Every day Elias Katsourakis starts his shift by running his eyes over the carpark between the Clayton Community Centre and the rear of the buildings along the Clayton Road shopping strip, contemplating his 'to do' list for the day.
It's a long list, as long as the clawlike litter grabber he uses to capture an errant item of rubbish from the pavement, this time it's a discarded face mask during cold and flu season, depositing it in his small hand-pushed trolley armed with brooms, bottles and brushes.
The tasks Elias faces every day are many and varied.
They could be as simple as picking up litter, wiping and cleaning the activity district's street furniture, even hosing down pigeon and bird droppings with a high pressure water cleaner. For eight hours, Elias also identifies and catalogues any tasks that need Council attention, like asset damage, illegal dumping of household rubbish, even contaminated soil from building sites.
"It's the little things that people wouldn't notice, but if they aren't done, they become big problems," he said. "Like cleaning up sticks and leaves, so that the street sweepers can do their job."
Every day Clayton experiences a touch of magic as Elias's dedicated team swarms the streets, busily scrubbing and cleaning to ensure one of Monash's busiest precincts is spick and span.
True to the program's name, Monash Pride, the team takes great pride in a service that includes a road sweeper, footpath sweeper, leaf blower and high pressure cleaner. The team also empties the public bins located in the activity centre, collecting both the general waste and recyclables.
Much of this work is carried out between 11pm and 6am, as it's too difficult to get it done amongst the hustle and bustle of Clayton in full swing. So, while our residents resting up, our Pride Crew goes to work - readying Clayton for the next day's trade.
Andrew Love, Council's Asset Services Cleansing Supervisor, praised the Monash Pride Crew for their commitment to keeping Clayton clean.
"We face a lot of challenges, like illegal dumping and street litter," he said. "Elias and the team take ownership of it; they are proud of the work they do how much the community appreciates it."
Most importantly, Elias is Council's 'man on the ground' in Clayton.
"He gives us a conduit between the traders and community, and council," Andrew said.
So well does he know the community on his patch that it's easy to see Elias as the "Ambassador of Cleaner Clayton."
"I get to talk to the public a lot, they know me, and they tell me what problems there are. Whenever a new trader arrives, I go and introduce myself to them," Elias said.
