Brian Collie has been keeping Port Adelaide’s streets clean — for free — for thirty years
BRIAN COLLIE has been pounding the streets of Port Adelaide, cleaning up cigarette butts, broken glass and even used syringes from the gutters and footpaths — just for the odd tinnie and make friends — amazingly for thirty years.
EVERY morning, Brian Collie gets up in the dark, boils the kettle and gets ready to go to work.
Seven days a week, rain, hail or shine, Brian pounds the streets of Port Adelaide, cleaning up cigarette butts, broken glass and even used syringes from the gutters and footpaths.
Brian doesn’t get paid for his job though, unless you count the odd pint of beer and occasional counter meal.
The 49-year-old does it because he loves where he lives and wants it to be a neater, safer place — and this unsung hero has been doing it for 30 years.
Over three decades, he’s walked thousands of kilometres and worn out a countless pairs of thongs.
“I started when I was about 18 or 19 years old,” Brian says.
“I sweep up around the Glanville Hotel and the Glanville Railway Station — I’ve made a lot of friends over that side, in those new units there.
“Then I’ll do the Cumberland, then I’ll walk down past the primary school and the boat shed, then over the bridge, do the British sometimes, then come here to the Commercial.
“Sometimes I’ll do the pubs around the corner too if they’re looking messy.”
Beyond the odd tinnie donated by the area’s publicans — “any beer’s a good beer,” Brian laughs — the only other reward this Port legend gets is the thanks of locals.
“I was sweeping up the Glanville station once and a lady came over and gave me a kiss and a hug and said, ‘thanks for cleaning up our railway station’,” he says. “That was nice.”
As for how many more years Brian will keep up this civic duty, he says he can’t think of any reason to stop.
“I’ll probably keep doing this for the rest of my life,” he says.
Nick Watson, owner of The Commercial hotel, says Brian — affectionately known by the pub’s patrons as Buddha — always did a good job.
“I give him a bit of grief and tell him he’s missed a bit, but I’m only joking,” Nick says. “He always teases me because I don’t have any tatts.”
Brian rolls up his sleeve to reveal a classic old sailor’s tattoo of a bare-breasted mermaid.
“Yeah, you’ve gotta be a man to have tatts, Nick,” he says with a laugh.
Nick says he’s happy to pour Brian a beer or two in exchange for his sweeping, and says he’s one of true characters of the Port.
“It wouldn’t be Port Adelaide without him,” he says.
And while everyone in the Port loves what Brian does, it’s probably best not to mention the footy.
“Yeah, I barrack for Norwood and the Crows!” he says.
“And I can tell you I’m not the only one around here who does.”
Brian is just one of the great Port Adelaide stories featured on the @itsPortAdelaide Facebook and Instagram pages being run by resident and former Port Magpies’ captain Darryl Poole.