Finding reliable regional work can be the hardest task for many travellers on a Working Holiday Visa, looking to get a second-year visa. Not that it’s impossible to survive regional work but, I’m sharing a few tips that can help everyone to have the best experience.
For those that don’t know, completing regional work in Australia or ‘farm work’ is a requirement of a Working Holiday Visa and now other Covid visas to stay longer in the country.
The biggest complaints about regional work are obvious: low pay, difficult work conditions and bad employers. These are all important arguments, but even at better farms with better pay, work conditions and employers there’s may still be other problems. It’s important to not overlook problems, especially when it comes to safety concerns. Most important thing to remember is 88 days, or three months is a long time for a bad job.
Not everyone will have a bad experience, many people find great employers right away. But for others, it may take months of bad employers to find a non-exploitive job. I went through this situation, which is why I’m sharing how to survive regional work in Australia.
Table of Contents
Make Friends
Making friends can be the basis for not hating a job. It can be hard to meet new people living in a new country, but when travellers dealing with a bad situation, it’s a lot easier to make friends and share experiences. It also makes any bad situation a bit more bearable!
Whether it’s an exploitive work environment or not, most people won’t enjoy the situation and talking about it may not make it better, but it might feel easier less alone, especially for those travelling alone.
There’s also power in numbers, and if you feel a certain way about a job, it’s likely you’re not alone. Make friends and survive regional work in Australia!
Forget your Corporate Job Ethos
Most people understand doing regional work is different from a corporate job. What I found surprising, is even at what may seem to be a well-managed farm, there can be harassment, discrimination and exploitation. I had this experience working at a family-run farm, even though all workers had to sign a document agreeing not to do these things. It ended up that there was no accountability for peoples actions.
In a corporate work environment where people are held accountable this—likely—wouldn’t happen. Working in a regional area for a small-business, there just aren’t the same resources available for workers. This could mean accepting things like discrimination and bullying or speaking up and getting sacked.
Workers are Replaceable
This is especially true for big businesses that make use of contractors and working hostels. If a worker is acting up, talking too much or not meeting the demands of the business they’ll sack them. This can be anything from not working quickly enough, taking too many breaks or anything that an employer deems negative to their business. They might even just not like a worker.
This should happen less at smaller or family-run businesses, but it can happen anywhere. This doesn’t mean all regional work is bad but, naturally every farm or business is works differently and casual workers don’t have many rights to fight this.
Treat Each Situation as its Own
Leaving a bad job can leave anyone feeling bitter, but when starting a new job, treat it as a new situation. There’s nothing bad on mentioning previous experiences to new colleagues or employers, but there’s a difference of dwelling on the past.
Just give each job your best work ethic and if it’s meant to, it’ll work out. It’s better to expect each job won’t have big problems, because hopefully they won’t.
Check out Op Shops (Thrift Stores)
Regional work is hard, but also messy. And it’s not fun if an expensive pair of shoes, pants or any other gear doesn’t survive regional work with you. Many WHV holders arriving in Australia without much luggage, so there’s not much space to ruin for clothes.
Op shops are all over Australia and are the best way to buy cheap clothes and gear. This even goes for jobs in tourism and hospitality, when uniform clothing is necessary always go for the cheapest option. It also saves a lot of money if the job doesn’t work out.
WORK HARD and (try to) be honest
Many employers have bad experiences hiring backpackers, or people on WHVs. Often they leave without proper notice, slack off or even lie about previous work experience. I believe this is an equal struggle for WHV holders to find reliable work, but it’s important to understand why some employers are apprehensive of hiring foreign workers.
The only way though to overcome this is to work hard for each employer and be honest. If your plan is only to find work for a few days or weeks there’s so many employers looking for this.
However, committing to a three-month job with only a one-month availability isn’t being honest. With this in mind, you may find after starting a job there’s no way you could work there for so long. If this happens too and it’s okay to explain that.
Remember No Job is Perfect
My final tip to survive regional work is to be ready for anything. For most jobs, every day is going to be different, there’s going to be bad days and good days (hopefully). And there will likely someone you don’t like working with, and uncontrollable drama. Navigating through the ups and downs can be tough, but it can also score you a second-year visa so focus on that if it’s the end goal.
Even the best jobs won’t be easy, so be ready to work hard and make the best out of being in Australia.
Do Something About it
My biggest takeaway from being exploited, underpaid and manipulated from regional work in Australia is to do something about it. I know you could be thinking “I don’t want anymore drama, my situation was enough.” Yes, completely true and understandable, however there’s anonymous ways to go about this.
A lot of people doing regional work have a great time, and on the contrary, a lot of others don’t. If no one ever knows about the bad times then the government and its agencies can’t do anything to act on it. If there was a workplace accident, file an anonymous complaint, if you were underpaid file an anonymous claim with Fairwork.
These resources are available to help people. They may not always be able to provide the solution you’re looking for, but it is a start. And, the more people that complain about illegal situations (such as underpayment) the more the government can do. Of course you can also file claims with these agencies with your name to receive compensation, when necessary.
For more information and help on regional work in Australia, check out tips on finding a non-exploitive job, the best jobs to complete your 88 days and how to survive the heat.
