TRAVELLERS' TALES

'Family? Yeah, of course, I remember them.' Or, 'Which family? I've been divorced so often.'

Or even. 'How's the girlfriend?' 'Which one? I feel like I'm in the navy, one in every port. Know what I mean?'

Just the kind of answers that are often expected from the itinerant members of the construction industry - those kind, gutsy, aggressive, sometimes wild but occasionally lonely blokes trying to lead a life while trekking after the next job.

Any travelling job is tough on relationships, family, friendships and often money, never mind the hard time it can give the construction tradesman, engineer or manager at the centre of the moving storm.

For many, the itinerant life works. For others, unfortunately, it does not.

Whether the economy is up or down, some itinerants leave home to win money for the folks left behind. It may work or they may get stung, by high rents or dodgy casual work, here or in Germany or elsewhere.

Other trekkers handle things differently, heading out for a job with the family to follow on later. Yet others pack up their kit and partner or family, rent out the house and find some new digs near the job.

A bunch of others in the diminishing ex-pat community, however, can be found living in project villages in the wilderness - Sri Lanka, Malaysia in close communities, split between bachelor and married quarters.

The bottom line is that you have to go where the work is in this game. But given the personal and economic risks involved, what attracts people into the wandering life, to move like latter day camp followers? More to the point, what sustains them in it? CJ talks to some of construction's wanderers.