As the story continues, we arrived in Carnarvon approx 4 months since leaving home. Having done our research in Kunnunura we picked up a harvest job the second we rolled into town - with a flat battery, and Maria’s first flat tyre. We’d heard some negative stories about Carnarvon from various friends. “Ah mate she’s ruff as guts”, “Carnarvon, stuff that, did me back in, I’ll never pick capsicums in that drunken crappy town again”... But, initial impressions we’re quite the opposite and we scored what appeared to be an easy job de-leafing table grape vines. This was fun for the first half an hour, and not very fun at all for the 2 weeks after that. Underpaid?, a ‘no speaking no music’ policy, constantly yelled at, and covered in chemicals - this family was running a concentration camp not a farm! I feel the need to add to the above comments by saying “I am NEVER de-leafing in Carnarvon again”. “That’s it”, we quit, then we got yelled at again and fired. Um, lady, we already quit so it was a bit to late to fire us… we started on a new farm within an hour. The new capsicum, eggplant and bean farm was definitely an improvement. We actually got paid correctly for a start, with payslips, and there was a variety of jobs from maintaince to fruit preparation. We even had the freedom to speak (howsabouthat!) and listen to beats. So we settled in with the international backpackers, worked brutally hard as you do on a farm for <$20hr, and had some fun.
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| Eggplant bath |
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| Beans means bending |
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| Capsicums |
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| Maria - the backpacker trap |
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| Happy Germans and their baby |
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| Mouse love |
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| Day trippin |
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| Dreadlock facilitation |
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| Lazy days off |
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| Stephan, our favourite Frenchie |
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| Group dinner, where we complained about the days work |
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| Maria - the hostess with the mostess |
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| Pinnacles detour heading south to Perth |
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| Pinnacle joy |
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| Jo scores a ride to Perth |
But next time you buy your big, bright, perfect shaped fruit and veg from Woolies or Coles here’s the deal – This is agribusiness and trickery. The “fresh food people” have no intention of supplying you with fresh, natural fruits of the earth. Covered in backpacker blood, sweat and tears these ultra large crops are grown with copious amounts of other things called pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. We experienced itchy eyes, noses, choking, coughing, sniffling, rashes and pealing skin. Not one weed, bug or grub in 100 rows! And there are hundreds and hundreds of rows. The take home slap in the face message for us as consumers? – support your locally grown ‘in season’ market produce, and have fun growing your own.
