Regional work.

Hey guys and girls. 

a year in OZ is almost up now, the majority of work ive done has been regional (over 150 days!) have spent around 6 months on large cattle stations in outback “red dust central”  QLD, for families that have never had backpackers before which is awesome as you feel just like part of the family.
Jobs consisting mainly of fencing, laying polypipe checking stock etc but after travelling around OZ and then coming back my time has now been spent mustering which is epic!  what this long spew is about is for people not looking forward to or not wanting to pick fruit, get out to stations. its by far been the high light of mine and the other halfs OZ trip!  Another to look at is Vintages in wineries, we have just spent 3 months doing a vintage an hour or so out of Adelaide which is pretty easy work, covers your 2nd WHV and has the potential to get you $10-$15k in only a couple of months. long days, 7 days a week but gives you the money to spend less time working and more time travelling!

Any Questions just ask.

Hi Oecken,

I am heading to Australia in next few weeks and am interested in getting into the regional work both to save some money up and also to get the necessary time accounted to get our second year visa.

We are interested in the winery side of things, can you advise as to what the work was like? How did you get set up with the work or do you know of any websites that list the jobs? Do many of the places offer accommodation similar to when you were out in the stations?

Hey Buddy,

In terms of the work itself it consists of adding all kinds of stuff to large tanks of wine, acids, milk powder, c02 etc setting up pumps, hoses and fittings to transfer wine. you are normally always with a permanent employee so you can never go to wrong. the jobs for vintage (The busy time of year when the will have jobs on a casual basis) go up online around Novemeber for a start in Jan. I know this probably wont help you as your coming out soon but around that time of year simply google winery vintage jobs. the barrossa valley and the riverlands (1.5 hours from Adelaide) is where i was. in terms of accomodation i was fortunate to have friends to stay with, but most people would just go to a local Caravan park and get a cabin.  For things like station work, from my experience just go into job agencies (especially backpacker orientated ones) and say you dont mind remote locations, and ideally want station work, failing that there is always road house work. (a cafe/hotel etc) in the middle of no where, not bad wage and you cant really spend it! with the stations ive been on we stayed normaly in shearing sheds, basically a tin roof, walls and a very old single bed. its as basic as they come, HOT in the summer and very COLD in the winter. again i was fortunate to stay with families that dont normally have backpackers, through a random scottish woman who lives out here i met in Fiji lol.

Cheers

Mat

This is great info to read. I put a post up a few weeks ago in the Oz section about looking for outback work other than fruit picking but haven’t had any replies so maybe if I copy and past it here you could lend your advice….

“Currently working in Melbourne but in a few months me and my girlfriend are planning on heading north to the red centre to see Alice Springs/Uluru and then want to do some outback work (looking to get my second year visa). I know it’s possible to check into a working hostel where they find you various fruit picking jobs but we are thinking we would rather do some cattle ranching (jackaroo?) or other farm hand related work than the typical fruit picking that most backpackers do.
Does anyone have any experience looking for this type of work, have any connections with farms or know where to look to apply for these kind of jobs? Would ideally like to have something lined up before we leave Melbourne.”

We have now decided that after the red centre we are going to head north to Darwin so could really look for work anywhere between Alice and Darwin. Did you have any experience of working on cattle stations, mustering etc before you starting working in Oz? I’ve been getting the impression you need previous experience of working with cattle to get taken on by outback stations. I’ve seen those courses you can do that teach you mustering skills in a week but I don’t really want to have to spend money in order to get a job if I can help it.

Any thoughts?

I know i am resurrecting an old thread here but i am very intrigued in the winery vintage jobs. I will be looking at trying to extend my WHV once i am in OZ and working on a vintage would be perfect for me. I am looking at working long hours and 7 days a week aslong as i can save alot of money for further travelling. If anyone else has any more information please can you let me know as it will be greatly appreciated.

Hey guys,

with regards to finding outback work i was really lucky and was offered it while in Fiji of all places, but easiest that i know of other than gumtree posts is through a Jackaroo course, the deals normally is YOU have to pay around $700 + and they give you the experience, with potentially a job offer afterwards to basically earn back what you paid them. Yes its free labor for them effectively but a friend i know did it and has been there a year and a half.

With regards to winery work which is a great way to save, the jobs go up around oct/nov/dec (for South Australia anyways) check gumtree, any job search website and keep an eye out for “The Riverlands” which is where i worked in S.A. Kingston is the name of the largest company there, no previous experience needed just good work ethic. hope it helps

Mat

I take it that most of the winery work is in the South of Australia? You say that jobs go up around oct-dec but is that when the season is also? Its just i am looking to fo to OZ next September so if i could spend a month of travelling then get straight into a winery in Oct then that would be perfect for me

For my regional work I was cleaner on gold mine sites in rural WA - for a contracting company who also ran a sheep station so they signed me off as an agricultural worker.

Granted the work sucked but the area was interesting - we stayed on a station 60kms out of town - saw all manner of wildlife, met lots of cool people, went underground in a gold mine, went prospecting and found gold, experienced bush life…etc

I never had an interest in fruitpicking at all. I was lucky to stumble across this job though, I just walked into a job agency (AussiJobs) in Perth and pretty much got given the job.

:)