Mildura Part 2

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Mildura Part 2: (Writing from 20/12/2008)

Two days ago myself and Mattias went to work on a farm to do a covering job. The farm was only about 20 minutes from the hostel and we were taken there by a Turkish guy. When we got there we met some other people that we would be working with, more Turks and a guy from Somalia. One of the guys in charge was a fat Turk who was an exact look alike to Azamat from Borat and i kept laughing everytime i saw him.

It turned out that we weren't going to work that day because of some overnight rain so we ended up drinking coffee in a barn before being taken home.

It was not all doom and gloom as i received my first pay from one of the other jobs that day.

The day after we returned to the farm. This time Erling came too as he was feeling better along with a couple of girls from the hostel. Seemingly half of the Turkish population from Victoria were there, far too many. We were handed pots full of nails and began covering the vines with a big white plastic sheet. After two rows it was decided too many people were there and many got sent home including everyone from the hostel - except me. I didnt know whether to be pleased or sad, money on one hand, working with a load of turks on the other. There were two Australian farmers but they were both rude and impatient unlike all the others we had worked with previously.

Anyway i was covering away, not knowing whether or not i was doing it right but nobody said i was doing it wrong. I didn't care. I had a few breaks where i was given free cans of coke but i was very bored as everyone was speaking turkish and listening to strange music. I felt so out of place.

One of the Turks got shouted at for putting the nails in wrong which made me nervous as i still didnt know if i was doing it right. Azamat had a massive argument with the Aussie farmers, sticking up for the Turk.

Finally to my relief, we finished and i was handed $120. The guy that took me to work kept apologising for the day and we stopped to fill a carrier bag of fruit, a cross between a plum, apricot, peach and orange. I don't know what it was. I didnt really want any but i picked them anyway and then went home.

I drunk two beers straight away and reflected on the most bizarre day of work ever whilst the others were sleeping. In the evening we went to the fortnightly friday BBQ which was greek food this time, or something similar. We also got paid for the job we did some two weeks before. So that made it 3 paydays in two!! I was delighted.

We went to O'Malleys that night. Our first night out in Mildura where we drunk and danced the night away.

On Monday i started at a new farm just outside Redcliffs doing Weeding. It was possibly the hottest day i had experienced in Australia. It was 40+ degrees with no wind and to make things worse, it was very physical work with a cold. We worked in twos, systematically weeding each line, one had the spade, one pulled the weeds out and we swapped at the end of each line. I was working with a German whos name i forget because i was feeling so rough and also partly due to the fact i couldnt pronounce it. All i remember is he was obsessed with the military and liked to sing National Anthems. At the end of each row we had a break as we were dying for a drink and we had no supervisor so we could rest when we wanted. I ran out of water but luckily got it refilled when the farmer eventually came round to check on our progress. I felt lucky to come home alive that day. I didn't continue to work there until the following Monday (It actually turned out to be the best job ever in the new year) but i had but i had 3 more days of work elsewhere and Christmas in between.

Working for Paul was an experience to say the least. I had been warned about him from many people from the hostel that also work with him. I was awoken about 11pm Monday evening and was told i had work the next day. I was working with some Irish, German, French, Norweigans and Indians covering the vines with plastic to protect the grapes from direct sunlight. Paul was a slave driver, breaks were minimal and we worked insanely fast. Sometimes the front guys were literally running to keep up with the tractor.

I worked the Tuesday and Christmas Eve and at the end of it my thumbs were extremely sore from pushing the nails into the plastic and around the wire to hold it in place, dewsepite my hands being wrapped in tape for protection. My hands also had loads of peeling skin like what you would expect to see on someones foot after a marathon.

I went shopping on Christmas Eve after work to buy chocolate, cheese, yorkshire puddings, potato wedges, hash browns, a microwave roast dinner, beer, and banana liquor. I ate and drank alot that evening along with many others from the hostel. The Swedes and Germans celebrate Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day so the party was well underway. A suprise was a bottle of wine each person received who worked from Paul.

Christmas Day i spent relaxing at the hostel eating most of the food i had bought and drinking more. Boxing Day was more of the same.

I worked for Paul one last day where i saw a redback spider hanging from the tractor. The Malaysian tractor driver called Sam kept saying 'kill it, kill it', while the Norweigans took photos and saying 'something has to kill you' in a Norweigan accent.

Paul: Paul likes to work, he says its what he gets his kick from, big built, feared by many, he says what he thinks and works you really hard. If you dont wake up in the morning he will walk into your room, pounding on the door and say howlazy you are, not in the politest words. It was quite funny to witness. He turned up Christmas Day and cooked a BBQ for the hostel and bought loads of beer which was nice although many people thought it was quite sad for him to turn up that day.

The Monday after Christmas i returned to weeding. I loved being back without a supervisor and stress free environment. It hasnt been as hot since i have been back (3 days) and my cold has gone and technique improved. My weeding partner is now a Japanese guy called Hiro. Nice guy but hardly speaks for the 9 hours of work each day.

New Years Eve was a relatively quiet affair, just drinking at the hostel.
I was knackered after work too so was not really up for much.

The 2nd was Mattias' Birthday so we celebrated that, it also happened to be his, Erlings, Lisa and Peggys last day in Mildura so i sat up all night drinking while i waited for them to leave and doing random activities like pouring candle wax over a beer bottle an old work boot and blank CD's. Mattias nailed his work gloves to the bedroom door and we said our farewells. It was an amazing time with them. We shared the boredom and laughed about it. We made our own fun and Mildura is going to be much worse without them here.

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The last 3 and a bit weeks have been really enjoyable which i didnt expect. I have got to know almost everyone in the hostel really well. I have had an amazing job weedchipping on a citrus fruit farm. No supervisor. I was more or less in charge of the group being the only naturally English speaking person and also the driver. I decided on breaks and communicated with the farmer and showed the new people what to do.

Me and Hiro were tireless weeders,powering our way through in at least 40 degrees heat sometimes touching 50 when we were under the net. Oh and i forgot to say we did that 10 hours a day.

I saw a few lizards, big ones and different types, im not talking about a weedys gecko. I saw a snake skin which was lying under one of the bushes we pulled out. At first i saw the snake at first so i was being extra cautious.

One day we finished early because some people were wilting in the heat so we spent the afternoon at the local swimming pool.

Once we had completed weeding the entire farm we were sent to another farm for a day, owned by the same company near 'Hattah'. It was a ridiculously easy day as all we had to do was move the irrigation hose a certain distance from every tree and apparantly we did 2 days work in half a day.

We finished up at Sunwest (our weeding farm) by picking some small,unrip fruit from the baby mandarin trees to allow them to grow better and we all had a fruit fight while doing the job. Lastly we did some pruning of some tiny trees, also toaid growth.

My last day of work was back over at Hattah where we had to pick big fruits from the trees and throw them on the floor as they had rippened too early and would effect growth of the other fruit. So we had another fruit fight for 3 or 4 hours. The last job for me was titled 'fruit thinning' basically takingoff all the fruit, ripe or unripe, small, or in direct sunlight - so pretty much everything.

During the day the big boss came to visit us and he said we had done an excellent job on everything we had done and that they were now giving us jobs that werent essential, just to keep us on as we were such hard workers and there was talk of a pay rise.

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Activities lately around Mildura and the hostel have included lots of drinking, ive slept on both outside sofas and some inside too to keep cool. Went for a drink at Sandbar and played pool at the Working Mens Club. I went out Saturday night with alot of people from the hostel to Dom's which is the only proper nightclub in Mildura. The Norweigans keep hitch hiking around the McDonalds drive through after the main shop closes. Apparantly they dont accept people in trolleys make car sounds, which has been tried.

Australia Day was good. About 15 of us went to the river beach where there was music, beer and swimming in the river - and of course lots of Aussies dressed up with lots of flags. We spent the afternoon there just chilling, enjoying the atmosphere.

My last few days in Mildura were spent relaxing, socialising and sitting. Lots of sitting! The bakery came one day and gave us a van load of let over bread, cakes and muffins which was cool. On my last night the French people i had been working and living with gave me a nice send off with a card and chocolate. Totally unexpected.

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