On this day in 1977, The Canberra Times reported the story of Ruth Mason, who was the first woman in Canberra to drive a garbage truck.
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Standing at 156 centimetres, the mother-of-two from Chifley could barely see over the dashboard of the first garbage trucks she drove.
When she started, Mrs Mason said she received some less-than-encouraging words from her friends: "It was nerve-racking at first and all my friends thought I was crazy, but only because they had never heard of a woman garbage-truck driver before".
She had begun driving 12 months prior "by accident" when she was asked to fill in for a driver who worked for her husband.
Her husband, Malcolm Mason, was a private contractor for the collection of rubbish with the Department of the Capital Territory. They worked as a team.
Mr Mason and an offsider would run behind the truck and would collect the rubbish while Mrs Mason drove the truck at 5km/h around Spence, Evatt and Kaleen, every Tuesday and Friday.
The Masons then went halves in a new garbage truck and though she drove for the fun of it, Mr Mason said she just went along just to look after her shiny new truck.
