Justin Durham likes the camaraderie of working underground, the diversity of skills that tunnelling requires, the way progress can be measured before your eyes. �You become a machinery operator � excavators, bobcats, Moxy trucks,� he says. �You�re excavating with a tunnel boring machine or road header, you can see the distance you�ve made each night, there�s a sense of achievement every day.�
Working on Brisbane�s Cross River Rail, he�s switched from formwork carpenter to water treatment operator and is enjoying the ongoing security that tunnelling work provides. �Once you�re in the industry you pretty much stay in it, follow the work around.� He reckons there�s nothing better than having work in a time of crisis such as a global pandemic, �and you don�t have to think or have anxiety about how much is coming in�.
Having the added security of ACIRT has given he and wife Caroline even greater peace of mind. �I remember just thinking, �Yay!�� Justin recalls of how he felt when he first joined ACIRT, soon after he�d switched to carpentry after driving catering trucks at Brisbane Airport around 20 years ago. �What it�s meant, it�s been a backstop. It�s an idea that you have a reserve flow of cash when you need it.�