Saturday 20th March - Tuesday 20th April
Checking strawberry plants, one of the most repetive and boring jobs ever but also god damn easy money. Start at 6am, finish anytime between 1pm - 3pm depending on orders, later more often than earlier. Our only days off have been when it rained, other than Easter - bank holiday Friday.
We're out on giant fields covered in strawberry plants. The koreans and vietnamese pick the plants, the (non-asian) girls check to make sure the plants are good and the (non-asian) boys collect the plants into the tractors. Thats basically all there is to it, and yes you have to be the relevant sex / race to do the individual jobs - no such thing as political correctness here in Australia! Apparently people of an asian descent tend to be quicker at things like picking plants which is why this farm only likes them to do it and no one else. And then they like non-asian people to do the other jobs so they can distinguish easier. And yes, this is typical of Australian farms and of the country in general, or as I've seen so far anyway!
To check the plants we are assigned roughly 10 pickers each, and we walk along and pick up a bundle they've made. We have to check there's 20 in each bundle as well as other things like root length and how many leaves are on the plant, amongst others. If the bundle is good its fine, if its not good enough the picker gets a cross on our little clipboard and if they get too many crosses in one day they start losing money. The pickers are paid on contract per bundle they pick, whereas the guys and girls from Blue Topaz are all paid on an hourly rate, $17 or so just like everything else.
The job itself is piss easy, sitting in the fields for 9 hours a day in insane heat is not. Covering up as much as possible is recommended and readily enforced by Carla, the evil devil lady supervisor. I'm trying to get a tan on my legs whilst working here and its working really slowly. Whoop.
Whilst we worked at Red Jewel, a film crew for an Australian TV channel were there filming for a documentary. The film can be found HERE although you can't see me in it! *sob*
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