Reading a story on essential services workers performing odd hours – including a garbage truck driver – ROADBOSS wondered what is the coolest garbo gig in the land? We reckon we found it!
“Not a bad office, ay?” Paul Walters says as he jumps out of his truck to greet us on the rapidly narrowing strip of sand at Inskip Point that serves as the rudimentary departure point for the short barge trip across to K’gari (Fraser Island).
It’s just past sunrise and the near-new Astra HD9 8×8 garbage truck stands out among the throng of four-wheel drives lining up to get onboard the first barge of the day. Kids frolic in the water, excited for the holiday that lies ahead, and a few of the boys are already on the cans – “tins before tents”, ROADBOSS photographer Matt Williams quips.
“You never get sick of this view,” Paul adds, as we cast our eyes across the glistening waters of the Great Sandy Strait to Hook Point and up 75 Mile Beach.
Not a bad office, ay? You never get sick of this view.
Not a bad way to start your work day. And it only gets better. After the surprisingly short 10-minute trip across the water on one of two Manta Ray barges that service the island from Inskip Point, the inaugural driver (and project manager) of Reuse & Recycle Group’s new waste collection service launches into his typical day running around 150 kilometres along K’gari’s world-famous beaches and inland tracks emptying bins full to the brim with garbage left by the throng of tourists that flock to the world’s biggest sand island all-year round.
Over here, the highway tar makes way for hundreds of kilometres of sand as white (and as soft) as pure driven snow; suburban traffic calming devices like speed humps, chicanes and roundabouts are replaced with myriad washouts flowing with crystal clean rainwater that filters through the island’s sand into a massive underground freshwater aquifer and out to sea; and houses and parked cars are replaced with tents, caravans, campervans and four-wheel drives lining the beaches.
It’s a dramatic – and welcome – sea change for Paul, who until July was the office-bound Operations Manager for Reuse & Recycle Group, a community-based recycling and recovery enterprise, responsible for running its operations at Fraser Coast Regional Council waste collection sites at Nikenbah and Maryborough.
The world’s best garbo gig
Disembarking the 6:00am barge at Hook Point, Paul effortlessly steers the custom-built Astra through the soft sand tracks at the southern end of the island.
For driver Paul Walters a typical day involves running around 150km along K’gari’s world-famous beaches and inland tracks emptying bins full to the brim with garbage left by the throng of tourists
If all goes well, today’s route will take around six hours to empty 22 out of a total of around 140 bulk bins located at waste collection facilities and public drop-off points across K’gari.
The number of trips per week fluctuates, from four-five times per week in peak holiday periods and down to once or twice a week in the low seasons.
From Hook Point Paul heads up along K’gari’s east coast, clocking speeds of up to 80km/hour – impressive for a monster truck with a Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) of 20 tonne and a Gross Combination Mass (GCM) of 27.5 tonne fully loaded.
What’s clear from the outset is that despite just four months on the job – and with previous experience limited to driving skip bin trucks on the mainland, he knows every washout along the huge stretch of beach. “You learn [where the washouts] are pretty quick. I hit a few to start and nearly ended up in the passenger’s seat a couple of times,” he says with a chuckle.
The view is my favourite part [of the job], especially the contrast from the beach to the bush. It changes every day and I love that.
First stop is the Ranger’s Station at Eurong, about 40 minutes’ drive up the 123km “sand highway” that stretches to Sandy Cape at the northern tip of the island.
From there it’s on to several other sites along the beach – including one at Happy Valley, before hitting Eli Creek about half-way up the island. Even just out of NSW school holidays, it’s teaming with four-wheel drives grabbing an early spot alongside the pristine waterway.
Past the Maheno Wreck, a site popular with tourists, Paul pushes north through The Pinnacles and The Cathedrals – an iconic collection of multi-coloured sand dunes thought to be at least 700,000 years old – towards Indian Head, a landmark rocky headland named by explorer Captain James Cook in 1770 in reference to the island’s indigenous people whom he saw standing on the cliffs.
From there he heads inland past the Champagne Pools via a very narrow and very soft sand track to the next waste collection station at Orchard Beach, a facility shared by Fraser Coast Regional Council and Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.
The customised eight-wheel-drive Astra HD9s are fitted with specialised off-road tyres almost 1.2 metres tall and 45 centimetres wide for the best grip and spread over the sand
While the sand track – soft as butter due to high traffic during the recent school holidays – makes for tough going for Matt’s Nissan Patrol ute, the Astra traverses the route with ease, barely needing to get out of four-wheel drive to make the pass.
After Orchard Beach, Paul heads south back to Indian Head and along the beach re-tracing the morning’s journey north. On one side is the great expanse of the Pacific Ocean – where anglers are pulling in good catches of Tailor as we pass – and on the other side sharply contrasting sand hills featuring all manner of coastal vegetation, including Pandanus Palms almost growing horizontally out of the hills.
As we drive back towards the township of Eurong we divert inland to our final pick up at Central Station, an old logging community located near the awe-inspiring Lake McKenzie almost smack bang in the middle of the island.
The inland track is long, stretching around nine kilometres, winding and soft – but all eyes are on the stunning rainforest lining either side of the trail featuring towering Satinay, Brush Box, Kauri Pine, and Hoop Pine trees growing directly from sand as high as the eyes can see.
You learn [where the washouts] are pretty quick. I hit a few to start and nearly ended up in the passenger’s seat a couple of times.
“The view is my favourite part [of the job],” Paul says, “especially the contrast from the beach to the bush. It changes every day and I love that.”
“The Plough”
“They’re great trucks. I call her ‘The Plough’ because she ploughs through anything,” Paul tells us later over a sandwich at K’gari Beach Resort.
These aren’t your typical garbage trucks, as Fraser Coast Regional Council Councillor John Weiland points out, adding “they’re big, bold and built for K’gari.”
Paul’s truck is one of three eight-wheel-drive Astra HD9s acquired by Reuse & Recycle Group to service the contract with Fraser Coast Regional Council – including two front-lift compactor waste trucks and the third set up as a hook-lift unit to handle the larger 15-cubic-metre bulk bins.
The day’s route took around six hours to empty 22 out of a total of some 140 bulk bins located at waste collection facilities and public drop-off points across K’gari
Designed for soft sand and steep tracks, the trucks are fitted with specialised off-road tyres – 445/65R 22.5 super singles – almost 1.2 metres tall and 45 centimetres wide. Tyre pressure is set at 40-50psi for the best grip and spread over sand.
Rarely seen in Australia, the fully imported, Italian-made trucks – supplied by Brisbane IVECO – are equipped with SuperiorPak body units and powered by a Cursor 13-litre engine in Euro 6 spec, coupled to the ZF Astronic Auto transmission.
Reuse & Recycle Group General Manager Gavin McPhee says the trucks were chosen principally due to their ease of operation, especially in the unique operating conditions.
“Being fairly new to operating and driving vehicles of this size and capacity we have found them extremely easy to operate, even in the conditions we do,” he says.
They’re great trucks. I call her ‘The Plough’ because she ploughs through anything.
“The ability to shift between two-, three- and four-axle drive on demand, we have found few instances that can stop them yet.
“We can’t thank Garry Whineray and his team at SuperiorPak Brisbane enough for working with us to bring them together in a very tight time frame.
“With this being a new field for us to step into their industry expertise was what we were looking for and certainly what we found in bringing them from concept to reality.
“And the sales team at IVECO Brisbane were also a big part in getting these trucks to us, they don’t just grow on trees, so it was a long road to get them from spec order to delivery into Australia from the Astra factory in Italy.
Rarely seen in Australia, the fully imported, Italian-made trucks are powered by a Cursor 13-litre engine in Euro 6 spec, coupled to the ZF Astronic Auto transmission
“A total build phase across all departments of over 18 months of planning and co-ordinating was a monumental challenge and one that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone with a heart condition.”
And he adds that while the trucks don’t go fast, “they go anywhere”. “It’s amusing to see the look of absolute bewilderment of people who are holidaying, some experiencing the joys and pitfalls of sand driving for the first time…only to see this great big rubbish truck come hauling past, unchallenged by the soft sinking sand that has many of them shovelling and pulling themselves out of a tricky situation.”
Trash to treasure
What’s all the more remarkable is the new service is delivered under a 10-year contract by the not-for-profit Reuse & Recycle Group, which was originally founded by a group of volunteers as a community-focused sustainability and social justice group, recovering goods from tips and selling them in order to raise funds to support other community groups and charities.
The group commenced the contract in July, taking over from incumbent Rainbow Recovery, Repairs and Services, which had performed the genuinely pioneering role for 30-odd years.
A total build phase across all departments of over 18 months of planning and co-ordinating was a monumental challenge and one that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone with a heart condition.
The Hervey Bay-based enterprise commenced its first paid contract with the Fraser Coast Regional Council in 2004, providing staff to oversee the waste and recycling operations at a couple of the area’s regional waste transfer stations and landfills.
Since then, it has steadily grown its operations and scope across the Hervey Bay and Maryborough region, with responsibility for collecting, sorting and disposing of recovered and recycled items from council waste collection sites, ranging from ferrous and non-ferrous metals, batteries, paints and chemicals, to timber, gyprock products, waste oils, e-waste and polystyrene, to name a few. Staff numbers now top 50.
Reuse & Recycle Group also operates two “tip shops” at Nikenbah and Maryborough, each open three days a week, a delivery service for bulky items purchased from the shops, and is in the process of designing and building a construction and demolition waste sorting plant that will increase recovery rates from this ever-growing waste stream to almost 80 per cent.
Incredibly, Gavin McPhee estimates the group handles approximately 50 per cent of the overall waste generated in the region, equating to an eye-popping 80,000 tonnes a year.
Reuse & Reycle Group commenced the contract in July, taking over from Rainbow Recovery, Repairs and Services, which had performed the genuinely pioneering role for 30 years
“We currently recover around 50 per cent of that waste, which simply put means we diverted approximately 40,000 tonnes from landfill on average every year, with that figure steadily increasing as the region experiences rapid growth,” he adds.
“We provide staffing at the waste sites’ collection and drop-off points which gives us control over the collection process and, I believe, is key to ensuring quality and volumes collected and has been a big factor in our success.
“Coming from a background in sales I was blown away at the income that is able to be generated from selling recycled and recovered items,” he says, noting the group has returned over $250,000 in donations back to the local community.
An avid scuba diver (and nature lover), Gavin is also driven by the positive impact he and his team are having on the World Heritage-listed island, which scientists believe was formed 900,000 years ago through accumulation of sand carried by ocean currents and winds from the continental shelf, depositing onto ancient volcanic bedrock.
There is an awful lot of canned and bottled fluids taken to and consumed on the island, it only makes sense to make sure they make their way back off so they can be recycled…rubbish and recycling don’t take holidays.
“To date, the recovery volumes are better than anticipated, with the contamination rate down to an impressive three per cent, comparable to the mainland operations at 13 per cent.
“We are looking to grow on this success and the evolving willingness of the public to do the right thing and recycle right!” he says.
“Let’s face it, there is an awful lot of canned and bottled fluids taken to and consumed on the island, it only makes sense to make sure they make their way back off so they can be recycled…rubbish and recycling don’t take holidays.”
Driven by a higher cause than just profit, Gavin is eyeing further opportunities to expand the community-based enterprise both within the Fraser Coast and beyond.
The highway tar makes way for hundreds of kilometres of sand as white as pure driven snow; suburban traffic calming devices like speed humps, chicanes and roundabouts are replaced with myriad washouts
“I took over as the General Manager some seven years ago and have made it my mission to not only grow our operations in our region, but to look across the state for new and upcoming opportunities,” he says.
And while managing a rapidly-growing enterprise – along with raising a young family of three kids – keeps him busy, Gavin also likes to stay grounded, spending time on the tools, including regular stints behind the wheel on K’gari.
“I joined the operations at the ground floor in 2009 and have worked in every aspect of our operations.
“I believe it’s key to understand every task that is required of us and still like to spend time on the tools, even if it’s to get out from behind the desk for a few hours,” he says.
