In early 2020, Jack Larkin left his human resources job in Canberra. By winter, during Covid lockdowns, he found himself needing money and his mother wanting him out of the house. His brother had recently launched a landscaping business that had won a tender to mulch parks throughout Canberra, and he needed workers.
Larkin offered his brother a landscaping CV that included mowing his mother's lawn and trimming the occasional hedge. He was hired and joined a team that included an ex-sports physio, a former Canberra Raiders rugby player, and a former plasterer. While most of Canberra worked from home, they were sent to empty parks.
Mulching in the dead of winter
Every morning at 5am, the team piled into a filthy Toyota HiLux, picked up a skid steer loader, and drove to a designated park. They spent days mulching: a truck dumped mulch, his brother moved it with the loader to tree bases, and they spread it with rakes. Each truckload was only enough for five trees, and the job took about an hour, leaving them waiting for the next load.
There were moments of drama. Once the loader stopped working in the middle of the road, and they struggled to push it onto the footpath. Another time, they forgot to wind up the trailer's jockey wheel, which became severely bent, requiring them to manually lift the trailer to attach it to the ute.
Not cut out for manual labour
Larkin realised he was not made for landscaping life; he would lose focus and distract workers by talking too much. After months indoors, his body was failing him, with lower back spasms and shoulder issues. His performance caused tension with his brother, who said he was terrible at mulching. Larkin agreed, noting it's not easy to work for family.
They decided he should leave. Before tearing up his contract, his brother told him: "Go to university, dickhead; you're far too smart to rake mulch for a living." Larkin was surprised, even frustrated, that his brother saw something in him he couldn't. His parents had also encouraged him to study, but he had dismissed it.
A new calling in journalism
After landscaping, Larkin did a short stint in communications before moving to Melbourne to study journalism, where he found his true calling. He learned the importance of a job that challenges him mentally rather than physically, and where he is passionate about his work.
The parks' winter mulching apparently led to an outbreak of weeds, and they eventually had to be de-mulched. His brother's business stopped trading a year later, and Canberra forgot the five brave souls who mulched their parks in the dead of winter.
