Labour shortage | Firm’s farm work program puts Canadians in Australian fields for 10 weeks during harvest
Derek Tufts had the choice of working outside in southwestern Manitoba this winter, or working outside in Australia.
Tufts, 23, of Minto, Man., made the warm choice and will board a plane in a couple of weeks.
“For the last few winters I’ve been working in the oil field and I thought I’d try somewhere different and a little bit warmer,” said Tufts, who grew up on a farm near Minto.
Once he arrives in Australia, Tufts will work for a farmer in the state of Victoria, where he will operate a combine and perform other tasks to get grain off the field and into the bin.
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Much like Western Canada, growers in Australia are struggling to find farm hands during the harvest period because young people have left rural areas or may be working at high paying jobs in the country’s mining sector.
To fill the labour void, an Australian firm called Dodgshun Medlin is reaching out to young men and women in Western Canada who have farm experience and want to work and travel in Australia.
With the help of a Canadian woman from Clandeboye, Man., the company has developed a short stay, farm work program called Farmaroo.
Since early September, Carling Henderson, who moved to Australia in 2010 after meeting an Australian lad in Manitoba, has held meetings in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, to recruit young, rural Canadians into the Farmaroo program.
Farmaroo offers young Canadians the chance to work for six to 10 weeks at a farm in Australia, which provides the necessary cash to hang around a beach resort for a couple of months.
The rate of pay isn’t equivalent to a job in Fort McMurray, Alta., but it is enough to fund a warm holiday.
“Eighteen year olds, over there, start at $18.50 an hour for casual farm labour,” said Henderson, who lives with her fiancé on a farm in the state of Victoria. “Nineteen year olds get $19.60 and 20 year olds and plus, get $20.70 an hour.”
Henderson, who used to work as an extension co-ordinator for Manitoba Agriculture in Killarney, joined Dodgshun Medlin shortly after she moved to Australia.
The firm provides a wide range of services to farmers, including financial management, taxation and agronomy. It set up a division last year to recruit and place employees on farms.
There are people willing to work on grain farms in Australia, Henderson said, but most people don’t have the necessary experience.
“(Farmers) could train anybody to drive a tractor or a combine, but (they) don’t have the time to spend training … people that are just so green.”
Instead of babysitting people who have never heard of a power take-off, Australian farmers, like Canadian producers, want to hire men and women who have operated a combine, tractor and a swather.
Last year Henderson and Dodgshun Medlin brought over three young men from Minnedosa, Man., as part of a trial run for the Farmaroo program.
The three worked on farms in the Mallee, an agricultural region in the states of Victoria and South Australia, located north of Melbourne.
Typically, the grain harvest in the Mallee begins around mid-November and lasts six to eight weeks. Producers in the Mallee grow wheat, barley, vetch, oats and canola. Horticulture is also a major industry in the region.
This fall, Henderson spoke at meetings across the Prairies and talked to students at Assiniboine Community College in Brandon, the University of Manitoba and high school students.
Henderson didn’t quite reach her goal of signing up 30 people for Farmaroo, but she did recruit several young men and women from Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
One impediment may have been the up front fee, as Dodgshun Medlin expects young Canadians to pay $2,500 to be part of the program.
Henderson said the fee is necessary because the company has spent time and financial resources to ensure it is linking Canadians to jobs on reputable farms.
“That (cost) is the certainty (of) having a job before you go … and they know they’re going to a good farm,” she said. “We set them up with bank accounts, pre-paid mobile phones, different things like that to get their foot in the door for Australia.”
For Tufts, the $2,500 wasn’t an issue because he knows he’ll have a job doing familiar harvest work at a grain farm.
“This is well planned out,” he said. “Some places (in Australia) you’re picking fruit and I wasn’t really looking for that.”
Henderson hopes that her outreach work this fall, speaking to young western Canadians, will pay off next year as many people expressed interest in the opportunity.
If it’s able to build up its job placement business over the next few years, Dodghun Medlin would like to offer its services to Canadian farmers, Henderson said.
“We’re also looking at doing the reverse, where we bring Australians to Canada (to work on farms).”
One thing Henderson did learn during her travels in Western Canada is that Australia appeals to all age groups, not just people in their 20s.
A number of Canadians older than 50 told her they’d like to work on a farm in Australia.
“They want to travel Australia, as well, and they want to take part in this program. Unfortunately, they can’t because the visa is only there for 18 to 30 year olds.”
