One Big Family, Merbein, Victoria 3505

 

My first bad work experience in the outback was here, in Merbein. I found this place on the website travellers at work. By reading the job description it sounded like a new challenge: covering vineyard to protect the grapes from rain and sun. The job advert also said that it was good paid with accommodation included. We had a confirmation from the recruiter so Londa, Robin (two Dutch girls) and I took the bus to Mildura. We paid a cab to Merbein and arrived at One Big Family hostel. By entering the place we saw a sheet of paper on the reception’s door that said: rent to pay on Friday. Wait a minute, rent? I thought the accommodation was included. I had to talk with the recruiter. That wasn’t part of the plan. We talked to the recruiter and he said there was no way that the accommodation was included. Everyone had to pay the rent. I couldn’t believe he lied for the job. Anyway, at least we were going to make good money…NOT!

 

The first day we had no work, but the day after we luckily had work. We took a small bus to the vineyards, tied a bow full of nails around our hips and a backpacker showed us how to cover the vines. The work itself wasn’t hard, you had to push and spin the nails with your thumb around a wire to attach the plastic cover. After putting 10 nails your thumb can start to hurt, and after 100 nails you probably have no thumb anymore. But no worries because there was a technique: put a coin on your thumb and tape it around. Voilà, problem solved! After 4 hours the recruiter called it a day  because it was too hot and it was getting windy.

 

Now back to our “good money” we were going to make. By night we talked with some backpackers and apparently we were payed 10cent a vine or $10/person after 4 hours work in the heat. And then I heard we also had to pay our daily transport, whixh was $6. So we had to pay the rent, which was $120 a week and the transport by making $10 a day? We not only didn’t have the chance to save money, but we didn’t have enough money to pay all the bills neither! Linda, Robin and I decided not to stay there and we left (without getting paid) for another job in Shepparton the day after… without paying the rent!

 

This is something I learnt when you are working as a backpacker in the outback. The recruiter in Merbein was a contractor and we were staying in what we called a working hostel. There are a lot of working hostels in the outback, all owned by contractors who are used as middlemen between farmers and backpackers. Of course they take a percentage on the work done on the farm. A good thing I learnt was to avoid working hostels. There is not really a chance to make good money. It’s better to  work for a private farmer.