The Big Issue

John

John sells The Big Issue at Queens Plaza, cnr Adelaide and Edward streets, Brisbane.

When John was a small boy living on the coast of Western Australia his older brother asked him to hold his fishing line for a minute. That minute was to chart his course for the next 30 years – the thrill of catching his first fish hooked him for life.

John recalls it wasn’t just any fish, this was a really big fish. So he says – and, well, it is a fisherman’s prerogative to exaggerate. As soon as he was old enough John took to the sea and worked on fishing boats all around Australia and New Zealand.

“It’s the smell of the ocean and the feeling of freedom that I liked,” John explains. “The outdoor life is definitely the life for me and that’s one of the things that appeals to me about selling The Big Issue. I’ve always been lucky with good skippers, and the people at The Big Issue office are the same – they are good, decent people.”

John started selling the magazine after an accidental fall two years ago, which resulted in permanent damage to the optic nerve in one of his eyes. “With my smashed right eye I was a danger to other people and could injure myself both at sea or filleting (fish) on land,” he says. “It’s the only livelihood I’m trained for so I’m lucky a friend, who was a vendor, talked me into selling The Big Issue. It keeps me occupied and takes my mind off things. My customers are great. I value their smiles, their ‘good mornings’ and just talking to them.”

John found out just how great his customers were after he lost his watch, phone and Big Issue takings in a robbery. Such an event can knock the wind out of anyone, so it is heart-warming to hear how John’s regular customers subsequently rallied around and helped with gift vouchers and a new watch.

Years of hard work on fishing boats has left John with his share of aches and pains; that’s why he bought himself a stool to rest on. But, he relates with a wry smile, “I turned around that same day and someone had nicked it, so now I have a break on a milk crate.”

Even though John now lives far from the sea, close to Brisbane’s CBD, he is still a fisherman at heart. His lifelong habit of listening to the weather report on the six o’clock news stands him in good stead for his new life working out on the streets. “I’m upset if I don’t know what’s happening with the weather,” he says. And although the weather is notoriously hard to predict, it’s not difficult to forecast that this hard-working vendor will be out selling The Big Issue no matter the weather.

by Judy Johnson photograph by Paul Giggle

A version of this article first appeared in The Big Issue Ed#311.