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