Club Veteran Celebrates Milestone

When Billy Pisani arrived in Australia in 1964 as a 20-year-old from Malta, Robert Menzies was Prime Minister, the Beatles were performing in Sydney and Dawn Fraser was winning Olympic gold in Tokyo.

Finding work on the railways, he supplemented his income by picking up casual shifts at a number of registered clubs, including Souths Juniors, Marrickville and Penshurst RSLs, and Club Rivers.

That set in train (pardon the pun) a career in the club industry that is still very much a part of Billy’s life as he approaches his 80th birthday.

“I still work Monday to Friday at Club Rivers. It’s a great Club, with management who are very good to me,” says Billy.

“I enjoy the work that I do so no, there are no retirement plans at this stage.”

From dining to gaming, Billy has worked across most areas of club operations, both in casual roles and in a full-time capacity after leaving the railways in 1999.

In the same year that he notches up a milestone birthday, he will also be celebrating 24 years of involvement with Club Rivers and 57 years in the wider club industry.

“Clubs have a real friendly feel, I love that you get to mix with people, many of them see me and come and talk to me and everyone feels part of a family,” says Billy.

And it really is a family affair, with Billy’s daughter and grandchildren also having been employed by the Club at various times.

“My daughter, Michelle, worked here years ago, and more recently my grandkids, Monique and Jasmine, and currently my grandson Conor, have all worked here doing casual shifts while studying at university,” he says.

While the family-friendly feel of clubs has been a constant throughout his long tenure in the industry, Billy has had to adapt to enormous change — although he says this has made the job easier, not harder.

“Kids who work here don’t know how good they have it now!” he says, cheekily.

“When I first started out, everything was manually written out by hand, now it’s all done electronically.”

As Billy approaches his milestone 80th birthday on 19 June, it will be business as usual for the hard-working club veteran.

He and his wife have recently returned from a one-week holiday to the Gold Coast, and he’s not one for wanting a fuss.

“I don’t like parties, I just like being able to see the family,” says Billy.

And the secret to his longevity?

“Lots of homemade cooking, and I walk every morning from 5am for at least an hour, and during my lunch break I walk for 25 minutes. If it’s raining, I’ll still walk by doing laps around the Club’s carpark, Billy says.

“And I enjoy coming to work.”