Bricklayer

Aimee Brown

Imagine a job that lets you travel the country, allows you to knock off at 3pm each day and pays you to keep fit. Manly-based bricklayer Lenny Pustahija doesn’t need to dream about such a profession … he lives it.

Now 34, he has been bricklaying for 15 years. He began in his family’s Liverpool-based business, Pustahija and Sons, during school holidays.

“I have always loved it,” he says. “They’ve had the business since the ’50s, so I think it’s in the blood.”

At 19, he started his four-year bricklaying apprenticeship at Miller TAFE. By the age of 25, he had established his own bricklaying business, Regalroc. Two years ago, Pustahija decided to take a step back from the pressure of running his own business. He moved to Manly and took up a job as a subcontractor for Shawn O’Toole Bricklaying.

“I’m enjoying working for someone else because all the paperwork is gone and the headaches of running a business are gone,” he says.

There are five full-time staff at the Manly business including O’Toole and Pustahija.
Their projects range from creating concrete footings and constructing houses to building fencing, walls and some landscaping.

While Pustahija admits bricklaying can be physically taxing, he says the career has more pros than cons.

“It is hard work and the weather can be a bit disruptive, because when you have rainy days, you can’t work,” he says. “But it’s well paid, you can travel anywhere and get a job, it’s healthy and it’s fun.”

Pustahija has worked in areas ranging from the Central Coast to Canberra. He says his experience working on jobs throughout Sydney has given him an intricate knowledge of the sprawling city.

“I don’t think there’s a part of Sydney I haven’t worked in,” he says. “I know it inside out, I think I’d make a good taxi driver.”

Pustahija also reckons the working hours aren’t bad.
“Brickies work from 7am to 3pm. It’s great because I can go swimming at the beach every afternoon. You get a lot of time to yourself,” he says.

His boss, says Pustahija’s experience makes him a valuable addition to his business.
O’Toole has been in the bricklaying business for 26 years and says it is becoming more difficult to find quality staff such as Pustahija.

While Pustahija is enjoying the change of pace, plans to re-establish his business are on the horizon. “I am going to start it up again in a year or two,” he says.

How to be…
a bricklayer
You need to complete the TAFE NSW Certificate III in Bricklaying/Blocklaying or equivalent industry training while working as an apprentice. More information,
131 601 or www.tafensw.edu.au.

By Aimee Brown, The Daily Telegraph, March 18 2006.