Papa Phil and QRS - 30 years strong

As Quality Roading and Services celebrates its 30-year anniversary, one special staff member stands out. ‘Papa’ Phil Tipu is the only employee who has worked at QRS for the company’s entire existence. This December his dedication, loyalty, and proficiency were recognised and rewarded by his appreciative colleagues.

Integral to the business since 1994, Phil, Ngāti Kahungunu, is considered the honorary grandfather of this district’s parks and reserves, according to chief executive Jeremy Harker.

“Not only that, he’s one of the hardest working staff we’ve ever had. He never misses a day, and we struggle to get him to take any time off.”

Managers who have worked with Phil, now 70, report regularly finding him at work when he’s supposed to be on leave.

“Any day at work is a good day for me,” responds Phil, who can’t understand all the fuss being made about his long service.

“I enjoy coming here, even if it’s raining. I know one day I am not going to make it so while I can, I do,” says the father of two and grandfather of five.

Phil used to work for Wairoa Borough Council alongside former colleague and friend Nick Murray. The work was hard and varied. On any given day they could be mowing parks and reserves, unclogging blocked sewerage pipes, cleaning the main street, reading water meters, or digging graves.

When QRS was formed in 1994 and took over some of that work, Phil came over and his ground-keeping experience was put to good use.

For the past 30 years it’s estimated that Phil and his mower have cut the equivalent of 525,000 rugby fields of grass. He’s operated tip trucks, rollers, and tractors, and will still jump into temporary traffic management if he’s needed.

“The jobs haven’t changed much over time,” says Phil. He has outlasted four Kubota ride-on mowers and five chief executives. “But one machine nearly got me,” he recalls.

One day in the late 1990s while mowing Wairoa Old Cemetery, he rolled his mower into some trees. He was unhurt but remained trapped underneath the machine. He called out for help while musing somewhat wryly “well, if I go, at least I am in the right place.”

A nearby resident who was home for lunch heard him, and rescue efforts got underway. The fire service eventually winched the machine off him and Phil emerged bruised and abashed. He rued never to make that mistake again. “When I go to the landfill these days, I can still see the spot where it happened and I think…oh sh**”

Another memorable occasion occurred ten years earlier during Cyclone Bola. Phil was one of many locals who watched the Wairoa Bridge buckle and fall into the roiling Wairoa River.

Phil had been working near the bridge earlier that morning. He watched Mother Nature’s destruction from the northern side. The 55-year-old bridge bowed alarmingly, leaned over, and collapsed into the downstream side. The first span broke completely and dropped into the river. Other spans and the centre of the bridge followed suit.

It was an extraordinary spectacle as the large, twisted mass of concrete and metal sunk, and then remerged floating down the river with branches and logs surrounding it. It slowly disappeared around Spooner’s Point.

“It made a few loud noises when it collapsed and it was freaky,” Phil recalls.

QRS’s next longest-serving employee, operations manager Anthony O’Sullivan (who also saw the bridge collapse) described Phil as a credit to his family, the business, and the Wairoa community. “Phil is a jack of all trades and there isn’t a job here he hasn’t done or couldn’t do.”

Phil is the first one here every morning. “His ethics are second to none and he’s reliable,” adds Anthony. “When younger staff acknowledge him with a good morning or a hello, they probably don’t always realise what a stalwart of the industry he is.”

Phil says a perfect day for him is a 5am start, lunch with colleagues, home to watch Shortland St, and bed. In the weekend he likes nothing more than mowing grass for friends and whānau and catching the All Blacks on television.

When asked if retirement is on the cards Phil looks uncomfortable. “Not yet. I tell Tony [Anthony] every year that as long as I can get out of bed I will be here. I feel good when I get to the QRS gate.”

15 December 2024

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