Ironbark Herefords, Barraba, New South Wales 2347

 

Barraba was the place where I had my first farm work experience in the Outback down under. During my search for regional work, Charlie, a backpacker from the UK that I met during my first week in Sydney, told me about this cattle farm called Ironbark Herefords. After a couple of e-mails with the dairy farmer, he accepted to hire me on his farm. It was such a relief getting employed that quick, especially when I heard how long backpackers usually waited to get a job.

 

Taking the train from Sydney to Barraba was a real challenge. To be honest I didn’t prepare my trip very well. Actually I didn’t prepare it at all. On Monday (November 3rd, 2014) I woke up at 9am at Stratton's hotel on Castlereigh Street. While taking my breakfast with Gaëlle - a Belgian girl I met on Surfcamp – I was checking the train timetable on my smartphone to Tamworth Station. This was the train station where I had to jump off to catch a coach till Barraba. When I asked for the timetable on the train link website, it said 'Please check your details or select another travel date'. So I selected Thursday and only then the timetable appeared. The timetable from Sydney to Tamworth had only one train and that was everyday at 9:30am. I looked for the time and it was 9:25am. I missed my train, thats bullocks!

 

Well done, Cedric, you missed your first workday… or that's what I thought. The next day I woke up much earlier and I was in Central Station at 9:00am. I had 30 minutes left before departure and no queue at the ticket office. What could possibly go wrong, right? I asked for a ticket when suddenly the guy behind the window said: 'Sorry mate, but unfortunately the train for today is full-booked'. You can't be serious? I missed my train for a second time. Most embarrassing moment of my life! Especially when I asked Charlie, the British backpacker who was working there, to tell the farmers I missed my train... again! The guy from the ticket office asked me if I wanted to order a ticket for tomorrow. Yes off course mate, right away! And that was the moment when I promised myself that from now on I will always book train tickets online and preferable 87 days before departure time. It was kind of a funny story for someone who studied digital marketing. Online booking should be a spontaneous conversion. Anyway that night I slept with my ticket in my hand fully wrapped with scotch tape!

 

Wednesday morning was my third attempt to catch that bloody train. But like we said in Belgium: derde keer, goede keer! And so it was. I entered the train and I was finally on my way to Barraba for a 6-hour train trip. In less than one hour all the houses, buildings, convenience stores, concrete streets or just call it the civilization world were gone and transformed into hills, eucalyptus trees, green bushes and lakes. I finally saw the Australian bush trough the train's window. Once arrived in Tamworth station, I took the coach for one hour and a half to Barraba. I jumped off the coach and sat down on the bench of a bus stop. After 10 minutes watching the same house on a ghost street, Wendy, the farmer's wife, picked me up in her 4WD.

 

Charlie from the UK, Melissa form France and I lived in a small house for free. It was a full-equipped house with a private room, a kitchen with meals included and a living room with TV. There was no Wi-Fi (except in their house) and no phone signal. That was because of the phone operator I used. Vodafone is number three about Australian’s mobile network operator and had no coverage in the outback. After one week I changed it for the operator Telstra that covered all Australia.

 

My workdays were from Monday to Saturday from 7am till 5pm and sometimes longer. On Sunday we worked from 9am till 5pm. During work we had one-hour lunch and 20 minutes smoko (that is an Australian term for a short, often cigarette break taken during work, but the term can also be used to describe any short break such as a rest or a coffee/tea break). I worked outside the whole day in temperatures reaching the 40 degrees. To avoid sunburns I wear pants, tshirts with long sleeves and a hat. Every day I drank at least 2L water to not dehydrate. The work was mainly gardening and washing the pool at granny’s house, jet-washing trucks full of cattle poop, chain sawing wood and bringing it to the bin with the 4WD drive, feeding the dogs, horses and Bryan the calf, washing the owners house terrace and walls and removing leaves from their tennis court. All of these jobs were in fact general farm duties and got nothing to do with real cattle work. I thought I was going to work more with horses like horse riding or doing some mustering like a real cowboy. But in fact, all those jobs were a sort of test. Those jobs made you physically and mentally stronger. It was more like a personal building process to show that you were a good and hard worker that didn't quit when it became a bit rough. It proofed the dairy farmer that he could trust you! When he thought that the time was ripe you had a small chance to do some more real work.

 

But I couldn’t wait any longer and after two weeks and a half I decided to do what I really wanted to do and experience the cowboy life! Besides that, even if I had free accommodation and meals included, I only earned $200/week. If you know that I worked +/- 60 hours a week, we can easily say that I earned $3/hour. Does it sound like slavery? Maybe, but at least I had an amazing first experience in the outback where I met two friendly backpackers and saw a real farmers’ family that were really kind to me!