Brigid Brinkley
JARROD BARNES
Life’s ups and downs
Brigid Brinkley, 22, is an operations team leader at Luna Park and drives the world’s oldest continually operating roller-coaster – the Scenic Railway.
I was in my second year of uni when I got a weekend job at Luna Park. It was always a special place for me when I was a kid. Dad had his work Christmas parties here and I remember those nights when I could go on the rides as often as I liked. So when I needed a part-time job to help pay my way at uni, I figured why not work at a theme park? I started as a ride operator and learnt six or seven rides. My very first ride was the Red Baron – a little aeroplane ride for toddlers.
But it was always my goal to drive the Scenic Railway. It took me 18 months to get the opportunity to learn how to operate it and I had to do a week’s training program. I read the massive manuals about the operation of the roller-coaster, I learnt every inch of the track and did a full track walk. Then I drove it around empty for four days so I could understand the track and different speeds.
I’ve just finished a bachelor of production at Victorian College of the Arts, where I majored in costume and sets. I’d like to work in theatre one day but when I was offered a job here I grabbed it.
I supervise the rides department, supervise film shoots when they happen here and I operate rides at least once a week.
Summer is the best time here. We get a lot of people wandering in after a day at the beach and it’s very relaxed. And there have been some memorable moments, too.
I remember watching a little boy who’d just been on our Top Drop ride. He hopped off and looked quite ill and I could see he was trying to make it to the nearest bathroom. But there were a lot of people milling around and he couldn’t get anywhere. A lady with a pram was blocking his way – and this boy’s lunch just wouldn’t stay down. He ended up projectile vomiting hotdog all over her. So I quickly helped clean her up – while the boy suddenly felt better and ran off to another ride.
Cleaning up vomit was one of the worst parts of the job when I started, but you become impervious to it after a while. And it doesn’t compare to the best parts of the job. There’s nothing like driving the roller-coaster on a warm summer evening at sunset. I feel pretty
lucky then.
David Gazzo
JARROD BARNES
Life’s a beach
David Gazzo, 21, is a volunteer lifesaver at Bonbeach Life Saving Club.
I was six when mum’s friend got myself and a group of friends involved in lifesaving. I did my nipper training at Bonbeach on Friday nights. It was a perfect way to end the week. I’d be in the water, learn about lifesaving and then swim and have a game of cricket. I’ve just done a trip around Australia and I couldn’t wait to get back to the club.
My first job was with Life Saving Victoria in the education department, teaching water safety and CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) at schools. This year I’m studying digital film and television but I still teach water safety at schools, and I’ll remain a volunteer lifesaver. The beach is my favourite place in the summer.
On Saturdays I get to the beach about 12.30pm, earlier on a Sunday. I set up the flags, check the boat and log on to the communications centre at Life Saving Victoria.
If it’s a hot day, we do some patrols handing out sunscreen. In colder weather we might get people setting off flares when they get into trouble in their boats and we help them. We finish patrol between 5pm and 6pm.
One of the perks of the job is using the equipment – the inflatable rescue boats are fun! And I feel a real sense of pride when I’m in my uniform.
But one of the most frustrating parts of the job is the amount of glass and rubbish we see on the beach.
I never know what situations I’ll deal with day to day – lost children, lost dogs, a lost boat out in the water or people stuck in a rip. But I’ve also been involved in rescues when I just happened to be at the beach, noticed someone in trouble and had to bring them back to shore.
When I was surfing a few years ago, a young boy got caught in a rip on his boogie board. His family was yelling from the beach. I paddled over to him and explained what was happening, told him how to identify a rip and then paddled back to the beach with him.
A couple of times I’ve had to do CPR on people. But that’s part of the interest – never knowing what will happen and being able to help if people are in trouble.
Whenever I go to the beach with friends I’m always looking around to see what’s happening. It’s the same at swimming pools. I see a kid go a bit too close to the water and I keep watching – just in case.
Sam Routledge
JARROD BARNES
Life with the animals
Sam Routledge, 32, is a puppeteer at Melbourne Zoo during summer.
I started working at the zoo in 2005 after I saw a job advertised in the newspaper. The role is about developing ways to communicate conservation messages that are interesting and entertaining to guests.
What Melbourne Zoo does is world leading in terms of its conservation, so to be able to deliver conservation messages is a great thing. I feel it’s vitally important to the future of many of the animals we have at the zoo.
In summer I start between 9.15am and 10am. I unlock the Trail of the Elephants for the public and during the day I do a series of presentations, using life-size puppets, about different animals in the zoo. The puppets are quite beautiful, well-crafted and have good mechanisms so they move very well. Although they’re quite large, they are actually very light.
My focus usually is on the elephants and seals. It’s my job to come up with a presentation that gives the audience kernels of information about the conservation of these animals. It’s not about delivering cold, hard facts but more about presenting information so it’s accessible and so people can say, ‘If I just make that little change in how I shop or behave, I can make a difference to this animal’.
This summer we’ve got a campaign encouraging the public to choose phosphate-free detergents. Waste water from our houses ultimately ends up in our waterways and, for the platypus, water high in phosphates increases algae bloom and kills invertebrates important to it.
We have a platypus puppet and I operate that puppet and have developed a short presentation about that.
The most challenging part of what I do is to make what I’m saying and presenting fresh every time. If children don’t like something and it’s boring – they’ll tell you, or they’ll talk to each other and tell each other.
If that happens, I cut to the next part of the presentation that has a more interesting visual aid or I pick up my energy level a bit to get them back on board.
The best part of the job is working at the zoo. It’s an extraordinary workplace. I walk in here and I can feel how clean the oxygen is because of all the trees.
Performing and seeing the sense of wonder in a child’s eyes is also a highlight for me. I can see them take on this understanding that they can be responsible for helping the survival of a species. Or they tap mum and say let’s do this or that to help. I see the younger generation influencing the older generation and wanting to make the right choices to help these animals in the future, and that’s pretty rewarding.
Bringing art to life
Dodi Rose, 56, has been a volunteer tour guide at the National Gallery of Victoria for seven years.
I was studying art history at the University of Melbourne, and when I finished my degree I heard the NGV was enrolling new guides. I’m passionate about art and I thought taking around tour groups there would be an ideal way of sharing some of what I’d learnt at university. It was also a chance to see the gallery’s wonderful collection.
I spend three days a week at the gallery during summer. I’ll take our general-collection tour that starts at 11am or the guided tour of The Mad Square exhibition. It features early 20th-century German modern art.
I get to the gallery half an hour before I start my tours and take a walk through to make sure the works are in place and to get a sense of the people who are visiting the gallery that day. During summer we meet lots of tourists from overseas and from the country.
Some days I’ll do three tours lasting about an hour each – one of the hardest parts of the work is fitting everything in during an hour.
My favourite role is taking the indigenous art tour. I remember taking a number of people who worked in galleries overseas on a tour of that collection and at the end they thanked me for giving them the symbolic meaning of the works that they didn’t have before.
The best part of what I do is helping people gain a new appreciation or awareness of an artist’s work. They come away with a new way of seeing something. I remember the Ladder to Heaven by Yayoi Kusama and seeing the reaction of children to that installation.
Seeing the expression on the children’s faces as they looked down and then up to this sense of infinity was truly enjoyable. I’ll never forget their sheer delight and curiosity.
Malcolm Turner
JARROD BARNES
Under the moonlight
Malcolm Turner, 49, is venue manager at Ford Focus Moonlight Cinema in the Royal Botanic Gardens.
I work here from December to the end of March, and the rest of the year I run the Melbourne International Animation Festival and work at festivals in London, Estonia and Portugal.
The best part of the job is working in the gardens, particularly later at night when it’s closed to the public. The film starts, people settle down and I have the sense of having the gardens to myself.
I start at the gardens with my crew at 4.30pm. We cordon off the site, and at 5.30pm the production crew arrives and we set up. At 6.30pm the customer service team dust off their smiles and start helping people through the gates. About 8.45pm we roll the ads and the film. Once the film is finished, the production crew pull apart the site and I leave about midnight.
We’ve moved from 35-millimetre films to full digital and there is demand for bean beds now – people no longer sit on the ground like they used to. But the event is still about taking a risk with the weather, sitting under the stars and watching a film on the big screen in the middle of a park.
My favourite films are the classic black-and-white films, such as Casablanca. The funniest moment is when we screened a film called Donnie Darko – about a teenager plagued by visions of a large rabbit. Sometimes people dress up and I was at the entrance gate and saw someone walking towards me in a giant bunny suit. The bunny was wobbling all over the place and my first instinct was that he or she was intoxicated. So I watched the bunny eventually veer off to one side and fall in a pile on the grass. I went to have a chat, expecting someone drunk, and instead I found there were two people in the suit, trying to get in on one ticket. Part of me wanted to let them in for their sheer commitment.