Since Paul and I are here on our first working holiday visa 417, we have the opportunity of extending and getting a second year working holiday visa 417. But to qualify for that, we have to do the infamous farmwork.

So, since living in Melbourne didn’t give us that much profit on our savings, and we still wanted to leave, we decided to give farmwork a go. On facebook I found a post in a backpacker group a few months before we had planned to leave from a woman who was looking for mandarin pickers. I texted her straight away and without much effort given, we both had a job waiting for us in Renmark, SA.

We arrived in Renmark around mid June after travelling the Great Ocean Road and Grampians Nationalpark first. After a few days we started working as mandarin pickers. Well yeah the first few days it was fun, working 5-7 hours a day, learning something new, being outside all day, listening to music and daydreaming while working.

But as the days and weeks went by, I personally felt very unhappy. At this time, we were living in a caravanpark in a bungalow, at which some of our colleagues were also living. I didn’t really know what bothered me and made me so unhappy, because on one hand I enjoyed that we had a job where we could sleep in and didn’t have to work until around 9-10 in the morning, that we would come home around 5 in the evening, shower, cook a nice dinner and then snuggle up in our warm bed and watch some TV. On the other hand, it just didn’t work.

I did cry a lot of times during these weeks. I just couldn’t hold it back and obviously my bad mood affected Paul very much as well. To this I must add, that I don’t usually cry a lot, especially not in front of others, so it was a very weird and unknown feeling I had inside of me.

I came to the conclusion that the thing that bothered me so much and made me sad, was the farmwork and our life in Renmark. The insecurity of not knowing what time or if we would even work (fruitpicking is weather dependant), the looong hours of very monotonous work, which was more mentally draining rather than physical, and the bad pay sums up pretty well why it was not the dream working there. Working as a fruit picker you usually get payed per piece.

Beforehand, our future boss had told us that the average competent pickers ears around $24 before tax, which ofcourse was great. What she didn’t tell us, was that the definition of a competent picker is not just a picker, that has been working for a few months, it is a picker that has probably been working like that for years. We worked with other backpackers, who had been fruitpicking for months and they were working at the same pace as us, meaning they earned just as little as us. We soon realized that we would be earning the same in a few months, around $12-$18 per hour before tax, and that it was certainly not profitable. Honestly, both Paul and I felt like we pushed ourselves and really tried hard to be as fast as possible.

Ofcourse I knew before hand that fruitpicking is hard, but I did expect that we would meet loads of other backpackers and have fun with them. The thing is just that, we didn’t really talk much with other people during work, because you are working on your own rows and people can be really far away and also we didn’t get along fantastically with the ones living at our caravan park. I do believe that we can find another farm which another form of labour and have fun there and where I can be happy. For some reason working as a mandarin picker in Renmark was just a really bad combination for me.

So one wednesday night on our third week, I asked Paul, if we could please leave, because my mental health became worse and worse by living there. Paul was not to happy about this work either, so after some thinking he luckily said yes. Thursday we packed down all of our stuff and prepared for leaving. Friday we left.

I am sorry if I am making anyone lose hope about fruitpicking before hand after reading this, but just to be clear, this is MY experience and feelings. The other backpackers seemed to do just fine and they are probably still working there. Paul would probably have stayed 3 months, if it hadn’t been for me. I just believe, that sometimes you are happy in a situation, where others aren’t and likewise the other way around.

Below is a list of the good things about farmwork, just to cheer you up a bit and to remind myself that there were also good aspects about working there.

Good things about farmwork (particularly mandarinpicking)

• You don’t start work until 9-10 (in winter, because the trees need to be dry)
• Even if you work just a few hours a day, it counts as a full day towards your second year visa (because that is how the days can look like for a worker in fruitpicking)
• You can work on weekends and earn extra money
• You can daydream A LOT
• You are outside all day and can enjoy fresh air
• You can eat as many mandarins as you’d like
• Sometimes work gets cancelled

Exploring Renmark

Okay, using the word exploring might be a little to much, but if you should ever find yourself in Renmark, then we recommend heading to Heading Cliffs lookout (find pictures below here), have a walk along the Murray River and to do the Border Cliffs customs house walk in Chowilla Game Reserve.