(Worker) You all have to pull your weight because if someone's slow and holding everyone up, then you all have to slow down and it upsets the whole pattern of it. When you're all working together and you've got a -- setting a good pace -- well then you can really tear through it. And of course the sooner you finish, the sooner you get back into the showers and home.

On our run it's good because everyone knows exactly what to do, you know where the other blokes are, you know that all the houses behind have been done, you never have to go back, so you just keep on going forward all the time. You can get a lot of good things. Well, I got electric toaster and there's nothing wrong with it at all! Some blokes have got some good clothes off it. Lots of the gear that the boys wear on the job comes out of the rubbish. Old football jerseys or anything we find really that -- that'll be handy. When we finish, we just put all the sacks into one of the other ones and throw it in the back of the hopper, lock the ram, head for the tip and back into town and that's it.

♪ Wet and cold, bins full of muck, no one wants to leave the nice warm truck ♪

♪ but the work gets done hail or snow, in driving rain or the southerly blow ♪

♪ on the dust cart ♪

♪ on the dust cart ♪

♪ working ♪

♪ working on the dust cart ♪

♪ Working fast to get it all done. ♪

♪ Work's not so bad when it's done on the run. ♪

♪ You don't need no PhD to know that when the work is done that's when you're free ♪

♪ on the dust cart ♪

♪ on the dust cart ♪

(Worker 10) Well it's true though because, um, even me brother he told me once, he says to me, "look, um, why don't you sort of find yourself a better occupation." "I mean, you can't last on the carts forever." And well you can last on the carts forever because even now, like before for I started on the dust carts, I used to be cooped up inside all the time and I'll tell you it's an absolute change. I just feel better, fitter, healthier. I even look better and eat more.

(Worker) Once we're back into the yard, it's always a look around to see how many other trucks are back, how late you are or early and have your shower and then you're away.

♪ Back in the shower, wash off the stink ♪

♪ maybe a game of snooker or a couple of drinks ♪

♪ get home early, help the wife with the tea ♪

♪ play with the kids, and a bit of TV ♪

♪ after the dust cart ♪

♪ after the dust cart ♪

♪ after working ♪

♪ after working on the dust cart ♪

♪ after working ♪

♪ after working on the dust cart ♪

♪ after working ♪

♪ after working on the dust cart ♪

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