Dealing with the Dishonest

In preparing for my agricultural work travels, I put quite a bit of time into researching the right location and work opportunities available to me at this time of year. I came to Bowen with the educated impression that the season was in full swing and that work would be available. Never did I think that work would fall into my hands easily… I was well aware that many had ventured to accomplish the same task and had been forced to wait for weeks on end before finding the right opportunity.

I first felt duped when I was given the false impression that work was available for me at Bowen Backpackers. Nevertheless, I committed to the wait, like many before me, and was relieved when I was granted so-called ‘regular work’ within a week. I worked 4 days for this company, Prices Farm, only to find out that their crops were almost entirely harvested and that they might not have work for us until the new crops were ready in 3 weeks.

I decided to speak to the head of my farm and get an idea of what our work situation was and how the work days would be counted towards our visa extensions. I was given the impression (by our hostel) that if you were working a regular job, your work days would count from beginning of contract to end of contract, thereby meaning that the days we didn’t work still counted towards our visas. Apparently this is not the case! As it turns out, if we are not working we (clearly) don’t get paid and don’t get our visa days.

Even more deceiving was finding out that we had been hired onto Price’s Farm as part-time workers and NOT regular workers. Price’s has 8 regular workers who have been there for months and who work everyday. Although we were told that we had regular jobs, this was not the case, we were only to be called in if there was extra help needed and at this time in the season I was told there might be work for us next week, but as a part-timer the chances were slim.

Not only do I feel duped again, this time I feel frustrated and angry. The hostel takes you off of the work list only when you receive a regular job. When you come off the list, you are no longer eligible for other permanent/regular jobs and therefore everyone who came in after us is now getting the regular jobs, while we’re stuck with part-time work that isn’t providing us with work, pay or visa days.

Not to mention that the hostel makes us pay 185$ in rent (instead of 145$) if we are working, because of the cost of transportation. Because I have a ‘regular job’, I am forced to pay the 185$ even though I’m not working/needing transportation.

I kindly questioned the hostel staff (a young couple, clearly pre-occupied with raking in rent money) about our positions and was met with a hostile response. They claim they were given the impression we were working full-time and therefore my only option was to quit and go to the bottom of the working list, wait for regular work again, re-starting the waiting process as if I had just arrived.

While I am now trying to decide whether I should quit or wait and see if Price’s may need me for more work next week, 3 new people have arrived and I will likely be 7th on the waiting list, yet again. So frustrating!

I have now been in Queensland for 24 days. I have worked a total of 8 days, for three different companies. If three weeks has lead me to 8 days towards my visa, at this rate, it could honestly take me 5 or more months to get my 1 year extension. I came to Australia to be with my love and now it looks like I could be spending a total of 6 months without him, alone, working on and off while he is working ridiculously long hours without me at home. Now that I’ve been here, tried myself at this challenge, I’m starting to question whether the circumstances are worth committing to. I have the option of applying for a partner’s visa and I’m starting to think that may be the better option for a non-backpacking partner to stay in Australia with their loved one.

I don’t want to turn my back on what I’ve started. I will continue to commit myself to this challenge and try to uncover the best means of moving forward to accomplish this task. But I may have to listen to the ways of world and move onto a different path if this one doesn’t prove to be fruitful.

Working on a Farm

My one week experience of working on a farm was without a doubt the most physically challenging work I’ve ever been subjected to!

I started working on Price’s Farm this week, a large family owned operation that harvests, cleans and packages green beans and capsicums. There are 16 of us from our working hostel on this farm, some of whom (who have seniority) have been working there since the 30th of April! Each day we’re split into three separate groups and tasked with either cleaning and packaging beans, picking capsicums or packaging capsicums. Each job is challenging in its own way.

Working beans consists of standing at a conveyor belt that is broken into three parts: the top portion is a large platform conveyor belt where a bin full of freshly picked beans is loaded by a forklift and dropped down  to where two or three workers sort through the beans with a hose to pick out dirt clumps and rinse them clean before they fall onto the second conveyor belt. The second level is worked by three or more people who shift through the beans to pick out bad beans, broken beans, or small beans before they fall into the boxes that are packed by one person who holds a box over a vibrating metal plate that helps the beans nestle together tightly in the box.

The capsicum machine has it’s own bathing chamber where everything is cleaned, rinsed and drained. Capsicums of all colours and sizes then fall onto the conveyor belt where the first two workers sort them by colour and size and dispose of anything with soft spots or discolouration. The packers then select the capsicums by size and colour and pack them accordingly.

If we’re not in the shed working with the beans and capsicums, then we’re out in the field picking. A tractor picks the beans, but the capsicums are picked by a team of 5 or more people following a tractor with a boom. We hit the field in long sleeves, long pants, boots, sunscreen and a hat in 30+ degree humidity. The sun in Australia is incredibly strong and although the humidity can be overwhelming with long sleeves and pants, it’s absolutely necessary to be covered while working in the fields for prolonged periods of time. The tractor moves forward about three or four steps every 30 seconds or so and each one of us tends to 1 row of capsicum plants. The boom is a long conveyor belt that we place our capsicums onto and they get pushed along and dropped into the bins on the tractor. The plants are no higher than ankle height, so we’re required to bend down to reach them. Not only do we pick whatever assortment we’re tasked with (red, green or everything), but we also have to remove any soft/rotting ones (so that they don’t steal all the growing energy) and sun bleached capsicums. The work is incredibly physically challenging, the first and second times feel close to impossible, but by the third time your body becomes used to the movements. Picture yourself doing lunges and squats every few seconds, non-stop, for up to three hours on end!

Our days are split into three parts. From 7am to 10am we work our first shift until our 1st break (known here as a smoko), then our second shift goes from 10:20 until 12:30 or 1 o’clock, for a half hour (unpaid) lunch. The last shift is usually from 1 or 1:30 until 4pm, when we either have a 10 minute break before going back to work until 6pm or we leave for the day. Luckily, I’ve only had to work from 7am to 4pm… I can’t imagine having to stay to work any longer than 9 hours per day!

Price’s Farm

I have a permanent job! It’s hard to say whether it’s a guaranteed full-time job, but for now at least I know that I have work everyday until the crops say otherwise.

Price’s Farm harvests green beans and capsicums. Lucky me, it’s the farm that offers the most hours both daily and weekly. My bus leaves at 6:30am every morning, we start work at 7am, have a 20 minute break (smoko, they call it) at 9:30am, lunch at 12pm, a 10 minute break at 3pm and we finally finish work at 6pm! Not to mention that we work 6 days on with 1 day off, usually a Sunday. After my first day today, I can tell you that this makes for a very long day!

Each workday we’re put into teams and tasked with one of three daily activities: Bean washing, sorting and packing; capsicum washing, sorting and packing or capsicum picking behind a tractor.

Each station has three different jobs that we switch between after each break. Today I worked the green beans where two or three people shifted through large piles of green beans on a conveyor belt with a hose, removing dirt clumps and stacking clean beans which fall onto a second level conveyor belt. On the second layer, a few people help to sort through all the beans, removing any broken beans, leaves or stems. Eventually the beans reach the end of the conveyor belt where 1 person stands and packs the beans into 10kg Styrofoam packaging.

While this may sound very simple, it can be extremely physical (especially the cleaning), repetitive and requires you to stand in one place for hours on end.

I’ve just gotten home and my body is aching from top to bottom. After 11 hours of work, all I have time for is a shower, cooking for tonight and tomorrow’s lunch and then I’m off to bed so that I can be up at 6am to start it all over again tomorrow! I find it very hard to turn my mind off while standing and doing repetitive tasks, so it can be frustrating to have the same thoughts running about my head over and over. There is no music and as of yet there hasn’t been much conversation either. I can handle the work, but I can tell that it’s going to take a lot out of me! I can absolutely commit to this until the end of October, but it will definitely be challenging!

Working Girl at Bowen Backpackers

Today marks my first week at Bowen Backpackers and my second week in Queensland looking for fruit picking work. Despite my arrival in Bowen being more difficult than expected, I’ve made the best of my time here and have come to enjoy the environment… and I’ve been working for 2 days! Hoorah!

Yesterday I was called in for my very first farm work job – picking chillies on a family farm for 5 hours. Myself, 4 Germans and a Frenchman boarded our bus at 6:05 am and were out working in the fields as of 6:30. We had to pick the fully grown yellow chillies, which grow very low to the ground and require lots of crouching. The majority of the chillies were still quite small and not ready for picking, so the challenge was to dig low and find fully grown ones. Instead of bending over repeatedly, I opted to lie on the ground and drag myself around which was much more comfortable and even more fun :)

For every (large) bucket that we filled, we were paid 15$. I didn’t mind the work at all, mainly because my iPod kept me entertained with Cat Stevens (Tea for the Tillerman), Simon & Garfunkel  (Old Friends, Bridge Over Troubled Water) and most appropriately the Red Hot Chilli Peppers (Stadium Arcadium). Towards 11 o’clock there were very few chillies left to be picked and the work became tiring and frustrating in the heat of the sun, but I kept at it while the others gave up and chatted for a bit and by 12 o’clock I had harvested 4 buckets worth of chillies worth 60$ (which amounts to 10$ an hour of work, not so great in the scheme of things, but very much worth getting away from the hostel and applying myself!).

Today I was called into Tom Co. where they make sundried tomatoes and ship them overseas. This time I was working in a factory for 18.60$/hour, clad in a hair net, overalls and gum boots. I had to take all of my piercings out (which made me realize I have more piercings than I was aware of) and even had to wear a Band-Aid over my nose piercing because I was afraid to take it out and not be able to get it back in. You can imagine how cool I looked!

At first I was setup in front of an upward tilted conveyor belt where we were to place tomatoes with their stems facing sideways so that they were pushed onto a blade and cut in half. Although this may seem like a simple task, tomatoes are round and therefore when placed on a tilted surface, they roll down and fall into whatever position they desire. There were two of us on the belt, the first one scurried to set them into place and the second made up for what was missed and tried to make sure they stayed in place before hitting the blade… a very difficult task! Whenever the workers down the line got overloaded, they had to shut down the machine and as soon as it stopped I got ridiculously dizzy and had trouble grounding myself again. After 20 minutes of working I became really nauseous and broke into cold sweats, stared seeing white light and feared losing consciousness. I had to press the emergency stop button and tell everyone I wasn’t feeling well, then stepped outside, which was pretty embarrassing but absolutely necessary. When I was able to stand up I came back and they stationed me on the next part of the machine where you sort the badly cut tomatoes from the properly cut tomatoes. The job was tedious but I was surprised to find that I didn’t mind doing it. As it turns out, 1 in 10 people can’t work the conveyor belt due to ‘sea sickness’!

Both work days were really short and only temporary work, but I was glad to apply myself and take on work that I never expected to see myself doing. I’ll be working at Tom Co. again tomorrow and am now 4th in line waiting for a permanent position doing shed work. I’m really happy to finally be working and am glad I don’t find the work completely unbearable. There are women working in the factory who are in their late 60s and who have worked there for over 30 years, which leaves me feeling very lucky for all the working opportunities I’ve had in my life!

The hostel itself isn’t too exciting but the people within it are great! Everyone is traveling and has a thirst for life, discovery and adventure, which I love being surrounded by! The energy is great and there is much to do away from the hostel to keep from going stir crazy. I’ve spent the last week tanning on the beach, swimming in the ocean and snorkelling for my first time. I even saw three sharks! They were Wobolong sharks, the not-so-dangerous kind that lurk around the bottom of the ocean near rock formations.

  Although last week’s update was a bit on the depressing side, I’m now really excited to be amongst happy travellers who are motivated, eager and fun to be surrounded by. The best news this week was planning for Sean to come join me for the month of October! It sounds as though the shed work season will be over at the end of October and everyone seems to be planning to leave around that time too, which leads me to think that I may be leaving with Sean to go to The Fest at the end of October and then coming back to Australia to find 1 more month or so of agricultural work in Victoria! I’m back on track!

Bowen, Queensland

I bid my new friends farewell and left the Backpackers By the Bay, heading 40 minutes north to Bowen where I had finally acquired the accommodations I was waiting on.

Driving into Bowen, I felt really positive and inspired by my wonderful week as a re-born traveller in Airlie Beach. Upon arriving in Bowen it was clear to see how small, secluded and working class status the town is, but I set my big city standards aside and dragged myself and my bags towards Bowen Backpackers. It was only 3pm and already there were old, sun stroked drunks stumbling in the streets outside the bar, leering and whistling in my general direction. Hooray.

I was greeted by a sign that said: “We’re out picking up the workers, be back at 3:45.” I waited until 4pm and then noticed there was a buzzer, which I promptly pressed and out popped Sian (pronounced Shan, of Welsh background, apparently), one of the owners. She handed me paperwork to fill out: my name, my citizenship and my signature stating that I would not leave the hostel and go elsewhere if I was given work, or else a 150$ finders fee would apply. Sure, why not.

The hostel itself is much like a campground. You enter the ‘lot’ by key access and there are a number of bunk houses that 88 workers call home. Some units have fans, some have air conditioning (10$ more per week), most are 4 beds per room, some 8. I am led to room 18 where I am shown my top bunk and ‘shelving unit’ (a plank of wood which is completely useless) and am introduced to my new roommates. Kristina and Kristy are both Estonian and have lived here for over 4 months, Pam is from Zimbabwe and looks nothing like I might expect a Zimbabwean to look like.

I drop off my belongings and Sian shows me the kitchen, a large room with 7 refrigerators (hardly enough for 88 people to live out of), a freezer, 3 stovetops, 2 ovens and 3 sinks. She insists we must wash our own dishes, something she is clearly adamant about seeing as there are signs everywhere threatening to kick people out if the surveillance camera catches them not doing there dishes. How very Big Brother.

Then, and only then, am I shown the work list and told that I am 8th in line on the waiting list. It appears the season has been slow and a few of the farms have shut down for a few weeks, leaving many of the backpackers out of work. Apparently some of the girls at the top of the list have been here for 3 weeks and since people keep losing work because farms closing down, they keep getting bumped back down and having to wait for others to find new position. I find myself stunned and annoyed that I hadn’t been warned of this situation before having to pay my non-refundable 145$ week’s rent.

I head back to my room in dismay. The premises are dirty and, aside from 3 picnic tables outside the kitchen, there is nowhere to socialize or read outside of the bunk houses. The facilities clearly don’t cater to a community experience and the rules enforced by signs everywhere make it clear that people are expected to stay within their rooms and be quiet. Then suddenly an announcement comes through a speaker in the ceiling: “Sophia! Sophia, please come to the office immediately.” How very Big Brother.

I slightly unpack my things thinking that I might not be here for long and then go out to the picnic tables. Everyone is in groups and no one notices my presence. I feel insecure and introverted for the first time in many years, all I want to do is curl up in a ball and cry. I can’t help but think that I’m trapped in this place for at least a week and have no way of going about finding agricultural work for myself, which is what I came here to do. I call my love, he is supportive and shows concern, reassures me that there’s always a solution and that we’ll find one. We talk things out and I feel much better knowing that there is surely a way to figure this all out and I head to bed to sleep on it.

To be continued…

Fearing Slave Labour

I've been stationed at Backpackers By the Bay for a week now and I'm finally making a move to Bowen where I've found accommodations tomorrow.

In my time here I've encountered numerous people coming from Bowen, leaving the environment I'm making my way towards. None of them have lasted over a week doing fruit picking work. It turns out there is one farming employer (Alan) who provides tomato picking work for 2 of the 3 working hostels in Bowen.

I had been under the impression that work would commence early, around 6am, and finish around 2pm or 3pm (a regular 8 hour work day). My hostel peers reveal that the work starts at 6am and can often go until 6pm, sometimes with no breaks given at all throughout the day. I've also been told that instead of working 6 days on 1 day off, people have been forced to work 12 days straight before receiving a day off. Veritable slave work, it seems.

It turns out even the money is a battle. I had been told the hard work would pay off and that a week was worth approximately 1000$. It turns out the employers meddle with your pay any chance they get, whether finding excuses not to pay or simply cutting back on what is owed. The work is done in teams and tasks vary from day to day. If your team is tasked with pruning, none of you make any money at all (for 12 hours of work) since pay is based on the amount of baskets procured within a day.

I was absolutely prepared to apply myself to difficult, physical labour. I was even prepared to withstand demeaning and demoralizing treatment. So many people in this world are forced to work in these conditions everyday of their lives. So many people don't have the fortunes we live with on a daily basis. I feel like this is a very short chapter of my life and that I'm absolutely equipped, physically and mentally, to take on this working experience. I have worked many jobs in my life, but none have ever challenged me to turn my brain off and apply myself physically. I tend to think that I have an overly active mind and I like the idea of learning to tune out my thoughts if and when necessary.

I have to admit now though, despite my positive intentions, that I'm weary of signing up for an experience in which I'm being taken advantage of to the point of physical and mental exhaustion. I find it hard to believe that I will be able to sustain myself in such an environment for 3 months.

I've just discovered that shed work is probably my best bet in avoiding the slave labour that is fruit picking. Shed work consists of sorting and packing fruits and vegetables - it is usually work that is paid on an hourly basis and is done away from the sun.

I've found a hostel that deals only with shed work and this morning found accommodations with them as of tomorrow morning in a shared dorm room. Upon arrival, I'll settle in and stick around until a position opens up. More waiting, but at least I feel more comfortable about the work experience.

Here's hoping that I will come upon an experience that I can feel challenged by and learn from. I want to apply myself and feel proud of my accomplishments.

Hostel Life

Here I am in Queensland, living in a hostel, waiting for work to make itself available.

I've managed to budget 3 days worth of food for less than 25$ - I'm living off of bread, bananas, peanut butter, eggs, noodle packs and 2$ bags of assorted vegetables (carrots, cabbage, zucchini and tomatoes) put together by the grocery store for 'quick sale'. There's also a shelf of communal food left behind by departing visitors that sometimes reveals great surprises.

My days consist of waking up around 7am and reading until 8:30 when I can call my farming contact to see if there's work available. So far nothing is available, but everyday he suspects present workers are wearing thin and suggests that I should call again the next morning. The day I'm told there's work available, I'll pack my bags and check out at 10am, as required by the hostel. I'll have to call my three accommodations contacts and hope that one of the better reviewed working hostels has room for me. Then I'll walk 5 minutes to where I can buy a 30$ Greyhound ticket to Bowen and board the bus at the according departure time.

As of now, after hearing of no work, I've been checking in for another night at the hostel and starting my day of leisure and lazing. My routine has become: Breakfast, internet cafe, sun bathing, swimming, sun bathing, lunch at the hostel, reading/nap in the hammock, shower, dinner, nightly movie on the 'outdoor cinema screen' and then off to bed with a book at 9pm. Here are a few of the sights I see daily:  

I really can't complain, but it has taken some time to mentally adjust to such a different life pace. I've always been one for the 'fast life', living in a city, busying myself with chores, responsibilities, social life (friends, drinks, going out) and any other project I could fill my time with. I realize that the next few months of my life will be drastically different, physically and mentally, from what I am used to and I'm looking forward to learning from it and adapting to it.