My experience of the 88 days farmwork in Australia
I travelled Australia for 6 weeks and then went straight into my 88 days regional work. I’m glad I started so soon as lots of people leave it too late and end up not being able to get a 2nd year visa.
It’s important that everyone knows it will most likely take more than 88 days to complete, from my experience we had lots of short days (less than 5 hours) that wouldn’t count as a full day of work towards the visa. On another note you need to consider weather conditions and the type of farm work your going to be doing as well. I did my work in the winter and missed out on multiple days of work because of rain storms. Altogether I ended up spending 5 months in the working hostel (thats because I didn’t want to leave either).
What Is a working hostel like?
I lived in a working hostel in Home hill, QLD with other backpackers. It’s different than a regular hostel in the sense of everyone is in bed by 10pm and up at 5am for work, there’s no noise at night time unless on a Saturday night. As we were all staying in the one area for a long period of time everyone creates a bond, I made friends for life in that hostel!
Every working hostel is different, you will hear good and bad but personally I think it comes down to the person themselves! Some people may be better off completing their regional work in bars, whereas we saw the fun in the farm work (except for the odd dodgy farm).
A good thing about a working hostel is when you get your room you ca make it your space, which backpackers don’t get to do often!
Different types of work I did on the farms
Ill make a list of the different fruit/vegetables I picked and planted.
- Chillis
- Lemons
- Limes
- Pumpkins
- Butternut squash
- Capsicums
- Japs
- Watermelons
Chillis were my first and easiest looking back, we were given buckets and had to fill the buckets with chillis for the day! I liked this one because the farmer would drop us into the field and leave us for the day whereas other farmers could be on your back for the whole day.
Lemons and limes were pretty simple too, given buckets had to put our arms up a tree and pick the lemons and limes. I liked this one until one day one of the lads put his hand up the tree and there was a 3ft python hiding up there!
Planting can be difficult as your bent over on your back all day, but once you put a good podcast on and your earphones in you should be flying it.
We planted, picked and packed pumpkins, japs, butternut squash and watermelons. I was the only female so the farmer would get me to pack, it sounds easy but its not when you have 15 men throwing 7kg watermelons at you from different directions!
Capsicums were the WORST in my opinion. I hated everything about that farm I think i lasted 3 days. Theres a conveyer belt on a tractor and you have to be at the same speed as it. A lot of the capsicums would be gone rotten as well and the smell was awful.
Harvesting sugarcane was simple, a harvester would go up and down the rows of sugarcane and we would have to walk the field to make sure there’s no rocks that could get stuck in the harvester.
After harvesting the sugarcane we would have to walk the fields and pick up all the loose rocks that were left behind, this was horrible.
A lot of the above might sound really easy but you have to take the heat into consideration, it was 30 degrees Celsius nearly everyday.
What do i need to pack for my 88 days?
- High vis shirt- can get these in op shop, kmart, bunnings.
- Shorts/trousers depending on heat
- Large water bottle (super important)
- Hat for sun protection
- Old shoes but comfortable
- Long socks
- A good Bum bag is essential for farm work to store your phone, room key, suncream etc.
The truth about farmwork
It can be really tough, the early mornings, being overworked, long hours and some farmers not being nice. However the experience, memories and friends you gain makes it so worth it!
It doesn’t matter what background or what job your coming from because everyone is there to do the same thing, farm work.
Being on the farm was one of my highlights in Australia, as i said above i met friends for life there. if i can give any advice just do it! Do it with an open mind and if its really not your thing, you can leave. At least give it a go!
We always found fun things to do outside of work, we had quiz nights, pool days, beer pong and went to Townsville for football games. The sunrises and sunsets really were a plus also. There was a local swimming pool that we all made good use of.
With everyone working on different farms, we would all bring home different fruits/veg and make meals.
Where can i find farm work?
Start by looking up working hostels, ask people you know who have done it and then move onto facebook groups. There is websites if you just look up farm work hiring QLD. Backpacker job board has loads of job listings!
The working hostel i stayed in has unfortunately been sold now but the closest one is 10 minutes away and its called Ayr backpackers, check out their website.
How do i keep track of my 88 days?
There is an app its called The88thday that you can download and use to keep track, i would recommend holding onto all of your payslips as they need information from them when applying for the visa.
I hope that gives a little bit more information on farm work/88 days as it is daunting not knowing what your getting into. I hadn’t a clue and had some shock when i got off the bus. But once you settle in it gets better i promise!
Ill leave a few of my favourite photos below.
