Farming in Australia: The Onion Craze!

My amazing friend Lydia (France) goes onion-crazy!

For my first two weeks working on the farm I graded onions with a few other girls, 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. Some days we graded tonnes and tonnes of onions-literally!

The onions are dumped into a huge machine (in the back of the picture to the left) which then sends the onions down a conveyor on rollers. Several girls stand at the first section sorting out any bad onions that really stand out, as well as onions missing their shell. These are classified as "seconds" (Grade 2 onions)

The girls and Dickson waiting for the next batch

After the girls pick out the obviously bad ones, the rest filter down through another set of rollers where I am standing. My job was to sort through the remaining onions before they are sent to be bagged. It
was kind of a long, boring job because you have to stand in one spot for 10-12 hours and my station only requires one person so most days I worked alone. It also got really really hot in the onion shed- one day reached 43 degrees Celcius, which was really horrible and made me nauseous.

 Ill never look at onions the same again!

I just soaked my head and clothes in water constantly to keep going, but it was still pretty bad. LUCKILY this only accounted for a few brutal days, most of the days were relatively easy with hot but not dangerously hot temperatures.

In the end it was great because I was raking in 200$ a day and saving most of it! The dongar where I was living only cost me 80$ a week to rent so I was chuffed about that. The onion craze lasted about two weeks and after that we were set to work in the watermelon fields! More on that coming soon..:)

The final stage- at the onion bagging station

The Backpackin Life In The Outback

Yikes!

A cute little visitor

Not the typical pet! This little piggy went to Monteray..

Dori admiring the sunset, always beautiful in the outback

Caravan living! My "neighbors" Lydia and Marie from France <3

One morning before work<3

Debbie (Scotland), Dori (South Korea), Me (Canada), Elaine (Germany)

Love these two! Sara and Ronja from Germany

The originals!

Working in Australia: Welcome to Camp "Monteray"

The red dirt road leading to Monteray

After working 3 shit jobs in Australia (that never paid me what I was entitled), I finally found one that didn't completely rip me off. After going one month without a job in Australia (ouch! to my bank account) I found out about this particular job which was inland from Brisbane, Queensland and approximately 40 km outside of a tiny town called Chinchilla. The work? I would be grading onions for one month- not my ideal job, or the way I pictured working in Australia but hey- cash is king.

I set out on the first Greyhound bus to little Chinchilla, and the next day I was getting picked up by an Irish backpacker who would drive me 40 km into the middle of nowhere until we arrived at the base camp where I would live for the next 30 days. I found about 15 other backpackers living at the base camp nick-named Monteray. Some friends, couples and single travelers were living together in caravans and dongars (which are basically caravans without wheels.)

Inside the kitchen/lounge

The dongars

The communal kitchen

There was also a shared kitchen in a separate building, as well as a separate dongar with bathrooms and free laundry facilities inside- bonus. The camp was really basic, but was relatively clean and provided the necessities unlike some of the other farms I lived on in Australia, so you can see how I appreciated it. A few perks were a tv, pool table and fire pit. Needless to say, the other backpackers and myself made the best of it, worked hard through December and January, but had a great holiday season too. It was an amazing experience because I made friends from France, Hong Kong, Germany, Sweden, New Zealand, South Korea, Ireland and many other countries! I shared a dongar (air-conditioned, thankfully!) with a sweet South Korean girl nicknamed Dori and couldnt have asked for a better roomie. It was awesome to be surrounded by so many other people my age, doing what I was doing and with similar interests.
Pictures to come! 

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