These Aren't Watermelons

26th January - 11th March

I suppose I questioned why I decided to do farm work again given that I already have my second year visa but it did make some sense. I only had 6 weeks until I wanted to be in Melbourne for the Grand Prix and then I wanted to travel around Tasmania before it got too cold. You can't get any kind of normal job without committing to a minimum of 3 months and a full time job is hard to find. That left me with two options, lie about the 3 months or do farm work...

Found one!

Farm work it was then. I figured a bit of hard graft would help me lose the extra pounds I gained at Christmas too. The job I got was hourly pay which is much better than contract as there is much less pressure and you will usually earn more. The work is for a contractor which means they work for the farms and they will place you where ever there is work. Its a good and bad thing really. It means there is nearly always work but the pay is less. It was advertised at $14/hour but I mistakenly thought that was after tax but its not. It was cash and we weren't paying any tax so I wouldn't be able to claim that back or claim any Super either.

I arrived on the Sunday with absolutely no idea what to expect. I had got the job through an agency who I paid $100 for the position. All I knew was that I had to contact the contractor in the supermarket car park when I arrived in Robinvale. Her name was Pat and she's an interesting lady but I'll get to that.

New Friends

She took me around to the share house where I met Jason and Vanessa, a couple from Hong Kong and three Japanese who struggled to understand me. I talked to them for a while to try and get as much information about the job as I could. Then Irena arrived. She's from Italy and speaks much better English. She had only been there a few days though so still couldn't tell me much. I met Olivia and Toby, a Swedish couple, a few hours later along with three Japanese; Kay, Yuki and Mayo.

The watermelon picking was easier than I thought it would be. I partnered with Irena and we walked down the rows picking the water melons as we went and put them to the side. The first day was quite short too which made a nice gentle introduction to the job. The next two days were a bit longer. Pat popped up every now and then to shout some instructions that didn't always make logical sense but it soon became apparent that it was all an act in front of the farmer as she didn't really have a clue what she was doing.

New Job

That was it! Job finished! There were a number of other teams picking the watermelons with us so the job was done in just three days. There were more fields of watermelons but they weren't ready. We never went back to that job so after coming for 6 weeks of watermelon picking I only did three days.

Pat arranged some other work for us. The Japanese guys went off to a carrot farm whilst Irena and I went do some weeding on another farm. Toby and Olivia had done the weeding job before and Toby said he couldn't do it because his back couldn't take it They didn't work for a week and a half which seemed torturous in a town with nothing to do.

So many weeds

The weeding job was actually alright though. It was good that I was with Irena who I had got along with so well when we partnered with the watermelons. The people we were working with were pretty chilled and our boss for those days pretty much said work as much as you want, take breaks when you want but just don't miss any weeds!

We were weeding rocket. All we had to do all day was take out all the weeds and grass that were growing amongst the rocket. It wasn't as bad on the back as Toby had made me fear. You could sort of sit and shuffle along as there were quite a lot of weeds in each section. It wasn't the most exciting of jobs but it was easy enough and this job was $15 an hour with 10 hour days!

Seeds

A less fun side to the job was when we occasionally had to do the lettuce seeds. Irena did it more than I did because the dirty old man farmer took a liking to her. There was a machine that went along that sort of shook all the bushes and collected the seeds. We just had to walk along behind getting the ones that the machine had missed. That bit was OK but there were a few patches that were too short for the machine and we had to do the whole rows by hand. The plants were sticky and the dust and seeds would get in your face making it hard to breathe. I started using a face mask after the first couple of times.

The TV programme called Border Control gave me the impression that the Australians were quite good at stopping people getting into the country to work illegally. This is most definitely not the case. There are so many people around Robinvale and on this farm especially that blatantly did not have a permit to work. I didn't bother me, everyone was really nice I was just really surprised that so many get away with it.

The Crew!

Pat had asked me when I arrived if I would use my car as transport so that she didn't have to take people everywhere. I got extra money for this so I didn't mind too much. I got $10 per person per day for this so it was good to get the extra income although the half hour drives at 5am dodging the kangaroos got a bit wearing towards the end. I did feel a bit bad taking this amount of money out of everybody's pay as it was more than the cost of fuel that I was using but it was also for the time spent driving when I would rather snooze in the back and if I would have hit one of many kangaroos then it would have cost me quite a lot.

As I had the car we were allowed by the boss to choose our own finishing time. There were two other people to transport from Robinvale too but they were quite happy to finish whenever me and Irena decided and were often keen to finish early especially when the temperature increased towards the end of the second week. The mornings had initially been really cold but by the second week the temperature kept heading towards 40. We mostly did 10 hour days but when it was getting too hot we would finish a few hours earlier. It was nice to have that freedom.

SMILE!

We were working as part of a different team at the weeding place including a guy that became part of many a conversation between Irena and me. I'm not sure what his actual name was but everyone called him Uncle. At first I thought he was somebody's uncle but that was not the case. He was a old Malaysian man who didn't speak a word of English. I think it was a combination of the language barrier and being old that made him appear a little crazy. He never really seemed to know what was going on. He would often try to talk to me in Malaysian even though he was well aware that I had no idea what he was saying. He had this manic laugh as well. It'd be like "blah blah foreignness, HA HA HA" and he'd carry on working. He was always happy and we just found him hilarious!

Mildura

The first weekend after I started in Robinvale we went on a bit of a roadtrip up to Mildura which is an hours drive. It wasn't for anything in particular, just something to do. Toby and Olivia were quite keen to get out of the town for a day as they weren't working and must have been insanely bored. We went to the library and attempted to use the WiFi which was horrendously slow so we gave up on that quite quickly.

You might think Saturday afternoon is prime time shopping but not in rural Australia, no. Everything is shut! I don't understand how they function when the shops are only open 9-5 Mon - Fri. When do you shop!? Anyway we had a KFC and got a few things from the supermarket which was way better than the one in Robinvale before heading back.

Show me your thumbs

It turned out we all had the next day off too so we cracked open the beers and goon and played some drinking games. As it was with the last farming job I had it is all about the people. OK I didn't like Jason, he was annoying and snored ridiculously loud. So loud in fact that I would occasionally get out of bed and kick him so that I could sleep but anyway I digress. The others were all really cool. The Japanese were what I now call typical Japanese meaning they were always happy, fun, polite and considerate and I got along great with Toby, Olivia and Irena. Irena pointed out that I could never say her name properly. I say I-ren-a but you supposed to do something fancy with your mouth that mine couldn't handle.

The Murray

The next day me and Irena went down to the famous Murray River that runs through the town. Its the longest river in Australia which runs all the way from the western side of the Great Diving Range to Adelaide and marks the border of New South Wales and Victoria. About half way along it there is a small platform where we spent the day.

Daredevil

The pool

The following weekend we did the only other thing there is to do in Robinvale which is the public pool. Its actually really good. It'd been so long since I'd been in a swimming pool and not the sea. We played a bit of water volleyball with an Italian ball we found.

Representing Italy

This is a long row

We had been doing the weeding job whilst we waited for this new job to start. It was picking dried fruits like raisins and sultanas and I carried on in this job until I left. Irena only had a week left and asked if she could just carry on at the weeding farm so I wasn't working with her anymore. Toby and Olivia were very happy to be working again and the Japanese guys joined us as well.

It was a reasonably easy job really. A machine would go along and cut all the vines which were hanging on wires and we had to go along and cut all the bunches that were above the wire and hang them on the wire so they could dry out. It was quite repetitive and after a long day your arms are very tired.

My new enemy

This is when I really got know Pat as she was working with us everyday. I had already figured her out from the previous two weeks. You could tell her heart was in the right place and she was fair. It must be the Asian in her that made her sound angry and argumentative all the time even if she didn't mean to be. I know Toby sometimes struggled to stay calm with her. The first couple of days working with her was quite frustrating as she would come and check on me every half an hour and repeat all the helpful tips that she had given me earlier even if they weren't actually helpful. She would also tell me to go quicker which is always lovely to here. I think it was on the third day I happened to go really quick and she pretty much left me alone after that which was good.

I quickly became aware that the best way to deal with here was just say "OK". I've never said "OK" so much in my life! I think I also became a outlet for her frustration about other people. Sometimes she wouldn't actually be yelling at me just yelling near me whilst looking at me! I would just nod and say 'yeah'.

Most days she would just leave us to get on with it unless someone was being significantly slow or she needed to finish the block that day. There were a couple of days were she was really riding us quite hard to the point where I absolutely hated her only for her to do something nice like give us an extra half pay for free or buy us lunch. She always gave us a can of coke each for lunch and after we'd finished. She openly admitted that at work she is a pain but outside work she is much nicer.

MASSIVE bee thing

There were others working with us too. There were a bunch of young Malaysian guys that sometimes just acted like kids which was quite irritating. One day Uncle turned up which shocked me. It turned out he had been sacked from the other job. He was only there for two days so I don't know what happened to him.

Stormy skies

We had a few good storms one week with one scarring the bejesus out of me. I'm sure a lighting struck the actually house. There was a huge flash and enormous cracking sound like something had blown up and everyone jumped. I never got caught out by rain whilst working though which was good. There were some days that were just too hot including a 43C torture but it got more and more bearable as Autumn set it.

Bye

I did some street art whist sat outside with Irena waiting for Pat to arrive with the pay. Irena left at the end of that week which was a sad day. She said the weeding job had gotten really boring now that I wasn't there.

Cat babies

Ever seen a cat give birth? I have now. I never thought I would be having that experience on my travels. There were a few stray cats that lived under the house that Olivia had taken a liking to. There was a ginger one I called Ginge, then there was Geoff, Black Momba, Lil Bro and a heavily pregnant Sugartits. We found her one day in the shed giving birth to 9 kittens! I've never been a cat person but these kittens were definitely the cutest thing I have ever seen!

So cute!

Meow!

Euston Club

It was coming towards the end of my time in Robinvale when Pat invited us all to meet her at Euston Club on the other side of the river. She kept buying us jugs of beer and chips which was really nice. It was a really good night and after working hard for so long it was something we all really needed. There was a bit of awkward dancing involved which there was an unfortunate video of.

Group photo

THE FUNNIEST THING EVER!!! and that is not an exaggeration. I can't stop laughing even now just thinking about it. It is a 'you had to be there' type thing but I'm going to explain anyway. So we taking quite a few group photos on a few peoples cameras and the Asian girl in the white t-shirt in the picture above looked at her group photo on her phone. By the way we have never seen her or spoken to her before tonight. She turns to Toby with the straightest of faces and says "Toby, whats wrong with you face?"

I couldn't handle it! I think it was the shock factor too. I did not expect that at all and I could not stop laughing for ages. Toby just looked offended which made it all the funnier. I think he's still a little upset about it. Ahh I enjoyed reminiscing about that! Absolute highlight of my time in Robinvale

Awkward dancing

Ahh Darliff, I'd blocked that out. She was literally crazy. She had joked that I was her boyfriend for a while which I went along with because it was funny. We would yell 'I miss you' over the rows. But then it got weird. She kept wanting pictures with just me and her and she kept ringing me just for a chat. She was Malaysian. She spoke good English but I couldn't understand her on the phone and I kept finding excuses to hang up. I didn't always answer until it was the 6th or 7th call in a row. I wouldn't have minded but she kept going on about her girlfriends (plural) that she had and she told me she had a boyfriend too that she kept in contact with on one of her three phones.

She got really drunk that night and passed out in the men's toilets. She said the next day she had just spilt up with her partner of 9 years and I empathised. She had collapsed at work a few days earlier. She completly fainted and had to be carried to car. We were just about to set off to the hospital when she came around. She said she had not slept at all the night before. Again, I empathised. It was not until the following week when we went to the club again and Toby, Olivia and I were talking to her that we became sceptical. Her stories seem to become wilder and more unbelievable she said that she was married and had three kids back in Malaysia that she had never mentioned before. Toby called her out on it asking "why are you lying?". Suddenly it all became obvious that all this an attention thing. She had told everyone that she was a different age aswell and then wouldn't show us ID or any pictures of her kids. It was all getting a bit far fetched and made me wonder if anything she had done and been truthfly, including collapsing.

Do I look sceptical

Annnnnnnyway. We've finished!

The last week was quite epic. Pat had promised the boss that we would finish the block we were on by the end of the week. Pat had said that boss was going to pay us contract that we week because we were being slow. Now whether that was a ruse to make us work faster I guess I'll never know because we got paid hourly for it anyway and we did a huge amount hours that week to get it done. It was quite lucky really. My last day in Robinvale was the last day of this job so we all celebrated together. Pat treated us all to a Chinese which was really nice and I can now say that I like Chinese food.

Dig in!

Me with the boss

After the meal we went to the club again and got quite drunk, again. It was a great way to end the six weeks in Robinvale. Just like last time I did farm work it had been hard graft but I look back on it with fond memories. It was another amazing experience with some great people. I hope I can get the chance to meet up with a few of them again, especially Irena, Toby and Olivia.

The team

Now a bit of anticlimax but...

I was supposed to leave on the Tuesday but I wanted to get my pinkslip for my car. It's like an MOT and you need to to renew your registration and I was in NSW I wanted to get it before I left as I wouldn't be returning to the state. Unfortunately my front left indicator light and a crack in it so it didn't pass. I had to wait for a new one to arrive the following day. I had said goodbye to everyone and done hugs and everything so I didn't want to go back to house. Instead, a drove an hour to the next town, spent the night and returned the next day. I ended up leaving quite late on the Wednesday. I drove as far as I could before I had to sleep. The next morning I arrived in Melbourne just in time for Melbourne Grand Prix!