Almost every backpacker in Australia has actually encountered the term ‘farm work’ throughout their journey. Working on a farm down under provides you with the chance to spend another year in Australia whilst having the ability to conserve up for the rest of your journeys.
Are you currently preparing your very own farm adventure? What might at first sound like hard work (and well, it kinda is) is later called by numerous backpackers the ‘best time of their lives’. That’s due to the fact that it’s the best method to meet new travel buddies and get to know the Outback and the ‘real’ Australia, all whilst topping up your travel funds.
Job searching can be confusing and stressful, and there are a few questions that always pop up when the topic of farm work is discussed.
Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme
From April 2022, the Seasonal Worker Programme and Pacific Labour Scheme will be consolidated, reformed and replaced by a more versatile and efficient single program.
When there are not adequate local workers available, the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme allows qualified Australian businesses to hire workers from 9 Pacific islands and Timor-Leste.
Through the PALM scheme, eligible businesses can recruit workers for seasonal jobs for as much as 9 months or for longer-term functions for between one and 3 years in inexperienced, low-skilled and semi-skilled positions.
The PALM scheme helps to fill labour gaps in regional and rural Australia by offering employers access to a pool of dependable, efficient workers. It also enables Pacific and Timorese workers to take up jobs in Australia, develop their skills and send earnings home to support their neighbourhoods and families.
Australian services can access PALM scheme workers by either applying to join the PALM scheme or through a PALM scheme authorized labour hire company.
Agricultural compliance company IComply is one of our go-to for businesses and workers looking for employment so check them out here.
The 2nd Year Working Visa and Guidelines
Where, when, what: area, time period and task requirements
Making an application for your very first working holiday visa through the Australian government website is quite straightforward, and you’ll quickly find yourself living and working in Australia. Excellent news, mate!
The second year visa application process is a tad more complicated as your work needs to cover:
a) particular areas
b) specific job types
c) a certain amount of time
To earn the right to a second year visa you should work in among Australia’s more remote areas– the sort of places where taking a trip to the closest town takes about as long as travelling to a whole other country in Europe. To ensure that your work counts as ‘local work’, check that the postal code of the place you’re looking to work at is on the list of authorized locations on the Australian federal government site. The job should be paid (in the past voluntary work was eligible) and the work hours must constitute a full-time task.
Possible jobs include most farm work, so generally whatever from harvesting veggies to planting trees and working with animals. More generic tasks on farms, work on fishing boats or mines, or craftmanship in local locations may likewise be accepted. There’s a broad option! I make sure you’ll find something that works for you; whether you’re a knowledgeable handy-person or an absolute farm work beginner like me.
The general rule is that you have to do 88 days of farm work to be able to use for a 2nd working vacation visa. This implies that you only have to work 3 months, during which time you can experience the Australian Outback and continue saving for your travels where there are less temptations to spend your hard-earned money.
In case you take a break for a while or do your farm work in numerous locations, just the days you really work count, implying that building up 88 might take a while. If you understand early on that you ‘d like to remain in Australia for 2 years, you need to begin collecting days as soon as possible, or try to discover a task for three constant months in an area you desire to call your short-term home (which truthfully isn’t tough to discover in gorgeous Australia).
Tips, tricks and other important info relating to the application
Managed to discover your dream farm task? Now you can more or less relax and relax … but do not forget the following points:
Whenever you’re paid you’ll get a ‘payment slip’ which you should not lose. You might be needed to show all your payslips from your first year of work as evidence to support the application for a second year working holiday visa. I understand, documents sucks. But trust me, no paperwork draws much more in this case.
Need to you be using from within Australia, it’s important to remain there up until the visa is approved. Don’t fret if your very first visa expires while you’re waiting– you will be given a temporary ‘bridging visa’ so that you can keep living and working in Australia until your application is processed.
Various season, various state
Australia is so big that it can be divided into different climate zones: The tropical north, the dry Outback and the moderate south. Due to the varying seasons you can discover farm work throughout the entire year, unless you have actually currently selected a state. Here’s a little introduction so you know how to be in the right location at the right time.
New South Wales
Experience the Australian summertime from December through April on a New South Wales farm. Throughout these months you can discover jobs on apple, asparagus, cherry and cotton farms and invest your weekends off road tripping through awesome national parks and surfing the wild coast.
Queensland
The Australian East Coast does not simply offer celebrations and Greyhound trips (although these are great deals of enjoyable), however likewise excellent farm jobs. Lots of banana, sugarcane, cotton, avocado and mango farms are searching for backpackers to help year-round, specifically in the periods from December– February in addition to April– August. I worked on a banana farm near Innesfail, located near to the Fantastic Barrier Reef in Cairns, as well as the beautiful beaches of Magnetic Island, the Whitsundays and Objective Beach. Additionally, there are lots of stunning waterfalls (a number of which are rather unknown) and incredible oases in the eastern tropics, to name just a couple of highlights. You can easily explore the East Coast’s main attractions whilst ticking off your farm work. Does it get anymore ‘working vacation’ than that?
Victoria
If you’re looking for work from November– April, everything in between Melbourne and Adelaide (on the local side) is perfect. Here you’ve got the option in between cherries, apples, peaches, white wine and tobacco. If you would like the chance to work with animals, you could also enquire at a horse ranch.
How to find a farm for farm operate in Australia
There are many ways to discover the ideal farm and you ought to generally be able to discover a task quickly if you’ve done some preparation. Knowing a couple of techniques may help as farm work is extremely popular amongst backpackers.