Working Wednesdays: Tough day out in the field weeding out a bean paddock in lonely Bishopsbourne, Tasmania.
Weeding. Got to love it. I’m not even being sarcastic here. I can’t remember the total number of days I spent weeding when I lived in Tasmania but it was somewhere between 10 and 20. Long days of just filling white sacks with weeds. I’ve written a bit about them before, but not much on my Working Wednesdays series so today we head to lonely Binshopsbourne in Central Tasmania where I once weeded out a bean paddock, in the Tasmanian sunshine.
My friend Marina admiring the epic backdrop from the place we did weeding!
We woke up early at around 6am and were driven to a lonely farm in Bishopsbourne, near Carrick in Central Tasmania. It was complete wilderness, glorious views, fresh air and a bit of hard work.
The bean paddock that was home for a few days on intense weeding in Tasmania.
I was part of a mixed team which had half of them as Tasmania locals and half of them as fellow travellers including Marina Oesterle from Germany and Felicity Huang from Taiwan. We became good mates working and living together in Tassie.
White sacks full of weeds in lonely Bishopsbourne, Tasmania.
The job was simple – no qualifications or anything required here. You get a white bag, you drag it through the bean paddock with you and you hoist out ALL the weeds or at least as many as you can. Once you get the hang of it, it’s easy.
The endless charm of the bean paddocks in Bishopsbourne, Tasmania.
It was hot at the time so we did get a bit sweaty and it was around this time that my travelling white hoody turned from actually being white to being a permanent brown colour. It was soon ditched once I had made my money in Tasmania.
On a tea break from the weeding enjoying life on the farms.
I worked hard. I remember it. We filled loads of bags. We got 3 breaks a day. Two fifteen minutes tea breaks (I had a flask of tea and some cheap biscuits) and a half hour lunch (sandwiches, yoghurts, fruit, crisps and chocolate bars). I carried water in my pocket. You needed it.
On the back of the trailer LYING on top of the weeds we had worked a whole day weeding out.
You could easily tell the difference between the beans and the weeds and we just kept working until the sun went down. The banter at work was great and I loved working with the local Tassie lads – Greg and Shaun – top guys.
The back of the trailer filling up with weeds!
I got the job through Work Direct based in Devonport and in the end I did about 5 hard months for them, all in farms and easily secured my second year working holiday visa. This was back in 2010.
Getting down picking out the weeds in Bishopsbourne in 2010.
The rate of pay was $18 Australian Dollars per hour which believe me is more than reasonable and I saved a huge chunk of money when I lived in Tasmania. If you want some advice on getting an Australian Working Holiday Visa and living an awesome lifestyle in the land down under, then here’s my link for you: get a working holiday for Australia. Safe travels and don’t work too hard (guilty myself on too many occasions).
I didn’t know beans about bean farming before this; I only knew they came from the produce section of the local grocer. Gorgeous plants, such a deep green and look how tall they get! I love this site, it won’t let me stop learning… or living. 😀
Maria recently posted…Wordless Wednesday – Solitude
Thanks for the kind words as ever Maria! I worked on beans, broccoli, cauliflower, pyrethrum, echinacea, cabbage and one day on potato weeding and LOVED it. It was those jobs that gave me the money to backpack South America and Antarctica back in 2010.Jonny