General News
12 November, 2026
Filthiest job on city’s streets
SPARE a thought for the sanitary pan “night soil man” (aka the dunnykin man).
In mid-April 1905, his experiences around Cairns, attending to the sanitary pans of the backyard toilet, led him to complain to a Cairns Municipal Council meeting that the “residents fill their sanitary pans too full with slops (sic), making it rather difficult to carry without spilling. Three inches from the top is the rule,” he said.
It can only be imagined what he looked (or smelt like) at the end of each run.
In 1922, the municipal council began to entertain the idea that a sewerage system for Cairns would improve the health of the community and prevent disease.
Although enthusiastically received by council at the time, the idea was still being talked about in 1934, again in 1941 and still in 1952.
It wasn’t until 1954 that an engineering survey around town was finalised.
This meant the new sewerage system was started to be installed over the next few years with the first suburban pipes laid in 1965.
It is fair to say, the dunnykin man and every successive dunnykin man employed as the sanitary contractors’ position in Cairns since the late 19th century, was left with the reality that it really was a s**t job.
