CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Local Irish expat Siobhan Murphy says a life in Australia comes with it’s challenges.
First she had to pick fruit for some wage slave criminal down in Victoria for 3 months, in order to get a bridging visa to spend a Summer in Bondi.
Then that whole pandemic thing hit, and the government begged her to stay, but wouldn’t offer her any of the stimulus packages or rent relief.
And now, after finally finding work as a Stop/Go operator on a Betoota West worksite, she has to deal with the most heinous cat calls and wolf whistles.
Initially it was just from passing cars, but as this behaviour slowly became normalised – she starting copping the sleaze from other workers as well.
She said if it wasn’t for the dire need of money, in an effort to avoid having to fly back to her locked down home country, she would have quit this job on the first week.
But that wasn’t an option. So on she trudged, as a lonely girl from Sligo, encountering the very worst of Australian toxic masculinity every day.
That was, until last week, when she met some angels from the sky.
The usos.
After several months of working together, Siobhan had never encountered the Samoan scaffolders – who usually spend most of the day a couple stories above her.
But last Friday, when desperately looking for some peace and quiet on her smoko break, she stumbled across them – playing guitar and singing behind one of the skip bins.
In what felt like a rare moment of chilvary, Siobhan was invited to sing along.
Head scaffer, Jeremy (55) said the moment the usos heard that voice – they became fiercely protective of the Celtic princess.
“One of the sparkies made a comment the other day” says Jeremy.
“We sent Sione the young fella in with the Sonny Bill shoulder”
“A lot changed after that, bro”
Siobhan says her work life has changed dramatically since she started joining the usos for smoko.
“The boys know my whistle now” she says.
“These Australian pigs almost bow to me when I walk on sight now”
“I’ve seen many a windshield shatter with a scaffolding pin for 6 stories up”
In fact, she’s formed such a strong bond with her Samoan brothers that they’ve even organised to take her out with the whole crew this Friday.
“Apparently there will be twenty of us” she says.
“It feels weird to say after all of these months of cat calling, but I really worry for any man who sleazes onto me this weekend”
