Regional Work Experience

c0rk3r

I’ve completed my regional farm work recently and thought id share my experience with those who are hoping to do the same thing. There are various ways to do your farm work, through a hostel, working for the farmer directly (you’ll need your own transport) or wwoofing (You work 4 hours a day, dont get paid but have accommodation and food). I done my regional farm work in a place called Bundaberg which is 4-5hours north of Brisbane.

What you need

You’ll need your visa print out, an australian bank account (you can set one up before leaving Ireland, most are free. I went with Anz for no particular reason other than it was the first one i googled) and also a tax file number. For the TFN you need an australian address, again you do this online but only when you arrive in Australia. The usual waiting period is 2-4weeks. I used the address of the first hostel i stayed in in Brisbane then asked them to forward it onto me. You can use the address of the hostel your staying at or a friends postal address. I never actually received mine through the post. I simply rang them 1 week into my stay and was given the number over the phone. If you dont have a TFN you will be taxed at a higher rate than normal

How the Hostel works

Farmers have an understanding with the hostel to provide workers when needed. Im not sure if the farmer pays the hostel to have access to workers or if the opposite is true. It doesnt really matter anyway. A worklist will go up at 18:30 with the names of those working and those who are not (standby). Initially i was on standby for 1 week then worked 1 day then on standby again for another week until i found consistent work. You can be placed on one farm for a few days then another the next week then another the week after. Some felt the the owners played favouritism with some of the guests, or rotated people around so they could afford rent and food. I didnt really get that vibe but this may go on in other places. You sometimes had to hound the owners for work otherwise you’d be forgotten. I didnt like doing this as its not really part of my character, like a lot of other people in the hostel but hound i did.

I paid $158 a week for a 4 person dorm. You also pay $3 each way to be brought to the farms. If you have your own transport you didnt have to pay this or if the farmer brought you back / lent you his car you didnt have to pay.
The hostel is located near the central business district with a lot of amenities close by. Id describe the place as an old western town in the middle of nowhere filled with mentally unwell characters and aggressive drunks and abo’s (not always mutually exclusive).


Farm work

I’ve never done a labour intensive job in my life so farm work was abit of a shock to the system. I would jokingly say to people i have “keyboard hands”, a farmer asked me what i done back home then commented, “ah right so thats why you look so awkward with a shovel”. Best appraisal ive ever received. Farm work is tough, monotonous, repetitive and damn boring. I have found from working on various farms that theres no such thing as an “easy job”. I’ve never met a farmer i liked except one who in my eyes let himself down in the last week. They can be sexist, racist, homophobic, loud, abrasive, demanding and abusive. Unfortunately you may recieve abuse from farmers, not me but ive witnessed it going on. It shouldnt be tolerated but you have to remind yourself youre there for a reason and try not to let it affect you too much. Water off a ducks back and all that. In our hostel 8 out of the 15 farms currently running didnt want french people. Some didnt want Asians or Irish...

You can start anytime from 05:30 until 09:30 and depending on the farm work between 4 – 8 hours per day depending on what needs to be done. Id usually get up at 04:00, get the bus at 5:00, stay on the bus for an hour or so, get dropped off then wait around until 06:30 to start work. Depending on the farm you would get a 10-20minute lunch break after 3-4 hours called smoko then another 30minute unpaid break around mid day. This is standard in all jobs around Australia and not just farm work.

Ive picked capsciums (red peppers, green peppers), pineapples, yellow squash, sweet potatoes, strawberries,avacados, packing,weeding and general labouring work. With capsiums and yellow squash your bending over most of the day picking at ground level. It can take a week of so to get used to the back pains. Pineapples can be difficult on the hands and legs as your constantly getting pricked by the tops and the jagged base. Sweet potatoes are generally ok and so are strawberries. They can be a struggle when the ground is wet.

The majority of farms paid an hourly rate which is roughly $20 an hour but after taxes it works out at 17dollars an hour. There was some contract work available but in my experience it isnt worth while as you can be paid peanuts. Although theres always exceptions to this, for instance some people could pick 300kg of strawberries in 8hours @ 0.83 per kg (249dollars) whereas others could only manage 100kg (83dollars over 8hours). If you had a bad row this effected how much you’d be paid. Not many people made money from it.

The availability of farm work is also dependent on the weather. If it rained most farmers wouldnt pick that day or sometimes the next day. In the case of yellow squash if there was not enough sunlight the previous day then the vegetable wouldnt grow to picking size. Queenlands has tropical rain and when it comes down the entire area floods. All along the road are meter sticks indictating flood depth. Sometimes the buses just couldnt reach the farms due to flood waters. Apparently this year was the coldest in 38 years. A lot of farms were affected by this and consequently so were we.

The Hostel

I went the hostel route as i dont have transport. I rang the harvest line who directed me to a working hostel in Bundaberg. This particular hostel had in the region of 15 farms with about 60 people staying. The facilities are pretty ****, the place is grubby, bedbug ridden as well as various other insects / bugs and could do with a complete overall. I havent been to other hostels but have been told by other backpackers that conditions are similar in other places. You’ll just have to endure.

The majority of people here stay for the 2nd year visa and the rest for money or a combination of both. Its a diverse mix of cultures, at the moment its mainly tiawnese, korean, italian, germany, irish, english. Some travelled in groups others solo. Although the conditions are **** you’ll have a laugh with the people here. This place has a healthy mix of loose men and women with an abdunance of alcohol. Great combo.

How the Visa works in this particular hostel is you get signed off by the farmers from the day you start until the day you finish so you dont actually do 88days.Personally i only done 60 days work for 88days. Other hostels stipulate that you work the actual days to get signed off for them. It took me 4months to complete the days needed as you get switched from farm to farm.
Overall im pretty happy thats its over with. You get to meet some sound people and have amazing nights out. I had a great laugh here, nothing brings people closer than a commual hate for something. I can now say my chances of being a hand model are zero, my keyboard hands have transformed into man hands. Ha

Can you make / save money ?

If you work a standard Australian week which is 38hours its possible to save money. You should come out with roughly 650dollars. – 175 for the hostel and -150 for food and booze leaves you with $325 a week. So thats 1400 savings a month. The problem is that most weeks you dont get those kind of hours.

The reality is that only 20% of the people here are capable of saving / making decent money.

When you hear of people clearing 1200 and upwards a week thats because they work 80-90 hours a week. Yup thats 15hours a day, six days a week!

General Advice

Always wear sunscreen even on cloudy days. I was working during the winter (21-23degrees) and regularly got burnt if i wasnt wearing protection. Others suffered from sunstroke which is pretty nasty. I went through 2-3litres of water a day and always wore a hat, long sleeve t-shirt, boots and long trousers.I had the worst famers tan going. I’ve heard people go through 6-10 litres of water during the summer months.

Have health insurance or some form of cover. There has been a few incidents here where people have gotten hurt and needed to go to hospital / see doctors and it aint cheap. A german girl was bitten by a spider on the right hand side of her face which swelled up like a balloon. She spent a night in hospital, had a number of tests done etc. The cost of the visit was $2500, luckily she had private health insurance which covered everything. From an occupational health and safety standpoint there is work here that is downright dangerous and if you feel this way just simply refuse to work on those grounds. I cant state this strongly enough,Your health should be your number one priority / concern and **** anyone who says otherwise

Most if not all hostels here have a bar attached to the premises. Don’t fall into the trap of spending all your money there. Ive seen quite a few people get stuck here because they spent all their money and time getting pissed in the beergarden after work. I was lucky in that i only needed the days and not the money. I probably saved a grand in the four months. Thats without been consumer savy or conscious of how much things were.

Get a full drivers licence before you leave ! (You have to jump through a lot of hoops over here and spend a lot of time on each licence type before you can progress to a full licence which takes maybe 3-4 years). Your job prospects will be hindered if you dont have a licence / “your own reliable transport”. Although maybe this issue is for another thread

If you intend on staying for the 2nd year you should do the regional work first. I’ve known accountants, bank staff, laboratory analysts who came from 30-45dollars an hour then have to uproot from city life to harsh rural living. Its better to get this over and done with first so you dont have the high life experience. Also you dont want to be panicking / rushing to get the farm work complete in the last few months . Of course you could get sponsored in the job you first work in and not have to worry about regional work but its a gamble.

I think thats everything. If you have any questions feel free to ask. I’ll answer them frankly and as honestly as i can

jackbhoy

Fair play for taking time to share your experience op, I'm sure a lot of people will find it invaluable.

Cooperspale

Great post.

markymark21

Great post!

Although I'd advise people who don't want to spent their three months doIng mundane boring work to try out wwoofing or helpx. I really enjoyed my three months out in the bush. My girlfriend helped train and break in green horses, we learnt how grow fruit and veg, we killed and scalded pigs, skinned sheep, shot roo, learnt how to weld, use a chain saw and the art of setting a responsible bush fire.. Was brilliant

tosh_2006

Great post!

Esse85

Fantastic post, should be made a sticky.

c0rk3r

Cheers folks

When preparing to come over here I followed rightyabes guide and thought id give something back as the information she provided was very helpful. I couldnt find too much in depth information with regards to regional work so i decided to write this in the hope it helps others.

Maybe a link in one of the stickys if its worthy of it. I'll leave it in the hands of the mods