Corrick Plains (Nr Ayr, QLD)

Corrick Plains (Ayr, Queensland) - Picking Zucchinis
Thursday 3rd June - Friday 4th June





Picking zucchinis is like the most horrendous job ever. Ever ever.

Start time was 6:30am, finish time depended on how much fruit they wanted that day. After around 4 hours or so there was a smoko break for 15 minutes. At roughly 13:30 (if you were still working) there would be a lunch break, also only for 15 minutes. Everyone gets Sundays off.

Each field has however many rows of plants, and each person gets assigned one row each. At Corrick you work in front of the 'boom' (aka tractor) and you walk along ahead of it picking the zucchinis using a knife, and then you have to BALANCE the zucchinis you've picked on your non-knife arm. Each zucchini has to be a certain size, and you can't cut off the stem either or they're no good. Once you've got enough (depends how many each person can hold) you walk back to the boom, and drop them off, then carry on. Each row took maybe about 30 minutes. At the end of the rows you can have a drink, as long as you remembered to put your bottle on the tractor.

The job was horrendous!! The zucchini bushes are nasty and they have prickles and things (which is why its recommended you wear long sleeves and trousers, not helpful when its hot!) and they were full of bugs too. The bugs are shitty and like to jump in your face. On my first day I kept dropping the zucchinis (its bloody hard to balance them!) and that just makes you really slow - although the boom only ever keeps up to the person who's furthest back, it still makes you feel rubbish if you are that last person. Also, there is one or two people who walk behind the boom called 'checkers' who make sure you haven't missed any plants on your row, and occasionally check the stuff you put on the boom to make sure its all good. One of the checkers seemed ok, but the other guy was a grumpy bastard who barely even spoke - how are you suppoed to know how you're doing with no feedback?!

After my second day I was basically sacked, though I wasn't given a real reason why - when I asked, she said 'you weren't trying hard enough' - thats bollocks, because I know I was trying hard! If she'd given me a proper reason like, you're too slow or you pick them too small or something, I wouldn't have minded. But this is still annoying me!!