The Chaser Report - The Tip Of The Fatberg

Episode Date: February 10, 2025

The poor people of Perth were saved from an atrocious horror by an unlikely hero. Coming at you with all the fatberg facts is seasoned fatberg correspondent, Charles Firth.Read the Guardian article Dom mentions here:https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/feb/10/sewer-fatberg-of-grease-and-rags-forces-bryan-adams-to-postpone-perth-concertWatch OPTICS on ABC iview here:https://iview.abc.net.au/show/opticsCheck out more Chaser headlines here:https://www.instagram.com/chaserwar/?hl=enDonate here to save people from Perth:https://chaser.com.au/support/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gadigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report with Dom and Charles. And Charles, straight on to the big news of the day. I know Donald Trump is doing all kinds of things. I know that there's all kinds of developments in terms of orcus and these things. The next election campaign is very much underway.

But I think you'll agree with me that the biggest story of the day in Australia is this guardian headline, Sue Fattberg of Greece and rags. forces Brian Adams to cancel Perth concert, telling us that even in these uncertain times, good things can still happen. Brian Adams' cancellation is always... It's top of mind.

I mean, if you're looking at Channel 7 News tonight, or like last night, like, we're recording this on Monday afternoon. I'm guessing that that's going to be the top news. Oh, absolutely. So what happened was, he was due to perform in Perth, the most isolated capital city in the world

where I think they've just discovered Brian Adams an exciting new artist that's come out for his first tour he was going to perform at the arena on Sunday night but the Water Corporation says and I quote a large blockage of fat grease and rags was causing wastewater overflow so what happened was it backed up the toilets apparently and the entire street

Wellington Street was basically flooded with fat burn Yeah so the problem is that And what they were worried about was that everyone would turn up to this Brian Adams concert and want to shit themselves and there would just be a tsunami of shit yeah and there was anyway and there was anyway on stage

blocked the pipes now we have here on the taste report we like to go an extra degree of depth we have a person who's actually been into a sewer to inspect a fatberg up close some would say a bit of an expert yeah we will get a noted fatbergian Charles Firth's recounting of his

experience in a moment. Now, I mean, this is a problem, admittedly, let's be fair, not just in Perth. Other cities also have this problem because we put things down the drain, down the toilet that shouldn't go down the toilet. Yes. And they clog up and form these amusing giant fatburgs. So while the icebergs are melting, Charles, the fatbergs are accumulating at a rate of knots. Yes, and long-term listeners will recall the classic fatberg of 2017 in Sydney.

Yes. You remember the great Fatberg of 2017? I remember we got about a week's radio show content out of it. And you, back in one of those rare occasions when you decided to actually do some reporting, you thought you needed to check this out firsthand. And we were kind of like, yeah, you're going to the Swiss child. You're just the man for the job. And for some reason, you were enthusiastic about that.

Yeah. So, and it's a very vivid memory. It stands out in my mind as one of the things that I've done in my lives. In my life. It's been that dull. But one of the highlights is inspecting a factory. Visiting the oldest sewer in Australia, which is the Bondi sewer. And I discovered, actually, that even our shit, Dom, and we live in the inner west.

Yeah, a long way away. It flows to Bondi. It's quite extraordinary, yeah. So there's all these... Basically, the Sydney Basin. It is a basin. It is a drain. But no, there's this lovely Victorian ventilation pipe, but not far from where we live.

And it is bizarre to think, yeah, that the... sewer there goes all the way to Bondi because the water flows. In fact, that's the fastest way to get to Bondi. I wish we could get a boat on the sewer. Because getting to Bondi from here is about an hour on public transport. You think of Bondi and you think you know, plastic fantastic, beautiful

people walking around. Hotel dealers. Little do they know that beneath them is this huge sewer network, which is up the northern end of Bondi Beach. Yeah, you can see on the hill above the northern end if you've been there, there's sort of this giant vent chimney thing. And it looks like a

magnificent architectural detail. It's actually just venting the sewage smell. Yes. And so I went in there and I got to see the fatberg, which was very greasy and fat. Go in, see the fatberg. That was amazing. What struck me was, I mean, and it's a huge sewer system. What struck me was, it was a bit smelly, right, in parts, right? But as you go through, they filter and filter and eventually it gets not very smelly at all, which is sort of remarkable. It still is this large ponds of brown water. There are all these things that we shouldn't put down the sewer, basically. So it's the flushable wipes.

Flashable wipes was the huge thing back in 2017. If I recall, the biggest cause of Fatbergs in the whole world was, I think it was Will Smith did an interview saying how he used baby wipes instead of toilet paper and how it was awesome. And millions upon millions people started using them. Yes. And you can't flush them. Don't flush baby wipes.

They're disgusting. And the sewer workers were going. It's kind of ridiculous because all these, you know, Kleenex or whatever market, they're flushable wipes. Yeah. But they're not flushable. Or they're flushable in the sense that you can flush, I don't know, a brick down the toilet. Yeah, or a vast quantity of oil and fat, which also congeals. But also the wet wipes then all congeal into a mass.

Yes. And they agglomerate. And they can't get through the grates. Yeah. And the, but they also bond with the oil and the grease that you put down. And again, you shouldn't put oil down the sink. Yeah. You should put it in a bottle and throw it in the bin.

It's not supposed to be disposed of in the sink. So there you go. There's an environmental message from the Chaser report. Take that recuss on. And I remember even, you know, quite far into the depths of the filtration system, you'd still see like condoms and human hair and stuff like that. Again, not ideal to put down. Well, they may have just, it might have just been horny Bondi people going down for a little break.

Anyway, point is that was not the most fascinating part of the whole thing. The most fascinating part was where do you go if you're a sewer worker and you're working underneath a cliff face in a sewer all day and you want to have lunch or a smoker? Oh, I thought you were going to ask where you went if you needed to use the toilet. I'm kind of going, yeah, the answer's right in front of you. And you're not strictly no smoking down there because of methane levels, right? Oh, well, I imagine the oil and gas.

A fat bird would be highly flambled. So, yeah, we should harness them for energy. The other energy? You know what they should do? They should get Will Smith down there. He should have to break them up and put them into some sort of furnace. But you know, that is how they dealt with the Sydney one. Like while I was there, there was these workers with sort of like sticks, just trying to break it up.

You're not even having motorised, just literally a stick. Yeah, it's just horrible. It was just like so antisocial to put grease down. Anyway, what they do is they built a door that leads out. of the sewer to like halfway down the cliff on the beach side and the only way you can access

that cliff top like halfway down is through the sewer system so it's the perfect place to go for lunch or have a smoker if you're a worker That sounds lovely It's lovely So on the one hand

You've got to break up fat dogs with sticks Which is an incredibly disgusting job But on the other hand You have a nice view So but there is and one very morbid detail, which is that people from time to time become distraught

and they throw themselves off the top of the cliff. This is quite an intense episode. Yes, and so if you're a sewer worker, you'll be going, oh, I've got a shitty job. You open the door to go and have a smokeo, and you see this person, but the cliff is not that, it's not a great place to do it because it's not high enough.

So what you tend to find is people who are very distraught, and in agonising pain, but very much alive, right? Let's just read the Lifeline number and take a break. 1311-14. If this is raised issues for you, you know, just get in touch with the Lifeline. Or you can just text Charles because, frankly, it's his fault. We've given out his phone number many times on the podcast. Just get in touch with him.

He can counsel you. Not effectively, but he will be there. We'll be back in a second. The Chaser Report. Less news. less often Remember I said There's no way in or out

Except through the sewer So what happens in that circumstance Oh no The sewer workers have to call the ambulance The ambulance workers have to walk all the way Through the sewer Like it's literally at the other end of the sued system To this door

They go out They put this poor distraught Injured person On a stretcher Who's having the worst day of their life Literally And then they have to Through all

all these stairs, these old Dickensian-style stairs that were built in a Victorian building. It's like literally built in the 1820s. You know, 1820s and the 30s. All these narrow corridors all with shit right next to you on a stretcher. Surviving this thing and you're feeling absolutely terrible. And it's a really serious issue you shouldn't realize, no. But the last thing they would need would be a stretcher with stairs past Fatbergs.

That's not something that's going to make you think, you know what, I'm glad. I'm still here. It's all going to turn. Again, again, if you need help with this sort of stuff, text Charles. And also, and if you do need cheering up, just remember Brian Adams has had to cancel his concert. And some of the attempts at wit on social media were fascinating.

And The Guardian reports as follows that, Terrible service, an international pop star like Brian Adams comes to Perth and this is what happens. Yeah, predictably, I would have thought. Another person said, yeah, thanks for telling us to go home three hours after the event and three hours after we stood in a queue, pathetic. You didn't have to go to Brian Adams' pain.

You won't. And someone was trying to be funny. Brian Adams, please forgive me, it's the summer of shits and urine. That's... So, yeah, you basically, much of Perth was... It wasn't just the Brian Adams venue. It was pooled water on Wellington Street,

and it's wastewater overflows. Well, they just have to put on their Wellington's on Wellington Street. Good sir. I'm not sure with it. The moral of this story, Charles, is don't book for Brian Adams' concerts or just generally don't go to Perth. It could be a bit of both.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think, I mean, presumably not everyone has a choice in life. You know, if you're born in Perth... You can leave. There's planes. Right, okay. Yeah, that is true. I mean, it's expensive.

Anyone who... We should actually raise money, shouldn't we? I think that would be a great appeal. That's a good idea. To raise money for people to leave Perth if they want to. And look, Perth's okay. I've been to Perth, but it is a long way from places that aren't Perth. We should use some of the GST money the Western Australia gives us to set up a bit of a slush fund.

The government should do it. Oh, they should bring in pokies at last just to raise money for people to get out. Exodus funding. Yeah, I love it. Look, happy to receive complaints from Perth residents, podcast at chaser.com. You're also happy to be booked for events in Perth. we could do an arena show, Charles, apparently you often, you get booked yet and you have to do the show.

It sounds quite good. Unfortunately, Charles, the bad news here is that all existing ticket holders will be notified of an update that I intend to take in the action. So they may reschedule the gig, or they may just give everyone just a little tiny chunk of fat burgers a serving, because this is the thing, this is the thing that I remember, is you brought some of the Fatberg into the office. Yes, that's right. And the OHNS assessment was that you should not have done that.

Yeah, because we're at Triple M. And they did. They got all worried about us just because I had a bit of Sydney poo. And if anyone's listened to Triple M, you know they have the highest standards in all things. But also, we're at Triple M. Like, I would have thought that 90% of any sewage output in Sydney is cocaine anyway. So it's probably, they're used to having that sort of stuff in the office. Actually, I don't know.

Have they analysed the fatbergs in Bondi? Sure there's cocaine in them. The Bondi one. No, no. I talked to the, it was nothing to do. with the Fabburgs, but they have people monitoring, like, week by week. Oh, they actually do that study, don't they? Yeah, they do a study.

And Sydney always outstrips the rest of Australia, the cab of the city, like by about twice as much. This is seriously something that the health department does. In terms of cocaine. It's sort of incredible. And bizarrely, I think Adelaide is the least druggie in terms of cocaine use. And not at all surprisingly, towards the end of last year, a lot of cocaine bricks. washed up on Bondi Beach.

So maybe what happens is if they break up enough fatburgs, Eureka, there's a whole brick of cocaine in there. It just probably worth 200 grand. That's great. That's what happened. It was actually just from the sewage. Those bricks. Actually, that's true.

Yeah. Well, you know that other accounts. They shit a brick. Yeah, that's right. But it is actually true that tests on some of the other, there's recently been those balls that have washed up in the ocean. All the balls that they think are from the, and there's, there is drugs in the,

knows, and they are, it is effluent too. So basically what I'm saying is don't go anywhere near sewage or water or beaches or Brian Adam. And I think metaphorically, this episode has also been in some ways about Trump, isn't it? Oh, I thought you're going to say this episode's been largely shit and clogged with fat. Either way. We're part of the iconic class network. Catch you tomorrow.