Son looking for work in Australia
 

Hi all, my 24 year old son is in Australia. He started in the usual place Sydney.
He flew to Cairns looking for farm work.
There is very little work for back packers. Any work at all. He is willing and able. It doesn't have to be farm work. Bar, Cafe. Whatever.
Anybody out there have any contacts? or jobs?
Willing to travel if there is work.
He has a friend who he met over there. A young lady. Not his girlfriend. She is looking for work aswell
atb Floyd

Your boy flew to Cairns because the weather is nice this time of year, its party central right now, but because everyone is there its overflowing with backpackers & not enough work for everyone (only those who got there first).

In all honesty if he wants work he should have stayed put in Sydney (bar work etc) and if he wants to see the country he needs to follow the harvest (not the weather/party).

See THIS LINK for the aussie harvest & you eill see there is not much happening in FNQ.

I've done the backpacker fruit picking m`larky years ago, fruit picking is hard work & the pay is crap, id suggest to go where the crowd is not (Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne) and get a cushty indoor job out of the weather.

At the end of our winter (august) the whole backpacking crowd moves south to Sydney for Christmas on Bondi Beach, again if he follows the crowd by the time he gets here there is no accomodation & no work.

Oh & Rockmelons are a dirty word in Australia right now after several deaths, so forget picking them farmers are plowing them back in to the ground.

Mezo.

Tbh, he is a bit green. He was told the work was on the farms in Cairns. Rather stupidly he didn't research it. Partying was better in Sydney he said. Difficult to get through to him. Still I never could be lol

Yep i was a green english backpacker once (Beds/Bucks) on my very first trip to OZ, 25yrs of age & no fecking idea what i was doing LoL.

He will start sussing stuff out over the months ahead & become streetwise, if he is going to fruit pick one tip i will give is to avoid ground fruit (strawberry/tomatoes etc) its back breaking work & there is no shade from the sun, i sussed that out very quickly & picked only fruit trees (apples/pears/mangoes) you can get some shade from trees & your back is straight.

He could try getting a job in a meatworks, nice & cool & the pay is good, i washed cars for rental companies in Cairns & Perth, easy work. Think outside the box & go door knocking for work rather than looking on the jobs notice boards in all the backpacker hostels.

Mezo.

Farm work = physically hard work.
There is a winery in Mudgee ...
the original vines were shaped low by the German immigrant to keep the vines warm when the snow came. It does not snow in Mudgee! The next set of vines were put in by someone else ... and they were placed high so the workers could stretch their backs. The workers try to do one low then a high - thus getting a workout rather than getting fixed into one position and sore at the end of the day.

The better framers ground crop workers now have shade cloth erected over the top of them to provide some relief from the sun. After day one, all the workers have large hats, long sleeved loose shirts and some sun burn. They learn quickly what to do.

The best practice it to see what others are doing - especially those who have done it before.

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Some of the backpacking accommodation places say there is work to get their place filled. Better to contact the employers and even then there maybe an influx of backpackers after the same work.

If he doesn't have a work visa AND a tax number he will have trouble getting work.

Young people unemployment rate is something like 20% and under-employment is much higher again, so can't expect to get any of the cushy jobs and that just leaves the work that the locals won't do.

Seasonal work in OZ
 

There are a few websites regarding this topic.

Here is one of them: https://www.harvesttrail.org.au

In every backpacker hostel they will get the lastet local information,as all young people want to make heaps of money and want to have all the fun here in Australia.

But farm work is usually hard and not for every one.

He has a work visa and a tax number

Now in Melbourne

The ski fields in New Zealand are recruiting at the moment, if that's any help? He'll need work permit though.

Bit of a difference from Cairns 28°C sunny day`s :palm:

Down to Melbourne's top today of 13°C cold wet & windy :freezing:

Mezo.

The Guardian Online has a good article this week about the working tourist visa system and the risks involved in the rural industries - exploitation, wage theft, slave labour conditions, sexual exploitation mainly of females.
https://www.theguardian.com/australi...ed-and-exposed


The Thorntree website used to have warnings about who to avoid.


Wage theft by employers is a major issue here at present, many of the "agencies" insist that backpackers become contractors (not employees) and therefore not required to pay appropriate wages, workers compensation insurance, deduct tax, etc.

If he does a 3 month stint in certified ag work, he can get a second year working holiday visa. Its worth sticking out the farm work for the 3 months, then get a cushty job in a cafe or bar for the rest.

According to Fairwork Australia the hospitality industry is also rife with wage theft.

I know, I follow a facebook group called 'Working in Hospitatlity makes me hate people'. A real eye opener.

I worked in NZ on working holiday visa and then on a work visa. Some NZ and Australian bosses really take advantage of foreign workers. I witnessed first hand abuse by bosses, when you are on a work visa, you can only work at that place of work specified in your visa in your passport. My boss threatened so sack me (for standing up to his domestic violence against his wife), so i'd only have 24hrs to leave the country (a bit difficult when I have a rented house, and a british registered motorbike to arrange the shipping of). It was a living nightmare. Best to just stick with a working holiday visa, then you can tell a boss to stick it and move on somewhere else.