Joel ‘Joey’ Herrington and Peter Mackay are half of the Smithfield Maintenance Team that handles a large parks, gardens and streetscape maintenance contract for Cairns Regional Council.
Joey has been with Bama for a few months while this is Peter’s second stint at Bama after finding out the grass is greener at Bama.
“I worked at Bama for 18 months before leaving, but came back after a year at the start of 2023,” Peter says. “There’s just better communications through the company and among the crews.”
Joey agrees: “I enjoy it,” he says. ”I need rules and structure. That’s why it’s good with Bama – they have proper protocols and things like that. I was apprehensive about taking the job at first. The industry, from experience, isn’t the friendliest, but Bama has a really good work culture. Paul [Maguire] and [Jason] Preddy care about you and are positive managers.
As his supervisor, Joey sees great potential in his off-sider, and is quick to jump in when Peter introduces himself as “just a labourer”.
“I wouldn’t say that,” Joey says. “Petey is really good with quality, he cares a lot about his work. So we’re encouraging him into a supervisory role.”
Asked if he sees himself in that type of role, Peter says he is keen to step up, but knows it comes down to him.
“At the end of the day, it will lead to better options for me personally,” Peter says. “I don’t want to be a labourer at every company I work for. It’s not Bama that’s holding me back, it’s myself. I need to get my driver’s licence for supervising.”
Peter is also quick to compliment his supervisor.
“Joey is doing really well on this site – getting it looking up to scratch,” Peter says. “I worked on this site before Joey started and the quality has really improved.”
Just as the boys are getting into a good old yarn they get a call and smoko is over.
On to the next job.