Yes, he's subjected to endless choruses of the Dick Van Dyke ditty from Mary Poppins, but he enjoys his job of 30 years and says the survival of his profession gives clients a lot of joy.

"They start singing Chim Chim Cher-ee and get entertainment when they see the brush come out of the top of the chimney. Children love it!" he said.

Fairfax Media's income interactive revealed an average income of about $34,000 for chimney sweeps in 2014-15, putting Mr Dare's profession at 1015 in a list of 1199 jobs.

Some other unusual jobs and their average incomes were:

• Bingo caller: $32,000
• Beekeeper: $42,000
• Weighbridge operator: $45,000
• Hansard reporter: $61,000
• Chocolate packer: $29,000

Check out the interactive below if you want to search for other weird and wonderful jobs, or even see how your own occupation compares. It displays the average income for more than 1000 jobs, including unusual vocations such as bungy jump masters.

Mr Dare, 57, says he doesn't mind the hard yakka involved in his job as it has offered him opportunities to travel.

In order to perfect his craft he flew to England, the birthplace of the world's most famous chimney sweep, Bert from Mary Poppins, for a chimney sweeping seminar.

There he learnt how to use a traditional brush powered by a drill using centrifugal force.

"I'm quite happy doing what I'm doing, but I'm working hard and I'm sacrificing my social life to do it," Mr Dare said.

"The most birds I've ever pulled out [of a chimney] is nine dead birds and they were wondering why it wasn't working," he laughed.

The tax office data shows chimney sweeps share the same job code with high-pressure cleaners (people who use water jets to clear grime and graffiti from building exteriors), but it is possible both jobs pay vastly differently.

Like Mr Dare, archaeologist Geoff Irvin also has to face plenty of pop culture jokes, although sometimes they are not too far off the mark.

"[People] think we're like Indiana Jones ??? but believe it or not, I have done my share of riding boats through old Roman tombs," Mr Irvin said.

Archaeologist Geoff Irvin. Photo: Justin McManus

But archaeologists don't see a salary in the Harrison Ford range. Their average pay is $55,000 a year. Mr Irvin, 51, said archaeologists needed to rely on passion to keep themselves going.

"You have to put a lot more work in than you actually get paid for," he said.

"Last year I probably only made about $30,000 off archaeology, and that would be a good year.

"I have to balance archaeology with other things. It's intermittent and an unreliable income, but my wife's a lawyer, so I don't have to worry." (Lawyers earn almost $120,000 a year on average, according to the tax office data).

In Australia, archaeologists are usually called in to assess a plot of land for its historical significance before a new development can be constructed, he said.

"As an archeologist, you're preserving the heritage of our past for the future.

"You lose a lot of the information once the surface is disturbed, so we try our best to preserve and reconstruct the past."