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Cherries in short supply because of warm winter

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Cherries Aus

Stone Fruit is the essence of summer in Australia and on the Granite Belt that is no different. With fruit picking already under way on a few stone fruits, it is interesting to note that Cherry Park, at The Summit, was the first cherry producer in Australia to send fruit to the market this season. Cherry Park owner and operator Graham Minifie said the quirky claim to fame was a title they held most years. “We are at the highest altitude in Queensland, which gives us the advantage of having fruit a week to 10 days earlier than other parts of Read more

We rely on backpackers: Gaeta

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Skydive Byron Bay Australia

Orange’s horticulture industry would grind to a halt if it wasn’t for the work of backpackers picking fruit every season, according to orchardist Guy Gaeta. Mr Gaeta said in recent years the numbers of local people and travelling seasonal workers willing to slog it out in the fields picking fruit had dwindled and working holiday visa holders had picked up the slack. “If it wasn’t for backpackers most of Australia’s horticultural crops wouldn’t be picked,” he said. “They are willing to do any type of work … and they’re really trustworthy. “Years ago a lot of seasonal workers travelled around Read more

Soggy grape harvest saved by hand

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wilsons promontory

Multinational grape pickers are proving the heroes of a rain-plagued 2013 Hunter Valley vintage that is now in its nail-biting red harvest phase. Despite rainfall of some 175 millimetres over a 48-hour period, the white grape harvest is almost done and dusted with tonnages down 20 to 30 per cent and quality up. Vignerons are praying for warm, sunny weather this week so they can get their red grapes ripe and into the crushers. Their anxiety rests on memories of a 2008 red vintage wiped out by rain and a 2012 red harvest in which many growers were forced to Read more

Backpacker accommodation gets green light to expand

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Three Sisters - L. Bastien
Three Sisters - L. Bastien

A backpacker hostel in Bundaberg North has been granted permission by Bundaberg Regional Council to expand from 24 to 88 beds. In the submission, owners Tomato Backpackers say the expansion will be designed to minimise noise, particularly from communal areas where backpackers will tend to gather. The hostel in Hinkler Ave is operating as Footprints Feeding Ground Backpackers, but the extra beds will be in a separate house. The move follows an application, still before the council, for the establishment of a 16-bed hostel in Wallaville. That application has been met with resistance by town residents. Bundaberg Mayor Mal Forman Read more

Hopping mad: Backpackers fume over broken promise of fruit-picking work

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backpacker jobs australia

A group of seven English and Irish working holiday makers are warning people to be careful when looking for fruit picking jobs after promised work in Mildura failed to bear fruit this week. The group arrived in Mildura on Monday after signing up and paying $560, or $80 each, for a 12-month membership fee with Adelaide company Harvest Hoppers. There’s also a suspect operation in Mildura that goes by the name of ” Don’s backpackers Mildura” The company describes itself online as “Australia’s Number One Fruit Picking Network for Backpackers”, but feedback on its Facebook page is anything but positive. Read more

Irish Enjoy Hot Aussie Summer

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Phillip Island - L. Bastien

“The snakes are bloody bad, there’s nothing poisonous in Ireland,” David Brown said of his first impressions of Australia. Mr Brown is one of more than 50 Irish backpackers working in the Narromine and Trangie districts during the summer. Twenty-three-year-old Irish backpackers Mr Brown and his friend Kristopher Vance were working on a cotton farm at Narromine. Part of their work included starting siphons and “making socks for people back home”. The men explained they had come to Australia for more than just a holiday. “There’s no work in Ireland,” Mr Vance said, adding that thousands of people were leaving Read more