(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
Unlike other parts of Australia, there's no shortage of work in Queensland's Western Downs but that means some more menial jobs just aren't getting done.
The Queensland region has been named the country's filthiest in a survey to coincide with Keep Australia Beautiful week last month.
As Stefan Armbruster reports, a group of Sri Lankan asylum seekers has stepped up to help clean it up in the Queensland's regional south-east.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
"It's a great opportunity to catch up with you all and thank you because we've tried very hard over the years to get community groups to do this, and to me this is a win-win because we're giving you something to do while you get your paperwork in order."
Ray Brown, mayor of the Western Downs Regional Council, welcomes four Tamil asylum seekers from Sri Lanka to the Moonie waste transfer station.
Over the past months, they have regularly travelled the 350 kilometres from Brisbane to clean up the dumps, landfill sites or just pick up rubbish from the roadside.
Puchu arrived by boat more than two years ago.
"I like to keep busy, I like to support myself, I like working and I don't want to stay in my home, I like to keep busy."
Puchu, and his fellow Tamils Mohan, Jenny and Raja are still waiting to hear if Australia will accept their refugee claims or send them back to Sri Lanka.
They arrived before August 2012, when the federal government removed work rights for bridging visas.
Trent Ker is from the refugee settlement agency Access and secured them the work in around the regional centre of Dalby.
"These guys they'll get up for you at 2 o'clock in the morning, they'll get up for you at anytime during the day, .. they're more than happy to help and don't even want money for it sometimes, you know and you explain to them that's not what we are asking, we're asking just asking you to come into work. They're amazing, I've never seen anything like it in my life."
The Western Downs is prime agricultural land, there's a coal seam gas boom, and workers are hard to come by.
Proud mayor Ray Brown is happy to boast of the unemployment rate - it's less than half the national or Queensland level.
"We've very little unemployment across the Western Downs, we're under three percent, that's tremendous. We've a huge energy sector here, a very vibrant and prosperous agricultural sector also."
But there's a downside too: low paid, low skilled work is left undone.
Environmental regulations require councils to keep dumps clean or they could face fines of up to one million dollars.
The Sri Lankans are paid above award wages for their clean up efforts.
There are critics who say the jobs should go to locals but the mayor Ray Brown has a simple answer.
"The first reaction they offer is how come you don't employ our own people, well I'm sorry but our own people aren't prepared to do it, it's as simple as that. we've tried through work for the dole, volunteer organisations, service groups, and community sports groups and pay them accordingly, but look this is a great outcome for our communities, they've seen what's occurred here and they're very happy too."
The four men have regularly cleaned up five sites across the council region and there is more work coming their way.
For Trent Ker from Access, there is a down side.
"The major challenge is not the language or them doing the job, because they do it more than I can exceed (sic), the biggest challenge is when they get rejected by Immigration, that really touches my heart, because you build these relationship with them and see what sort of people they are and Australia sends these people back. That's the hardest thing for me, to see these people go through that, it's just heartbreaking."
Some people's trash, are another people's treasure trove.
These Sri Lankans see opportunities in Australia, where other's don't, and that's appreciated on the Western Downs.
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