Don't forget that farmers play by different rules. Depending how serious you are about getting a job, you must start your search very early in the morning, no later than 5:30am. The farmers and their trusted men will inspect you like slave owners used to do in the old days, and possibly even ask you about your previous experience in picking melons and pumpkins. Damn, I felt so under skilled on my first interview!
If you don't like being just a small cog in a gigantic machine, you will be better off going to a local call center where you can obtain a full list of smaller farms in the area with their contact numbers. Phoning them personally is the surest bet. In addition, most of the caravan parks handle such phone lists and will make them available to you if you pitch your tent or park your car on their grounds. Last but not least, word of mouth is by far the best method to find immediate employment. Ask the people around the campground for vacancies on their farms and surely there will be someone to pass you "good" news.
My first job started the day after my arrival in Kununurra. Having lied about my work status on the application form, I was hired by Pacific Seed Co. to pull weeds from their cotton and corn fields. Talking about picturesque farming! The Kimberleys are simply astonishing in their beauty. They are dotted with grandiose rock formations that stretch as far as your eyes can see and enclose vast areas of arid flatlands. At the sunset the sun puts on an extravagant show of deep, brick red colors beaming away from the hills with a hypnotizing intensity. So if you're not careful enough the foreman can have you fired upon the assumption that you are goofing off.
Australia boasts one of the most efficient agricultural industries in the world due to the combination of two factors: the availability of land and high-flying economic liberalism. I say this because I was simply amazed to the point of despair how enormous the plots of land were at Pacific Seed Co. My mates and I assessed that each row must have been one kilometer long, to say the least.
At first, the work was rather leisurely and unhurried; I walked back and forth, pulling random weeds until I figured out that I was unintentionally destroying the crops. For one thing, the tasked appeared immeasurably easier from my previous experience on the banana plantation in Tully, Qld. Little did I expect that two hours later I would begin to reach the limits of my patience. In the first week on the farm, I must have covered 10 kilometers per day on average, straining my eyes and chasing after invisible weeds.
The company screwed everyone over by taking 25% off the paychecks for tax purposes, a virtual theft considering that the majority of travelers provided fake tax numbers, hardly a novelty to the farmers. Surely enough, one of the Aussies in charge of the swindle must enjoy himself every Friday at poor backpackers' expense.
A mixed blessing arrived when I was pulled over in the early evening by the cops for failing to switch on a turn signal. I was driving my friend's car to the only computer room in town where backpackers can check their E-mail for a hefty price, when two local policemen with a country attitude flashed their car's headlights at my rear-view mirror. Let's say that the events went in such a direction that at one point the danger of being discovered and deported hung very closely over my head.
The same evening I hurriedly moved out of my campground to the centrally located Town Caravan Park where I booked in under a fake name. I could not return to Pacific Seeds Co for fear of being tracked down by the Police and I had to be extra careful when moving around town lest I run across the two cops again.
Questions?
If you want more information about this area you can email the author or check out our Pacific Insiders page.
