Spaces - Steve Eicke

Sam Drummond 00:02

What makes a great space, and how does a space influence the way we live, who we interact with, and ultimately where we see ourselves in our communities? I'm Sam Drummond, and this is Spaces on Powered Media. Each episode, I'm taking our guests to their favourite place. We'll get an insight into why that space works for them, share some of the moments that have changed their lives, and hopefully learn something along the way.

I'm Sam Drummond, and you're listening to Spaces, and this episode could go anywhere. We're at the quintessential Australian space, the pub, specifically the Lomond Hotel in Brunswick. And Brunswick East, so I stand corrected. And I've been brought here by disability advocate, Steve Ikey. Steve, when we were coming in here, everyone knew your name. Yes. G'day, Steve. Yeah, I'm sorry. G'day, yeah. G'day, Sam. That's the right introduction at a pub as you walk in the door.

Steve Eicke 01:15

Well, you know, obviously g'day, good g'day, you know.

Sam Drummond 01:19

So why the pub? Why is this your favourite place?

Steve Eicke 01:26

All right, I'm Steve Iggy. I went to school, went to University High School, Melbourne University, had car accident in 1976, first year medical student, spent teas in hospital and rehab, brain damage and a few breaks of pelvis and internal injuries and stuff.

Steve Eicke 01:59

It was just that I always... the great, one of the great tests, so well damage. I don't walk so well. No, I shake when I walk, I'm atactic, which means you shake. Yeah, one of the great things is getting admitted to a pub and yeah, because people are like, You're drunk. Yeah.

Sam Drummond 02:29

So you were in uni at that time, was that a problem straight out? Were you getting knocked back or people just thought maybe you were a bit drunk?

Steve Eicke 02:39

Ahh, a bit of bass, still do. Yeah. Yeah. People sort of think I'm a bit drunk with that.

Sam Drummond 02:47

And does that does that mean you come here as your regular pub because the people know you and because then they can see there's no, there's not that difference between you know 5:30 steve that we're at now, and and 10:30 Steve?

Steve Eicke 03:06

Well, there have been times. Now, I sort of like, I live as, you know, clarification for all the folks around me: Sam and I live in the same street. In fact, when Sam and his wife came looking for a house, it was opposite me and they encountered me at the home inspection. And I thought, Hey, if it's the same with all our people living in the street, we can do this right too.

Sam Drummond 03:42

But that was probably six years ago that I first met you. And it took until earlier this year when you came to a book launch of mine and you said, Oh, well, all these laws that you're talking about that are protecting discrimination, the rights of people with disability, that you were involved in some of the early setting up of those laws.

Steve Eicke 04:19

I mean, yeah, to say I was sort of off-site, but I went to uni, as I said, and I went back after two years in hospital rehab, and I went back to Madison in 1979, and that was a battle to get back, to get my place back. I was sort of on deferral, and past '79, I was hospitalised in 1980, failed in 1980, and failed third year, paid the third year in honour of the hospital. So I got a chance to learn the science, got a science degree, got to science, and thought, I think I've had nothing in here at the moment, and I was actually suffering, you know, I was going downhill in 1982, and I wasn't doing too well.

And so... now transferred into Royal Melbourne Hospital stream, and did physio and stuff, and speech of me there, and went out, and I was like, OK, so now I've got a degree, I'll go out and get the job. It's a bit harder than I thought, because people will see you as a disabled person first, and I was a graduate. And... so, through the Commonwealth's Readable Notation Service... we arranged, we were one of my, one of the students in the medicine, in the younger years in medicine, said, Well, my dad's involved, Tayce said, You know, my dad's in Commonwealth's Readable, and she sort of messaged me to the dad, and dad said, Oh, come on in, and then they fixed me up. 

And so, yeah, I got a work experience... I think at Matter Action Board, where they tried fitting, you know, they put me in medicine, in medical unit, and I thought, Well, this is right out my alley, that... trouble was. And then... after 13 weeks of that, they asked if they could extend it another six weeks, and they moved me to another area, and... so I was reviewing, reviewing files, and, you know, this was all good practice. And then, when they finished, and... right, so, I left there, and... I went for a job at... the Health Commission, resulting in a... secondary charge, a second, a secondary... no, sorry, another person to work with, John Barnett.

And John Barnett, I'd met at the ways of the rehab, and he was basically this, the walking stiff. He retorted out the riders, and he had most of his joints replaced. And... so, yeah, I put in for that, and got down to the last, got down to the last six, for the... interview. Because, I'm very, I don't sell myself very well. I'm, you know, you take me with what you get, and what you see is what you get. And, yeah, so, I got a call the next day, and it was John Bethune, and, you know, saying, All right, Steve, I was on the panel yesterday. I said, I gather what I do, I'll know what you're going to say. Yeah, I didn't get the job. I did a great interview, and he said, No, you impressed me. I'm going to, you haven't got the job, but I'll offer you another job.

It was just a, you know, he described it, it was just a plain clinical job. And I said, Well, all right, I'll, you know, I'll think about it. Well, he gave me a number, I'll call you back. He gave me a number. I said, That's just very similar. and apparently John came out of his office and this guy's got a photographic memory. Just hoping I didn't get a new number. He had to be in his office. Anyways, I went to work with the Health Commission for a while after they just done a character one, ended up doing a job of two people - and I think I did better than what those two people were doing and, but I also applied to get back in the middle in the motor action board when the job position came up that I had been doing work experience for and they knocked me back.

Oh, John McNulty, who was a senior admin, he said, Steve, you were laid there for this job, but apparently they said, they thought, you write too slow. They wanted a club who could write fast enough and get it right. I said, hang on, I was just getting, I was doing a job thoroughly and going through the fight.

Sam Drummond 10:37

Yep, so that career pathway where you just keep getting knocked back and knocked back, that's a really common story that just people with disability are experiencing all the time and it's not just in the 70s, it's happening all the time. That was in the 80s, wasn't it?

Steve Eicke 10:58

I mean, this is a [?mayorexian] boy who basically should have been more in tune with the resultation.

Sam Drummond 11:06

But never mind. And so let's fast forward to the moment that you first walk in to this pub. 

Speaker 2 11:15

Oh oh. How long? Sorry.

Sam Drummond 11:18

No, no. How long have you lived in the area? This is your local? 

Steve Eicke 11:22

This is my local? Well, I moved in in April 1985, so I've been there 39 years.

Sam Drummond 11:36

We are in one of the most gentrified parts of the country right now. We're in Brunswick East. Gentrified parts. Well... we are in a cool or something movie in there. That's true, right? But we're in a really old pub here. Yeah. Is that why you're coming here? Because it's not... It's... I can't... I carry it. Mostly blokes who are... And women who are probably in their 50s and 60s and 70s out there. Occasionally there'll be a bunch of hipsters come in here looking for a craft beer. But is this harking back to the Brunswick East devolved?

Steve Eicke 12:18

No, in fact, I moved into Rhine Street, I went into East Brunswick in 1985 and I came in here and I met, so I'm here with a beer and two or some takeaways and the pub was very different and there was this, you know, they had a bottle shop and they had a clothes bar and the, um, and yeah, and then this new family took over and James and the family were still here, so I beat James one month.

Sam Drummond 13:02

Yep. You've put his kids through college.

Steve Eicke 13:05

And then by the way, I'm not very pleased with it in college. I don't know. I didn't really, I wasn't a regular drinker. I had, through my house, it was a three bedroom house. I was. I did advertise for, I think, when I bought the house, I thought, well, I had to share a house. Yeah. First, my first tenant was a Viking, and I had to come over here for a drink. And then Phil held up with the roommate, who happened to be James' sister, and yeah, and yeah. So I'm, See you later.

Sam Drummond 13:53

Out of the family. Wow.

Steve Eicke 13:56

I haven't been described it, but I know it wasn't really until they put music on in the early 90s that I became a regular, the famous thing, the famous dictum that the public can put on music for the local community. Me being a member of the community should go to the pub to play the music, otherwise the public will take the music off.

Sam Drummond 14:31

Yeah, so places like this are becoming less common. It seems like this has survived the change in the inner suburbs of Melbourne, or you probably wouldn't call them the inner suburbs if you've been here for 40 years.

Steve Eicke 14:47

But yeah, that's right. I mean, this is the end of the train line. Yeah.

Sam Drummond 14:56

And so is that why you know you walk in and everyone says Hey Steve, and you feel like part of the family - well it doesn't seem like you'd get that if you lived many other places.

Steve Eicke 15:13

No, I have been to many pubs, which is a horrible thing to say when your voice is like in the line of the slurs and the people are like, Yeah, yeah, sounds like it. Yeah.

Sam Drummond 15:29

That and, that... must be I guess part of the experience of you acquiring a disability... is it almost a safe place in here to have a slurring accent out in the street and they might say Alright well he's just drunk, or you know...

Steve Eicke 15:51

No, it's not really, you come in here and you make friends and you meet people and yeah, you make friends and then you make enemies and then yeah, well you don't make enemies.

Sam Drummond 16:05

What enemies have you made? Don't name them... No, he's dead, he's dead, oh you can name him then...

Steve Eicke 16:17

No, I mean, there was one guy, I came in and I came into the music and I had my Time magazine with me. Who came into the pub and reads the Time magazine while I was here? That's what the general gist was. Anyways, I've gone wild.

Sam Drummond 16:42

Well, what about favorite memories? Is there anything that sticks out where you just think That was a really good time at the Lomond?

Steve Eicke 16:57

When you were coming in here for music, I made sure I had Mondays off, although there's more than most Mondays. The music first started, it was on a Thursday night, and then they moved it to Friday, and then they put on another band, and soon we had a Thursday Friday, Sunday gigs. And yeah, I met people, and we just got along a bit well, and we just started coming in here, you know, Friday night tea, and it was a select group.

Sam Drummond 17:45

I think they're all out there. 

Speaker 2 17:50

No, they're all newbies, man, you is n....

Sam Drummond 17:51

How many years do you have to be coming here before you're a regular?

Steve Eicke 17:56

I don't know, I mean, how many years have you thought you'd become an East Brunswick person?

Sam Drummond 18:04

You're in a better position.

Steve Eicke 18:07

Oh, I don't know. I'm a level yet.

Sam Drummond 18:10

Thank you. And how you've seen that change though... and there are people who I know and your street families have been there... that there are generational households there. 

Steve Eicke 18:25

Oh yeah, I mean in my street I'm probably, I'm the second longest surviving in the second longest prison there.

Sam Drummond 18:36

And that seems to be, it seems very close-knit despite those people coming and going and I think we saw that during pandemic lockdown.

Steve Eicke 18:50

Yeah, when Peter and Moray cross the rail, you want to do [tornavas]. Yeah. Just put in a flyer saying, If you need any help, just don't hesitate to give us a call. Very nice of you.

Sam Drummond 19:05

It's happened to a number of the people along the street, the people who've been there for a long time. What have you seen change? What do you think of the new people coming in?

Steve Eicke 19:19

Ah, I love this, this is like, ah, it's always a good time. I mean, we had, at one stage we had a, two design, on my side of the street, we had two design with people and... individually, I was psychiatrically disabled guy at the end of it, had me in the middle one, we had a couple of gay families in the street, and fathers, and I was just, as, madam, I meant, where he says, see, you've got a very cleanings, so you're on the cleanings street, now I'm going to the street.

Sam Drummond 20:06

Full of families - yeah, interesting. So you're seeing it sort of change...

Steve Eicke 20:13

Oh yeah, I'm now... getting to my street.

Sam Drummond 20:16

Yeah. What about the pub? The pub? How's that changing?

Steve Eicke 20:22

Well, the pub, since James took it over, they used to have the lady's land out the back there, and they had the main, the main route, and they ordered the configuration of the bar and took down the, you know, and then this next door was the bottle shop. Yep. And so they cut a hole in the walls, and they made, they cleared out the bottle shop and, oh, made that look, enjoy. And then they found these other than looks from trannies and thought, Well, we could make a, what used to be the sawroom, the big, big sawroom, and made this, which is a...

Sam Drummond 21:13

Yeah, so I think seeing that happen throughout our cities is that people are finding little nooks and crannies because space is at a premium. How do you find that getting around? We found a spot where there were no stairs to come in here tonight and didn't go down the stairs to where the gig is. Some of the nooks and crannies become harder to get in.

Steve Eicke 21:42

Mainly that me, in coming by the stairs, is that I've only been on a four wheel frame for, I've now used a four wheel frame, but I've only been on that for what, last three to four years. I've fractured my ankle one night. The thing with being a [?Cervilla angel] man, is that you're going to have a wide swinging gait. You walk with a wide swinging gait, and you can't run and hop, skip, or jump. You can't jump holes.

Sam Drummond 22:20

Yeah.

Steve Eicke 22:21

Walking home on a wet night, you know, I found the puddle, and my instinct is, Ah, I'm not going to sit in the puddle until you put your feet together. Yeah. And then, uh-oh, I wish I hadn't done that. And you toppled over and...

Sam Drummond 22:37

Yeah.

Steve Eicke 22:38

Yeah, and broke my ankles. I had sore ankle and they called me and they told me and... it was you know, pretty Christmas - and so I ended up having spending Christmas in hospital and they didn't alter sound and they said Yeah you do have a fractured ankle.

Sam Drummond 23:00

Yeah. How long between falling over?

Steve Eicke 23:05

That was 2018.

Sam Drummond 23:06

How long between then and you coming back to the pub?

Steve Eicke 23:12 

Probably the moment... Ha, what a gaffe.

Sam Drummond 23:18

Did you get your tips in? 

Steve Eicke 23:26

Yeah, got tips in. Yeah, okay. They said so.

Sam Drummond 23:27

And do you ever see yourself stopping coming here? Would there be anything that would stop you?

Steve Eicke 23:35

Well, I did, well, in fact, in mid-2019, I was in there, a girl said, Steve, you gotta come in and you gotta go out and dance and make sure you're testing them out. I said, I want to make sure mate was right, so I'm dancing one night and we're back at the bar and Piers, Piers was beyond the bar, he was laughing. He looked at me, I remember talking to Robbie, maybe the ladies at the back of him, about the football, and Piers said, Steve, lie down. You, hey, I was trying to focus on the tally on the cricket and the Ashes and I was like, couldn't quite focus, and I lie down. And Piers wouldn't call an ambulance on me. And I thought, Oh, normally if you fall down in the pub they kick you out, but no, this day they call an ambulance on you.

Sam Drummond 24:41

Thank you.

Steve Eicke 24:42

And the ambulance came and they said, You've got a blood pressure of 92 over something and you're going to an hospital. I'll get up and walk out and say Do you want not with a blood pressure less than 100 you won't be able to... yeah, it turned out that they kept me out of the night and a bit halfway to the next day and they were looking for someone from ambulance told you to come in saying You've got a low white cell count when you came in, yeah low white low white cell count, when you do another one and the third white cell count is even lower... I thought I know what that is, my dad had became here 20 years ago. Well it it was a guess anyway. So they said So long as you promise to come back and they haven't told you in this couple weeks they'll let you go home.

Sam Drummond 25:37

Yeah.

Steve Eicke 25:39

Like I got a call mid-week saying, Where can we get you another blood test from here? So I just had a ride. We have a clinic, just had a ride here. And, yep, did that. And then I got a call on the Friday evening and I said, Steve, we'll push your appointment forward a week. I don't know what that means. And, yep, till I get in. And I got a form of acute... well, I have bone marrow biopsy going on. After I did the, I got a call from the hospital on the Thursday: Steve, you're dangerously low on your [?musicals], on your lifestyle count. And I want you to stay home. And if you've got any sign of [?the video], get in there.

Sam Drummond 26:47

So that's sort of started here, and that feels like something that most people...

Steve Eicke 26:54

Bring one of the pumps, I agree.

Sam Drummond 26:55

I don't know if you can do that, but that would usually, I think, happen for most people in a family lunch or something.

Steve Eicke 27:08

When you see the blood drowning from your face, and that's why it says, that's why it says like, we thought we were having a seizure. Piers knowing, knowing me and... They know you. And knowing people who know me and...

Sam Drummond 27:33

That's where that's, you know, you can come in here and you're in that safe environment.

Steve Eicke 27:39

Safe environment.

Sam Drummond 27:41

And people can relate to that. Is there anything else? Like, you've got, I think you're pretty close with your family. 

Steve Eicke 27:51

Well yeah, I lost my dad, as I said, I lost my dad 20 years in 2002 of the career. He's, I'm now that age that he was, did he die that? My mum, yeah, well, I was very, very rough. I guess I was relatively close to him, but she was Danny Carlton, and then she moved in with me, and then a few other things. I ended up in Parkville, she broke her ankle, or broke her hip, and I ended up in this thing. She made Danny help.

Sam Drummond 28:38

As your brother comes...

Steve Eicke 28:41

My brother lives probably 500 metres away.

Sam Drummond 2 28:46

Yeah. But apart from your family, is there anything in your life like the pub?

Steve Eicke 28:56

Basically, you come here to see your friends and you come here to see people, you know, and yeah, that's how I developed a friendship group.

Sam Drummond 29:10

Do you see them outside this pub, or you just can't walk in the door and they say g'day Steve?

Steve Eicke 29:18

I did... we did, as you call me, a disability advocate. I actually retired from work in, what, '93, '91 or '92. I was in the Health Department. And I was with infectious diseases, people of them. That was my area. And the doctors there said, Steve, one of the doctors, Sandy Taylor, she said, Steve, stop working so hard. You're killing yourself. Because I was, my hair was reducing, and my wife couldn't get any of these on, and I said, OK. And so that's why I retired at 35. Yeah. And that led to a big hole in my life.

Sam Drummond 30:15

And as this fills it...

Steve Eicke 30:20

Yeah, I've had nothing of the kills on me. I mean, in it, going back to uni, I was never supposed to go back to uni for my first accident. Yeah. And I always said, I'm, and I was told in, when I was doing, in 1978, I'd done three months, three and a bit months, I was in the hospital in 1976, 1977. Six months were all told, but six months ago, I was able to rehab. And then, with that, I was able to rehab in February 1978. I went to Cunek, which is rehab in Turek. It was that way I could go there part-time and go to uni part-time and do a couple of subjects at BSC, Bachelor of Science.

And then, over that year, I got up and said to the vocational guidance counsellor, you know, telling him what you're going to do with the rest of your life. And she says, you're... no, you're never good, you're never going to be good enough to do medicine. She said, well, what do you got in mind? She says, well, I want to put you in a shovel workshop.
Yeah. And possible, possibly in public service. That's all you've got. I'm doing all this and you want to put me in the shuttle workshop. And yeah, so I didn't last when I saw that. And so I said, Yeah, thanks, but yeah.

Sam Drummond 32:18

It's a huge hole to fill that gap in employment, but it sounds like having this community around you has gone some way to filling that gap.

Steve Eicke 32:33

I mean, I go home, as I've said, I mean, I read my papers every day, I read my time magazine as I just mentioned, and then sometimes you go over to the opposing pubs, there was just someone walked past you and gave you a turning off there.

Sam Drummond 32:58

And so two more questions, one's a really quick one. What's the latest you've ever stuck around to here? Is it closing time every week or are you calling out curtains before that?

Steve Eicke 33:14

I've, I've gone home when the sun, when the sun, when the sun, what's the sunrise? That sounds good.

Sam Drummond 33:22

Like there's been a lock-in. That doesn't sound good.

Steve Eicke 33:27

Yeah, it was a couple of times that, you know, it was, yeah.

Sam Drummond 33:33

But it's getting pretty rowdy out there now at about 6 o 'clock.

Steve Eicke 33:38

I came in, didn't you see all those guys leaving when I came in? Was that because of you? Ah, took one look at me and these.

Sam Drummond 33:47

What's your ideal night at the pub?

Steve Eicke 33:51

My idea of love, well, as I said, you did green light, your daughter did green light sweet, I go to the pub to do my tips. That's all you're here for.

Sam Drummond 34:04

After all that, you didn't see it.

Steve Eicke 34:07

And we'll see you next time.

Sam Drummond 34:10

Ugh, yeah, not yet, after your tips, is there anything? Well, watch the footy, watch the footy.

Steve Eicke 34:19

You stay and you eat, you have your meal and then you come over on a Friday and you've done your, in recent times it's only been coming once each week and you come on Friday and you do your tips. Thank you.

Steve Eicke 34:51

But, in the moment now we've got games starting on third, the Rams starting on third, so it gives you a great excuse to go home to... 

Sam Drummond 35:01

You can thank the AFL for bringing you to the pub.

Steve Eicke 35:04

[?] a week. Thank you for bringing me here on a Wednesday night and tea night too. I used to eat a meal and tea once a week with a farmer back in the 80s. As James would say, we could sit down at times and watch what time you'd be here. We'd say hey watch the 6 o'clock news and then...

Sam Drummond 35:31

Then off you come to the pub.

Steve Eicke 35:32

I'll forget all the dead and all the guys if I'm allowed to wait again. Yeah.

Sam Drummond 35:37

Well hopefully that institution stays around for a while yet, but Steve Eicke, thanks for joining me at the pub.

Steve Eicke 35:46

Yeah.

Sam Drummond 35:47

Spaces was recorded on Wurundri, Jara and Bunurong land. Spaces was produced by Humdinger for Powered Media. The series was created by Sam Drummond with support from Emma Sharp and Lucy Griffin at Humdinger. Field audio recording by Matthew Hoffman, editing by Simon McCulloch.