What's your job?
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I drive the tourist trams, I also drive the works trams once a fortnight doing track maintenance, and I do underground tours at the Central Deborah Goldmine.
How long have you been doing that for?
I've been on the trams for roughly five and a half years since I retired from full time work, and I've been doing the tours at the mines for probably four years.
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What do you do on an average day?
It depends whether I'm working one the mine or the tram. If I'm on the trams and I'm working in the morning, I prepare a tram for service, do the necessary paperwork and get my conductors and we get together. We leave the depot head up to the mine, where we start picking up passengers.
Why did you decide to become a tram conductor?
My mother was a tram conductress during the war when they didn't have enough men to run the system and I always had an interest on the trams.
I always wanted to work on the trams when I retired, and I was able to achieve it which was quite good. And I used to travel on them as a kid, loved them.
I was an urban bus driver for Walkers bus company, then that was taken over by Christians.
I did that for just on 19 years, loved it. Got to make a lot of friends on the buses. Been invited to weddings of kids I used to take to school.
What do you enjoy about your job?
I enjoy being able to do my job properly to drive the tram as it should be driven. And talking to people about Bendigo's history, I love talking to people about Bendigo's history. I love Bendigo.
What's your passion? What do you really care about?
I care about my family. We've got six kids and 18 grandchildren, so I really care about all of them a lot.
And I care about Bendigo and its history and its traditions.
What's your Bendigo story?
One of my fondest memories of Bendigo is as a little kid, mum and dad didn't have a car, and every Saturday night we'd catch a tram from Quarry Hill out to Eaglehawk, the dog track used to be at Canterbury Park.
Winter time you had to take a travel blanket to put around you in the tram, because they were pretty cold.
What do you do on your Saturday morning?
Would you believe I do another job! I work in the car yard of a Saturday morning. When I retired from full time work Phil asked me if I'd give him a hand of a Saturday morning, [so] I do that. I'm also in the Golden Square CFA, so sometimes on a Saturday morning I do stuff for them.
What's your guilty pleasure TV show of choice?
I like crime shows and CSIs and all those sort of shows, and I love the news as well.
Probably my favourite TV show is the Chaser. Contestants answer so many questions and build up a money target and then they have to compete against the shows most knowledgeable women or man, and I try and answer the questions. I don't get all that many.
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