Pine Lodge Hotel, Shepparton East, Victoria 3631

 

One of the jobs we have in mind when people are going on a working holiday visa are those famous fruit-picking jobs. I had to try it once while backpacking in the outback. Mostly all backpackers did it. My fruit-picking experience was in Shepparton East. Marc, the owner of Pine Lodge Hotel was a kind man who offered Linda, Robin and I the job. He was also a contractor and we were staying in a working hostel again. Like I said, when I was covering the vineyards in Merbein, absolutely avoid working hostels, but there are good ones too. This hostel was lovely with a lot of friendly backpackers. I guess you have to be very lucky.

 

We worked for a farmer named Michael. He had a big farm with a lot of fruit trees: apples, pears, and apricots. We first slung a bag over our shoulders with a pouch at the level of our belly. I really felt like a human kangaroo back there. Michael taught me in 2 minutes how to drive a small tractor so I could follow him to our picking spot. We first put empty bins behind the tractor and once we arrived we started with colour picking because it was the beginning of the pick season. To get the fruit at the top of the trees we used ladders. Once our bags were filled we emptied it in the bins.

 

Fruit picking was really boring; it was monotone and hard. We started at 6am in the moring picked between 8 or 10 hours a day in the heat. You were paid by filled bin, which was really hard to save money. We were paid $35 per bin without tax. Of course we paid 15% tax pay, so we were only making $30 per bin. In one day we filled 2 bins because there were massive bins and it took us a long time to fill them, especially when you are picking apricots. Those fruits are pretty tins. Again it was hard to save money because it was a working hostel and you had to pay the rent $140/week additioned with the money you spent on groceries.

 

After 6 days fruit picking Linda and I left Shepparton. I had to be back in Sydney for celebrating Christmas with my best mate, Florent and my mother was going to come down town really soon. Something I can’t stop thinking of when I enter a supermarket is that hard working hours in the sun when I see those apricots in the shelves. You definitely taste them differently.