While our snap happy photographer , who goes under the name of Vallis , was wandering about the Townsville CBD taking an arty series , he had an unexpected encounter which illustrates this blog's claim that there are a thousand untold stories in the naked city.
Vallis risked life and limb standing near the CFMEU office, displaying a get rid of labor hire cowboys poster , on the side of Flinders Street, shooting the facade of the above building . After taking the shot, he examined it in the camera.
Out of the ether came a voice : "I used to be a dogger on that building ." The person who made that unexpected utterance was a wiry gent , showing signs of wear about the face , brown as a nut.
Turns out he had been a dogman , the name for a person dangled from cranes in the construction of buildings. He had worked in many parts of Australia and Dubai . Dubai ? That place with its spectacular , skyscraping buildings? Yep.
On closer examination of this weathered and battered looking character , Vallis gained the impression that he may have been banged up against the 100th floor of several buildings during gales in his dangerous career as a dogman, the job now much safer , he said .
He mentioned the recent television show about the Dubai sheikh and the missing daughter which had been shown on the ABC , adding that woman " over there " are not allowed to drive and everybody is closely watched . A wave, and the ex-dogger went his way , swallowed up by the naked city .
Vallis continued his CBD shooting safari and captured the above angle on the long closed Great Northern Hotel , still displaying the banner for the October 2017 season of The Little Shop of Horrors . Local media has not followed up why the hotel has not yet opened , despite a banner which once said it would be reopening soon , since removed .
