Meet Your Vendor I was born and grew up in South Australia. So my family are in Mount Gambier and Port MacDonnell. My mum and dad, they separated when I was about five. Dad remarried when I was eight, and my step-mum gave birth to two children. I still see them a bit, but I haven’t for a long time. I didn’t really like school. I had a lot of friends but I wagged most of the time. I was a couple of years behind everyone else, so I just didn’t like it. When I was 15 I left school and went into work at Softwood Holdings Limited, who got bought out by another company, CSR. I worked for them for 15 years. I started out as a cleaner, and worked my way up into operating machinery – I was putting edging on the laminate board. I became a safety rep at the factory. I really enjoyed it, and I had a lot of work mates. And then when I was 30, I retired. It was only because of mental health reasons. I went on the Disability Support Pension. I was on that for a long time, didn’t work for a long time. I had a brother, Darren. There was 18 months difference between us, so we were really close. In our time of need, we clung to one another. He died in 2002. It was really tough. I always wanted to live in Canberra, so a couple of years after my brother passed on, I moved over here. When I came to Canberra I found it hard, money-wise. So I was coal biting, begging. And a lot of people would come up and feed me. It’s cold on the streets in Canberra. I was homeless for a lot of years, probably four or five years. I live in a flat through the ACT Housing Trust now though. I’ve been selling the mag since May last year. I saw a guy selling The Big Issue and he said, “This is what you should be doing.” And I said, “Yeah, why not?” When I first joined The Big Issue, I’d only been a vendor for like six or seven weeks when I ended up in the Canberra Times for our 25th birthday celebration. They took my photo and everything; it was good to be able to celebrate the anniversary. When I’m not working, I love watching telly and movies and that. I love The Vampire Diaries. I’m a vampire buff. I love reading books – I get right into horror, vampire books. When I was younger, I was into Stephen King. I’ve read Bram Stoker’s Dracula; Interview With the Vampire, the book and the movie. I love selling the mag because it gets me out of the house. I get to meet different people. I’ve known a lot of the vendors for a long while – since when I first moved to Canberra – so it’s good. The lockdown really sucked; I really suffered during lockdown. Once it shifted, I loved going back to work and making money. I’ve got regular customers. When I go to the doctors to get my medication, the doctors and nurses even buy magazines off me. I’ve got a lot of good support.
SELLS THE BIG ISSUE AT AINSLIE SHOPS, CANBERRA
PROUD UNIFORM PARTNER OF THE BIG ISSUE VENDORS.
05
01 APR 2022
interview by Melissa Fulton photo by Rohan Thomson
Randy
