In this video I’m gonna show you what my life looks like working on a strawberry farm in Australia as a backpacker who is trying to get their second visa. You will also see the dark side of the Australian Dream and what it takes to live here on a Working Holiday Visa. But of course not without also showing you what I eat on a budget, because we need a little bit of fun :)
Let me break my journey down for you:
On the end of September I moved from Cairns to Morayfield (near Brisbane) after my friends stumbled across a job add for this strawberry farm on a Facebook group. We were not informed about the work hours or the system of paying them back.
The second I arrived, I knew something was off. I had the worst gut feeling about that place. But I ignored it and focused on getting the pay slips. After talking to the backpackers on the farm I heard some shocking things. Some of them revealed that they had already tried to sue the company, because they had to pay them their salary back, but without any success. I also heard that the Fair Work Commission had a visit to do a check up. But they didn’t find any illegal activity on the farm. Why? Because the workers were given fabricated answers, lies they had to tell the FWC in order to keep their job. They feared the consequences of losing their job, the only pathway to another year in Down Under.
If you watched the video till the end, you know that I just recently quit the job and moved back to Sydney for a little break.
But now I am stuck in an inner conflict between doing the farm work, sticking up with the bad conditions and just getting it done to finally get my second visa OR going against this exploitative system which means refusing to do any farm work since it will only contribute to the exploitation of more people in the future.
While I was living in Germany and planned on coming to Australia, I did my research on the farm industry and only came across one story of a German couple who experienced exploitation on a farm. I thought that was the exception until I got here. The amount of stories I heard shook me to the core.
If you don’t believe me, have a look yourself
www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-15/backpacker-farm-workers-speak-of-wage-exploitation/12545294
amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/26/88daysaslave-backpackers-share-stories-of-farm-work-exploitation
www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/backpackers-overworked-exploited-and-harassed-while-working-on-aussie-farms/news-story/b1121e2af64435ee2106423cab3bd1c2?amp
documentaryaustralia.com.au/project/88-days-a-slave/
I will keep you updated, guys!
If you like my journey so far and want to support me, check out my Throne account: throne.com/begibou
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Thank you so much for watching! Stay tuned :)
Chapters:
00:00 - 01:09 Getting ready for work
01:09 - 01:32 Arrival and set up
01:32 - 02:21 Strawberry picking
02:21 - 02:28 Lunch break
02:28 - 03:03 More strawberry picking
03:03 - 03:15 Driving back home
03:15 - 04:04 Dinner (frozen pizza)
04:04 - 05:07 Getting ready + Updates
05:07 - 05:41 Breakfast (smoothie)
05:41 - 06:13 Going grocery shopping
06:13 - 06:39 At the grocery store
06:39 - 07:08 Dinner (Rice, fried egg, peanut butter)
07:08 - 07:18 Preparing breakfast
07:18 - 08:08 Morning routine
08:08 - 09:32 Strawberry picking + Updates
09:32 - 09:53 End of work
09:53 - 11:10 Dinner (Tortellini)
11:10 - 11:51 Getting ready for work again
11:51 - 13:10 More work
13:10 - 15:55 Why I quit
15:55 - 17:45 Breakfast (bao buns, rice, fried egg)
17:45 - 18:22 The next morning
18:22 - 21:19 Breakfast (smoothie, toasties)
21:19 - 22:10 Outro and infos