The Big Issue

Tony

Tony sells The Big Issue in Adelaide’s CBD.

“I was born with cerebral palsy and had to walk with my knees bent. In 1965 a car came through a crossing and didn’t stop in time – (the driver) put their foot on the accelerator instead of the brake pedal. I was unconscious for 24 hours and had a broken left leg.

I was off school for three months, and once back I couldn’t do gym or PE. I missed another whole term four years later when a surgeon cut the wrong muscle in my left leg. The operation was more to do with my cerebral palsy than my car accident. I was 14 and it really set me back.

I worked at a rehab centre for disabled people for 16 years. I walked out in 1987. It was a dollar an hour – if you were lucky! I thought I was better than that. I sold cleaning products part time for four or five years.

I was in a Lions Club for 26 years, voluntary work. We sold Christmas raffle tickets, did sausage sizzles. We sponsored a disabled child whose parents couldn’t afford an electric wheelchair, created a playground next to a kindergarten and, with another club, donated a piano to an old folks’ home down at Brighton.

These days I’m a member of a group called STAR (Skilled Teaching and Resources). I’m on the committee there. What they do is go around to people like pensioners who have problems paying the bills and make up a budget, financial planning, without charging for it.

When I got a mosquito bite about 12 years ago it apparently set off lymph oedema, and due to fluid retention I need a walking-frame now. But I’m still able to get out and about; that’s the main thing.
In August 2004, I thought I’d try to earn some money for myself. The Big Issue is easy to do. I get to know a few customers. I know a few of the local traders in the area, too – if I need change in a hurry, sure thing. They know I’m with The Big Issue.

I sponsor a child up in the Philippines, and I like to travel, go on tours. I’m going on a three-day bus trip to Swan Hill (and will) stay in a motel. I’d like to try to go to see Wimbledon. I like watching Port Power play in the AFL, but they haven’t been winning lately. My father was born down in Largs Bay and my grandfather was club secretary of the Port Adelaide Football Club in the SANFL, around about World War I.

I’ve been on the pension since 1975. It’s a long time. I hope to go off the pension. After my parents’ estate comes through I may not even need to sell The Big Issue. Let’s wait and see – I’m not sure.”

Interview by Peter Ascot photograph by Andy Rasheed (eyefood.com.au)