Country Life
Trip Start
Jan 19, 2009
1
12
Trip End
Ongoing
Gympie, Queensland, Australia
Sunday, October 25, 2009
I spent a week in Sydney sorting out all the boring stuff (bank accounts, tax stuff, blah blah) and then headed up to Queensland to start my farm work. I wasn;t looking for a real-life country living experience, but to extend my visa from 1 year to 2 years, I had to complete 88 days agricultural work. What they call winter in Queendland is actually not that different to our British summer, in fact it's probably better all in all, so it seemed a good idea to head in that direction if I was going to be working outdoors!
I decided to do "wwooffing". Wwoof is a global organisation and stands for Willing Workers on Organic Farms, and there are over 1600 farms in Australia that take part in it as Wwoof Hosts. When you join as a Wwoofer (yes, that's the actual term!) you get a book with the contact details of all the wwoof host. All you have to do is choose which part of the country you want to go to, then read the profiles of the wwoof hosts in that area and decide who you'd like to go and stay with, get in touch with them and take it from there. The work is unpaid, you do 4-6 hours per day in exchange for accommodation and food. I would have liked to have earned money while I was doing the farm work, but had heard some stories about commercial farms that put a few doubts in my mind. I just wanted to complete the work so I could get my visa extension out of the way, so I thought I'd give it a go.
The first hosts I stayed with were Graham and Margaret in a town called Widgee, about 17 miles west of Gympie. They were very nice and there was another wwoofer there at the same time, a Swedish girl called Lulu. We did all sorts of work around the property helping Graham; building barbed wire fences, feeding the cattle and preparing the calves for the sale yards, maintaining the irrigation systems, and generally helping out. They lived on a 700 acre property that they'd bought as a retirement project (!) after Graham's 35 year stint working on the prawn trawlers at the top end of Australia. He had so many stories from his days on the boats, I think he just really liked having people around to listen to him. They made us feel very wlecome there, but I already had another wwoof host to stay with, not too far from Gympie either so I only spent 2 weeks with Graham and Margaret.
The second wwoof hosts were Cheryl and Michael in Brooloo, about 28 miles south of Gympie, and about a 2 hour drive north of Brisbane. At this point I was thinking I'd stay about 2-3 weeks with each wwoof host and see how it goes. I ended up doing the rest of my farm work at Cheryl and Michael's place! They made me feel so welcome, and I was really immersed into their day-to-day life and their community activities. Most of the work I did there was looking after fruit and vegetable gardens, as well as the gardens around their property, where they planted only native Australian plants.
During my 2nd weekend, they hosted a Country Show Ball which I helped out at. Surprisingly, I didn't have a ball gown in my rucksack but managed to borrow one from a friend of Cheryl's, which also came in handy for the 2nd country Show ball I attended 5 weeks later, and was actually a judge in the Miss Show Girl and Rural Ambassador competitions. I also managed to squeeze in a couple of days at Rainbow beach, and a few days camping at Inskip Point. I had such a good time during my stay there, it's been great. Because I stayed with them for a while, I really got to know what it's like to be part of a rural community in Australia. And I met more Australians than I ever would have if I'd been working on a commercial farm and staying hostels. Most of the time, it was just me and Cheryl at the house, with the 2 dogs, Bam Bam and Flash. Cheryl and I get along very well, and I learnt so much from her about the Australian way of life and attitudes. And I think I've made friends for life. I've been invited back for Christmas, and I'm taking my Mum up to their place in March so she can meet the people who provided me with a home for my first few months in Australia.
When the work came to an end, I headed to Brisbane in the search for work. I had originally planned to head straight back to Sydney, but I was enjoying Queensland and had met a few people, and had Cheryl and Michael so close by that it seemed a shame to leave. I liked Brisbane, it's a very laid back city and Queenslanders strike me as very friendly, welcoming people. But the work just wasn't available there, and there seemed to be plenty of work in Sydney, and I hadn't had any wages since December, so after 3 weeks in Brisbane, I headed down to Sydney.
But not before I went to the Mary Valley Country Show with Cheryl and Michael. I'd heard so much about it, I couldn't be so lcose and not attend! Every Australian rural community has an annual country show, that is used to showcase the local community. There are all sorts of events and competions form art and crafts, and cooking, to wood-chopping and a rodeo. Cheryl entered the lemon butter I'd made into the lemon butter competion, and I won Second Prize, a total of $3! Not bad considering I'd only learnt how to make it a few weeks earlier, so if you're ever lucky enough to try my lemon butter, I'll remind you that it's award winning!
We wandered around before the rodeo started, and I was surprised to see real cowboys getting ready for the rodeo. I know that may sound strange, after all it's only cowboys that take part in rodeos, not accountants and lawyers, but they all take it really seriously. It was quite surreal, and I felt like I was on the set of a cowboy movie or something. Anyway, the rodeo was really good fun, although I don't think I know anyone who would be brave enough to take part. There were a couple of times I had to look away because the cowboy's hand got locked into the mould on the back of the bull, and in their attempts to get free, were being dragged around by the bull. The clowns would help them, but sometimes that wasn't enough, so all the other cowboys would run out to help. None of the cowboys had any serious injuries, but it was scary to watch. And they also had little boys (some as young as 6 years old!) taking part on calves. They had lots of padding and a crash helmet, but I still watched in awe!
Now I'm in Sydney and have been here for 2 months. I managed to get a job within a week, and moved into a house in Bondi Junction. I'm working in a call centre at the moment; it's really easy, and Monday to Friday, 9am - 5pm and the company seems like a good company to work for. I can only work there for another 4 months due to visa restrictions, so I'm always on the lookout for other work, but this will do me quite nicely for now. We've entered spring and the weather is warming up nicely, but it's also quite changeable; it's been chucking it down today! All in all, I'm enjoying being here for the most part. I miss some things about home, and now that I've got a routine and a bit of normality, a little bit of homesickness has kicked in over the past few weeks. But I think I'm over it now, and am just really looking forward to my mum coming to visit at the end of February. Although that means that my 30th birthday will be imminent, so we'll see how I feel about that nearer the time!
