Farm Work Australia: 88 Days

Australian Regional Farmwork: A Survival Guide

Farm Work Australia

Obtaining that first-year Australian working holiday visa (417) is pretty easy for most people wishing to move down under.

Make sure to read my complete guide to an Australian Working Holiday 417 Visa. Focusing on how to get out here in the first place!

It’s getting the 2nd year and the Australian regional farm work thats the hard part.

The Australian government knows how to lure us deeper into their beautiful country. Most of you, if your anything like me and a backpacker, you will be on the Australian Working Holiday 417 Visa (WHV). I can gauantee you will want to stay for the second year.

However, getting that second-year visa comes with a catch.

The only thing standing in your way from continuing your best life in Straya, is the longest 88 days of your life. With the subclass 417 visa, you can stay for a second year on the provision you complete 88 days of regional farm work in your first Australian visa year.

Those long 88 days equates to around 3 months. However, I would leave a comfortable five months to complete your farming, as it can be a tough and difficult task to complete for various reasons.

Mine has taken 128 to complete 88 days, which works out at just about 4 months.

Let me start by saying, this will probably be the biggest mental and physical challenge most of us may experience to secure a bloomin visa.

But my god is it worth it to stay another year here in Aus. It will be the best, worst experience that you will never want to repeat. Unless your insane and going for your 3rd year.

Hopefully, the below will give you a little bit of a foot in the door, expectations, a reality check, a laugh at my own expense and some solid advice for those about to take on the journey that is 88 days farming and Australian regional farm work.

• General tips and advice
• What work you could be doing
• Helpful websites and government help guides
• How to go about securing your farm work
• Living arrangements
• Friends for life
• What to expect, the rumours, myths, and exploitation

General Tips and Advice for Australian Farm Work

A key quote for farming, summed up by my friend Khadija: “f*ck what you thought you knew about farm work”.

Navigating farm work and trying to set yourself up for life on “the farm” can be a minefield in itself.

You aren’t sure where to start, who to get in contact with, do I organise it six months in advance or just rock up at a hostel and go with the flow?

All of the above are options that could work. Talking to those brave souls who have done it will either help you or scare the shit out of you – but for future reference, everyone will refer to “the farm” as if it’s some magical place that all WHV’s 1st years go together to secure their second year.

In reality, the farm is just the general name for any regional farm work you may do across any Australian state.

Here are my top 5 Australian Regional farm work tips:

• Make sure you have paid work – NOBODY should be working for free.
• Make sure you get your evidence – pay slips, work for a registered ABN (Australian Business number).
• Leave 5 months to complete farming before your 1st-year visa ends.
• Invest in some earplugs
• Keep going, you can do it.

How Is 88 Days Farming Calculated?

To keep this simple, to qualify for your second year working holiday visa you are required to complete 88 days of regional farm work.
To see what work qualifies as regional farm work head to the Australian Immigration website here:

How Does It Work To Get 88 Days

Your 88 days can be completed over segmented periods – 2 months here, 1 month here, 3 months here until your 88 days are completed. However, make sure your maths and calculations of your days are correct – you have to do 88 days regardless.

Most people tend to do it all in one big stretch:
88 days can be calculated a few ways, but it is mainly distinguished on the type of work hours and or payment method you are on.

Australian Farm Work Rates Of Pay

Hourly Rate

Please note this is going off the 2019 amendments to working holiday visa regional farm work requirements and could change each year, so check against the government website.

If you secure an hourly paid job your 88 days will be calculated by hours.
(make sure to check the minimum wage allowance and that it matches the legal requirement)

For an hourly pay rate regional job to qualify as ONE Day, you will need to work 6.5 hours a day, 6 days a week.

1 DAY: 6.5HRS on hourly pay rate.

Or
The one everyone gets twisted, lied too, wrong and sometimes right.

7 Days = 36 hours per week.
To qualify for full time working hours and achieve seven days that add to your 88 – you will need to work full-time hours of 36+ hours a week. Only then will you get 7 days.

Examples

If you work 6 days for 6 hours each day – 36 = 7 days because you reached the full time working hour qualification.

If you work 3 days for 12 hours each of those three days – you will achieve 7 days because you have reached over the full time working hours as per the government website.

The shortest amount of time you can achieve your regional 88 days is 13 weeks – Minimum.
This goes off the maths of 13 x 7 = 91 Days.
That only works if you work full time 36+ hours a week for 13 weeks – wam bam, thank you, mam, farming done.

Time To Confuse You!

What confuses people is what happens when you don’t reach 6.5 hours a day?

Say for example you work seven days on an hourly rate pay, BUT you only work 3 hours for each of those seven days.

You’ve worked a total of 21 hours – which you will then have to divide by the day rate of 6.5 hours when on hourly pay = 3 Days work for that week.

This is one of the reasons why Australian farm work can take so long! Not to mention or factor in other reasons like; you get fired and put to the bottom of the hostel waiting list, weather, rain, flooding, plants not growing, slow season starts, the reasons go on.

Hourly rate jobs are the ones you want essentially because it allows you to earn some money and hopefully save.

The best jobs for hourly-paid are packing sheds. I spent 70hours a week (sadly doesn’t equate to 14 days a week) in a packing shed and completed my farm work quickish (despite wasting a month on a shitty 3 days on 2 days off 4 days off one day on farm previously).

Piece Rate

The other pay option.
Let me start by saying, unless you are doing mangos or find work in an in-demand small season turnover harvest, which allows you to make a lot of money because the fruit/veg is priced high – you will not make money on piece rate.

Piece rate is a quick way to complete your 88 days because you essentially would only have to work 1 hour a day for 88 days to qualify for your regional farm work.
1 hour = 1 day.
That does not mean 6 hours = 6 days though!

However, most piece rates are done by KG weight of buckets, bins, etc and can be as low as $2 a 3KG bucket – think chilies, raspberries, etc. 9KG of buckets, 4 hours of work = $20.

Unless you can pick like a crazy person, you will not save money doing piece rate. If you want to get your farm work done quickly or have left it to the last minute, it’s a good way to go.

What Farm Work Jobs Could You Be Doing?

Regional farm work has to be completed, believe it or not, in regional areas of Australia. You can find out what postcodes classify as regional via the Australian government website here.

Within these areas then define what kind of regional work you will be doing. The majority of farm work is picking, planting & packing. The only thing that changes is the fruit depending on the area and what time of year you are looking to complete your farm work.

The Australian harvest guide is a great website for outlining what time of year is good for what fruit In each area so you can pick and choose accordingly. There’s no point heading to Queensland to pick mangos in the low season when you could head up to Darwin when there’s another fruit in high season for those months.

Another point, you don’t really get a choice in what work you do. You are on a list usually and its given to you. If you hate the work, you can quit but you are likely to go to the bottom of the list. Plus, the grass isn’t always greener on another farm.

You Will Get Fired at Some Point

I had a varied farm work experience. Luckily, or not, I got to do both manual back-breaking work and mentally draining “easy” work. I still don’t know what I preferred.

My first farm job consisted of dragging plant trays up acres of acres of plastic sheeting, hand planting pumpkin and watermelon seeds whilst bent over for 7 hours a day, basically, a broken back by the end of the first week and EVERYTHING hurt.

Another job I had was playing catch with pumpkins whilst standing on a moving tractor on thin metal crossbars, placing pumpkins into huge cardboard bins, all whilst sweating in 37-degree heat 7 am – 4 pm.

Throw in 6 of the happiest, singing Tongan guys you will ever meet, who picked pumpkins like machines faster than I’ve ever seen anyone do anything. I had the most toned arms I will ever possess though! So there are some benefits.

The Shed of Dreams

I completed 70/88 days in a packing shed. A huge metal warehouse the size of a football pitch that sorted round melons into square boxes of 6,7,8,9,12,15,18 formations. After you became a pro at melons, you got upgraded to Sorting capsicums (peppers).

This is a huge roller machine where capsicums come flying down in their hundreds onto a moving sorting table. Or, round vertigo-inducing spinning tables. Looking for cracks, holes, wrinkles, rot or the perfect ones as they whizz past you at 30mphs with 30 other people.

All of this whilst the Aussie managers shout at you for doing it wrong, missing fruit, mis-sorting fruit into wrong shoots or conveyers, for 13 hours a day, 6 days a week. + No talking, concept of time or music to make the day go faster. Just you and your thoughts… Shed head is real and by the end of it, I WAS SICK OF MY HEAD. But, I bloody did it and survived to complain about it.

What To Expect from Australian Farming

Here are some of the jobs fellow backpackers and friends had to do on their 88 days of regional australian farm work.

• Crawled on their hands and knees picking capsicums (warning: the worst job)
• Picked tomato’s off vines
• Sat on their arses on a tractor hammock hand planting seeds daily (with music and daily singalongs)
• Humped banana’s (boys only 6ft + need only apply)
• Washed bananas
• Sat on a quadbike and checked pipes all-day
• Cleaned and put stickers on pumpkins every day
• Looked after baby cows – cute
• Drove a tractor up planting rows
• Worked in an avocado nursery
• Worked on solar panel farm (the number 1 job $$$)
• Picked up sticks and rocks in cane fire areas.

The list goes on and changes depending on what area you go too: all farm work is shit, you’ve just got to hope it’s shit you can put up with for an extended period.

Helpful Websites and Government Guides

National Harvest Guide
This document created by job search.gov.au outlines all of the Regional postcodes (postcodes where farm work is valid for your second year) in each state of Australia, alongside what fruit is in harvest for what months of the year.

Australian Government Website
It’s not the best source of information when it comes to real farm questions. It’s minimal and basic but it leaves no room for argument. If it’s not on the AU government website, its likely rumours, lies, and information you need to disregard, and I will address some of those rumours later.

Facebook Groups
These are great – farmers, those in specific areas in need of workers ASAP, post and inform you of whats going on in the area all over Australia. These kinds of groups save you flying to an area, only to find out there’s no work once you get there.

Social Media
This comes in handy when looking at working hostels specifically for regional farm work. Search the tags for specific hostels and message those living there at the time for information.

How To Secure Farm Work In Australia

1. Word of mouth and talking to people.
   I was lucky in having a few friends who had done farm work before and gave me the name of working holiday hostels in regional areas and farms they had been on.
   
   If those failed – they had friends of friends who could then pass on their farm numbers.
   Don’t be afraid to ASK people, those on their second years have all done it and have been in your shoes before, we will help you out I promise.
   
2. Working Holiday Hostels – see below for the whole section on that.
   
3. Look on the internet for regional areas in season for the time of year you are going and google the working holiday hostels within that area and get on the phone.
   
4. Find large scale fruit and vegetable packing sheds in regional area’s and get on the phone
   
5. Pick a spot on a map in a regional postcode, find a hostel, campsite and visit the local farms, family farms and more.
   
6. Facebook groups and the internet.
   
7. You have to be active in looking, a job won’t land on your lap, it’s a competitive thing in high season. Especially on the east coast.
   

Northern QLD Australian Regional Farm Work Locations:

I am going to be nice and give you a heads up on the main farming area’s for Queensland main season June – November.

Tully & Innisfail: Key Banana Places with other fruit available
Ayr & Homehill: the Largest variety of different fruit/ vegetable and picking/packing jobs in a small area.
Bundaberg: Another large area of mixed fruit and vegetables.

Not to forget that the west coast also has a huge farming area, alongside Darwin and northern territories. Mildura, Victoria is also a common regional farm work area too.

That should give you a head start in where to look for…..

Top Questions To Ask For Farm Work Australia & Working Hostels

Australian Working Hostels for Farming

This would be where I would advise anyone who was looking to do their Australian regional farm work to start. Pick a location in Australia, and then make sure it is within the regional postcode to qualify for your farm work.

After that, make sure it’s in season for the time you want to go and then start researching the working holiday hostels on google.

Working Holiday Hostels can be the place of nightmares. It can also be the place where you call home for a foreseeable amount of time. Make lifelong friends, create memories you will remember for the rest of your life and learn you can put up with and even sleep through, the shittiest of techno music, no matter what time of day or night.

1. Do you have any availability in the hostel?
2. What is the wait for work?
3. How long do we have to stay or pay upfront in rent or with bonds?
4. How many farms do you have relationships with?
5. Are these hourly or Piece rate farms?
6. How much is rent?
7. Is transport provided by the hostel – if so – is this included in the rent?
8. What amenities are provided by the hostel? – kitchen equipment, bedding, etc.

What An Australian Working Hostel Provides

Accommodation

Usually, either shared dorm rooms from 4 people and upwards. Or, private room (lucky you) for the couples that arrive together or those new-found farm wife/husband situationships.

Sometimes they will also provide bedding, cooking equipment and work equipment such as High vis, hats, 5-litre water bottles, etc. It all depends on how good a hostel you stay at.

Some will give you nothing but a bed and the bed bugs that go with it.

A Job

Often, to get a job, you will need to stay at the hostel for sometimes a minimum time or contracted number of weeks initially.

The List

Most hostels operate off a list that goes up nightly to tell you your start times the following day for those already in jobs.

The waiting list

Essentially, your name is up in order of arrival and when works comes up, it is allocated to those at the top until you reach your turn.

However, here comes the mental warfare. People can get taken off jobs and put back to the top. You could be 1st one day and then the list goes up and your back down to 6th. For reasons such as 5 peoples short term jobs, who got there before you, have ended.

Or, you have run out of things to do whilst waiting for two weeks, you are bored stupid, going slightly insane with cabin fever and you decide to do the only thing left. Get drunk and have a party in the middle of the day with the other waiting list crew.

Piss off your hostel owner so much, they move you from 6th down to 12th to teach you a lesson. Yes, that happened. Our hostel owner good Ol’ Shell liked to remind us who was boss and to not piss her off because she controlled our little farm lives.

Or, you were really lucky, get to your hostel and the next day you have work at 6 am and are woken up by a screaming Australian hostel owner. Usually telling you that you have five minutes to get your high vis on and get in the vans to work.

Transport

Not all working holiday hostels will provide transport. This is one of the key things you need to check before booking on. The farms can be anywhere as far as 30 minutes to 1 hour away from the hostel.

Transport if included, is then added to your rent or an additional cost for the days you worked and used it.

Friends

I was extremely lucky in that I went to the farm with my three best girlfriends. I also had a group of five other friends who had been at the hostel for three weeks previously and gave us the low down on work, wait times, hostel information and availability.

Other than those nine I had before farming, I can now say my extended farm family, and yes, it is a dysfunctional family, is as large as 32 family members (I was in a hostel of around 75 people). All within different sub groups, from different countries; get yourselves some Italian friends, they are feeders and the best cooks. Throw in some Frenchies for wine and cheese nights too.

Plus, the UK & Irish lot who are your staple for any working holiday hostel. With this you have the recipe for the best 3+ months of your life.

Over the Hill

The work is shit, the living conditions are shit. Really, in comparison to my best Sydney life, I was living before heading to the farm, it’s horrendous. But, the memories I have made, the connections across the world I have secured are, without a doubt, the best times of Australia.

You also leave the farm with so many more connections and opportunities due to your friendships with these people.

Farm Work Australia Rumour Mill & Myths

You’re not in your sanest state of mind when on the farm. Daily life questions of “wtf am I doing”, evacuation and rescue mission plans, all self-appearance care goes out the window and your mind tends to runaway with you.

Rumours for cheats relating to farm work completion, day short cuts, hostel owners taking advantage and so on are common knowledge and they spread like wildfire.

Especially the 13 payslips rumour that is going around now (2019) – The rumour is: 13 payslips qualify you for your 88 days – regardless of the number of days, all you need is 13 payslips from one employer and you are done.

WRONG.

13 payslips of 13 weeks at full time 36+ hours a week consecutively will get you your 88 days, nothing more, nothing less, unless, you are on piece rate.

My basic advice to combat the bullshit – if it is not on the government website, it’s not true – don’t go on what everyone else says is true, you’d hate to be in the same boat when you are all 30 days short because you believed a farm rumour or money-grabbing hostel owner.

Tools to Survive Farm Work in Australia

And that, I think is everything you could want to know about what to expect, prepare for and more when it comes to your regional farm work to obtain your 2nd year Australian Working Holiday Visa.

My final parting advice:
Think of the number of people who have done it and know you can do it too. It’s shit, but it’s shit you can put up with to secure a second year in one of the most amazing countries on this planet.

Here are some reasons to get that 2nd-year visa…