Anyone tried fruit picking

BPXR6T · 31-01-2012, 08:45 PM

I'm keen to make a few extra bucks and get outside for a bit. I see on TV from time to time about how Aussie farms are having to import workers to fill unskilled picking vacancies. However the last few times I've gone onto the harvest trail website I've found stuff all jobs. At the moment there is pretty much 1 job listed Australia wide for an unskilled picker. Just wondering if anyone on here has taken a fruit picking job and how they went about finding the job.

gcg2503 · 31-01-2012, 08:52 PM

Not many fruit pickers drive Boxsters!

XARATE · 31-01-2012, 08:54 PM

I do it when im short of cash its awesome money!!! Can earn in excess of $180 a day if your fast. The only fruit i wont pick ever again is fig picking its just wrong on so many levels.
Try around tumut, batlow, adelong and tumbarumba during the picking season

Uncle Niceguy · 31-01-2012, 08:54 PM

depends where you are really and when looking for a job they normally advertise in the local paper. i did strawberry packing on the upper northside of brisbane. and its good work as well if your up for a saw back and loads of sunburn and also 12 hour shifts in season some places may offer cheap accomodation onsite or like me take a tent along and pitch up for nothing. it is fulltime work so it may not be the best thing for you though.

BPXR6T · 31-01-2012, 08:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gcg2503

Not many fruit pickers drive Boxsters!

what's your problem.

BPXR6T · 31-01-2012, 09:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XARATE

I do it when im short of cash its awesome money!!! Can earn in excess of $180 a day if your fast. The only fruit i wont pick ever again is fig picking its just wrong on so many levels.
Try around tumut, batlow, adelong and tumbarumba during the picking season

Where did you find the jobs? I'm currently working casual in IT, went back in there today for the first time in ages and HATE it. So I'm looking at doing a bit of traveling and picking. I just can't seem to find the jobs. I've only looked online.

Uncle Niceguy · 31-01-2012, 09:09 PM

oh and best that when applying to go out to the business as not many of them advertise online as you have probably noticed and unles you wanna kill your legs and jeans don't do pineapple picking.

BPXR6T · 31-01-2012, 09:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.NiceGuy

oh and best that when applying to go out to the business as not many of them advertise online as you have probably noticed and unles you wanna kill your legs and jeans don't do pineapple picking.

Thanks, much appreciated. Yeah, I thought it was a seasonal thing at first but have been watching the harvest trail site for a while out of curiosity and there's never much on there. Do the farms typically use employment agents to find workers or is it all just rock up at the pub or farm gate and ask around.

GhiaEB · 31-01-2012, 09:48 PM

When I was in QLD Backpacking thats all I did was picking, backbreaking work but you get paid per crate/pallet/whatever. Its damn good money if you work. If you're lazy then it is a pays sweet F.A. I think that’s the reason most Aussies don't want to do it. In my group of friends we used to pick 3-4 pallets of onions (as an example) a day. My share was $800pw and this was over 10 years ago!!!!

I also did potatos, tomatos and other fruit and vegi's, it's honest work, you put the effort in, you get the rewards. you roll up and expect to get paid for doing nothing, you get paid nothing!

Uncle Niceguy · 31-01-2012, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BPXR6T

Thanks, much appreciated. Yeah, I thought it was a seasonal thing at first but have been watching the harvest trail site for a while out of curiosity and there's never much on there. Do the farms typically use employment agents to find workers or is it all just rock up at the pub or farm gate and ask around.

its very much the highlighted above that happens.

naddis01 · 31-01-2012, 11:36 PM

If you are serious get to a fruit growing area and rock up at the backpackers. They will know where there are jobs going. Otherwise drive around as some farms have 'pickers wanted' signs out the front or just ask around. There will be jobs going if you are willing to put some effort in to find them.

Another option maybe doing the cereal harvest run. Depending what you are doing it can be much easier (long hours though) than fruit picking as you could be driving a tractor or header. However they generally want some one with mechanical experience. If you are thinking along those lines grab a copy of The Land or Weekly Times newspaper as there are always Position vacant ads in there. Its the wrong time of year for the wheat harvest but you might get some work doing the summer harvest (sorghum, maize, soyabeans, rice etc).

kruptor · 31-01-2012, 11:47 PM

Its very hard work i use to fruit pick some years ago for extra cash on the weekends.Trust me you start early and you finish late if you want the money.Was roughly $50 to $75 a bin and if i hooked in i could get close to 6 bins done in a day but that was flat out start at 6 and finish at 6.Thats also climbing the trees and driving the tractor etc.Picked oranges and lemons.Plus you get cuts up your arms bitten by spiders.

If you want to go out side,go for a walk lol.Or just do that letter box drop for pamplets.

mik · 11-02-2012, 12:42 AM

i went on a working holiday years ago, got a job fruit picking in robinvale Vic so i thought(he had enough pickers), ended up in the warehouse with about 20 other labourers doing various jobs from stacking pallets of grapes to using a large foot stapler to assemble up thousands of card board boxes,
money was`nt huge but it was ok, drove back to my campsite along the murray of night, it was 33/36 nearly every day, bloody grouse, 3 weeks later it rained heavily and the bulk of us got the bullet,
it was good while it lasted though.
plenty of those farm jobs if you look for them. the ces has little booklets on fruit picking and when they are in season ....cost you nothing.