A few years ago I was working on a bridge project in Arnhem Land Northern Territory where we were pumping water from the creek below the bridge for construction activities.

One of the operators headed down to the pump for a routine check when a crocodile he hadn't even noticed suddenly slid off the bank and into the water beside him.

Nothing happened, but he got back to the cab a lot quicker than he walked down there. To this day he still reckons a change of undies was required.

What started as a simple water supply setup suddenly became a serious discussion about crocodiles, working near waterways and how often people actually needed to be down near the creek.

The local community ended up offering the services of one of their countrymen to help us out. Rifle over his shoulder, he'd keep watch whenever workers were near the water. He knew that country far better than any of us ever would.

It's one of those stories that sounds ridiculous when you tell it now.  But that's remote Australia.

I was working for a telecommunications company installing new 5G equipment on mobile towers around Perth. Normally it was a simple enough job. We'd roll up, set up an exclusion zone, park the ute, climb the tower, swap out the hardware and head off to the next site. Then COVID happened.

For anyone who has forgotten, there was a period during the pandemic when a lot of people genuinely believed COVID was being used as a distraction while governments secretly installed 5G technology. Some believed 5G caused COVID, others thought it was part of a government control program. Whatever the version, people were passionate about it.

Unfortunately for us, we were the poor buggers working on the towers. What had always been a routine maintenance job suddenly became a public relations exercise. We ended up putting up privacy screens to stop workers being filmed, using a ground spotter to keep an eye on protesters, and on some jobs even requiring a police presence while the work was carried out. 

The protesters genuinely believed they were protecting the community. Unfortunately, their passion created a very real risk for the workers just trying to do their jobs.