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Spring was in the air and so were the stories. This Sept 28 episode took listeners from recycled timber and the call of East Arnhem Land to quirky island cars, sandstone \u201ccities\u201d hidden in the Top End, and a two-month escape from news and email. Along the way came bravery awards and hugs, vintage motocross, a long-fought medical milestone, the tough world of restaurants, youth brass bands, an Aussie in Nottingham, and wildflowers from Bendigo to \u201cRavey.\u201d All stitched together with Macca\u2019s banter, asides, and genuine curiosity \u2014 it was Australia, all over.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Danny Johnson\u2019s voice carried the weight of four decades spent pulling down buildings \u2014 but also the joy of putting old timber and pressed metal to use again. He spoke to Macca from inside his restaurant, where nothing was new. \u201cEvery single thing in here is recycled,\u201d he said proudly. \u201cAll of the timber, the doors, the windows, the lining boards\u2026 I\u2019ve stripped the paint off, re-polished, re-varnished, re-shellacked. The whole place is a recycled establishment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It all began when his dad came home one day and suggested they help a widow whose house had to be demolished. \u201cSo dad and I pulled that old house down in Duncan Street, Warracknabeal. Two or three people started coming past, and they started to buy this lining boards and roofing iron and 4x2s and Oregon beams off me. And it was great. I said to dad, hey, gee, we could make a living out of this.\u201d And they did, for 42 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now retired from demolition but not from work, Danny lamented what he sees as over-regulation. \u201cHealth and safety has gone right over the top. We\u2019re so overregulated in this wonderful country\u2026 all us ordinary guys and girls, who I call the productive people \u2014 for God\u2019s sake, give us a go. Stop putting bloody hurdles in front of us.\u201d Macca chimed in, \u201cToo many rules, mate. Too many rules, too many laws, too many lawyers.\u201d Danny agreed wholeheartedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What pains him most is the waste when old buildings are bulldozed. \u201cEven in Warracknabeal, our beautiful hospital, 100 years old, smashed it down with a front end with an excavator, smashed it to bits. I nearly cried\u2026 that beautiful cowrie pine flooring and jarrah flooring, all just being smashed to bits.\u201d He argued that governments should allow time for salvage teams before the machines roll in. \u201cI\u2019ll do it. I\u2019ll come out of retirement,\u201d he said. And then, with the kind of wisdom passed down through families, he quoted his father: \u201cAs long as you got three meals a day and a roof over your head, son, you\u2019ll be right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nDanny Johnson \u2014 Forty-Two Years of Demolition, All Recycled<\/h2>\n\n\n\n