One of our long serving Professional Staff CPSU delegate's Max Callaghan will be leaving UTS on Friday 23rd of August 2013. Max has always been active CPSU member always working to make sure that professional staff and the greater community knew how important Union's are and why we need to be active members. Please take the time to thank Max for all his 13 years of hard work looking after our green spaces at UTS.
Max of all trades
Max Callaghan is big on the three Rs – reducing, reusing and recycling – and his role as city campus gardener gives him plenty of scope to put these values into action.
Max Callaghan
“We try to avoid using excessive amounts of chemicals and we try to recycle materials. As much as possible we don’t throw things away; we see if we can use them somewhere else,” says Callaghan as he motions towards the picnic table he is sitting at on Alumni Green. “This actually came from the old T building. It was going to be thrown in the skip and I spoke to my manager and suggested we reuse it.”
Where possible, Callaghan uses natural products such as bicarbonate of soda concentrate to treat fungal growths on gardenias, and glysophate weedkillers which break down in a few days.
A keen bushwalker, Callaghan was an early convert to environmentalism. He was involved in the Franklin River campaign in the 80s and cites Jack Mundey as an early influence. Mundey was the former Builders’ Labourers Federation leader responsible for green bans – embargoes on demolition or building in response to heritage and environmental concerns in the 70s.
However, Callaghan observes that achieving widespread awareness of environmental issues has been a “shallow learning curve”.
“It’s only in the last few years that people have realised and it’s really hit home that we’ve got to be concerned about our footprint on the environment.”
In his nine years at UTS, Callaghan has been responsible for looking after the lawns and gardens at Broadway, Blackfriars and Haymarket, as well as the Magic Pudding and Blackfriars childcare centres. But watering, weeding, mowing and fertilising are only part of his role.
Callaghan is also a member of the social club executive and Vice President of the UTS branch of the Community and Public Sector Union. In the latter position he is especially concerned with tackling workplace bullying. “We raise issues. We’re able to be of benefit to the university beyond just our hands-on role. I think that’s very, very important and that’s part of being a good employee of this university,” he says.
As one of a number of multi-skilled staff in the Facilities Management Unit’s Building Services team, Callaghan is also called on to do a range of jobs around the university outside his core area. As well as his Certificate IV in Horticulture, he has qualifications in rigging, scaffolding, welding, plumbing and chainsaw operation.
Callaghan previously worked in heavy construction, but after witnessing friends suffer industrial accidents, he decided to move, choosing to turn his gardening hobby into an occupation.
“In heavy industry it’s very male-oriented, whereas at UTS you’ve got a broad cross-section of people – many different backgrounds, cultures, a good mix of genders and it’s a very sociable sort of place.”
Callaghan enjoys facilitating this sociability, through events he organises with the social club and by helping to provide green spaces on campus. “The Alumni Green gets loved to death sometimes. It does. But part and parcel of having it is that people can use it. They can sit on the grass and breathe the fresh air and just chill out.”
Rachael QuigleyMarketing and Communication Unit
Photographer: Joanne Saad
| Max Callaghan | |
|---|---|
| Title | Mr |
| Position | General Assistant and Gardener |
| Department | Building Services |
| Phone | 9928 |
| Fax | 7908 |
| Max.Callaghan@uts.edu.au | |
| Location | CB01.02.10 |
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