"Pluck not the wayside flower, for it is the traveler's dower" - William Allingham, Irish poet

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I’ve been talking about WWOOFing for weeks. I was starting to get discouraged - every host family I called near Toowoomba and Noosa either didn’t have enough work or already had a full roster of wwoofers. Finally, while in Brisbane for the second time, I made a list of interesting looking hosts near the Newcastle area. Lucky for me, the first family I called said that I could come the following Tuesday, which was about a week later. This was fantastic! I had a week to visit Byron Bay and Nimbin and then could start making my way south towards Newcastle.

The basis of the WWOOFing experience is an exchange relationship between the wwoofer and the host. As I said some weeks earlier, WWOOFing stands for Willing Workers On Organic Farms. Hosts across Australia, and around the world, are typically small properties that grow food organically and some are even registered organic producers. That being said, not all hosts are involved in farming and produce - some of the host listings I found owned community galleries or were freelance writers looking for help. Potters, crafts-people, and wine-makers can also be found in the guide. In exchange for roughly 3 to 6 hours of work a day, the host agrees to house and feed the wwoofer for the duration of their stay. How the wwoofer is accommodated depends on the host, but free room and board is guaranteed. The length of stay also depends on the host, but there is a program minimum of 2 days. It cost me $55 in Brisbane to join the WWOOFing community for a year, and that includes insurance while working on the farm.

Matthew and Donna Hobday were nice enough to let me join them on their farm for a week. The raise free-range chickens for poultry and grow carnations, which Donna then sells to shops around town. The work listed in the guide includes picking and packing flowers, planting, gardening, and learning and caring for the chickens. I figured it couldn’t be that hard to work on a flower farm and called them up. Donna said she would pick me up form Tuggerah (the nearest substantial town is Gosford) Tuesday morning and I could stay for a week.

I took the overnight bus from Byron Bay to Tuggerah, which sucks in and of itself. I arrived at 8:30am and met Donna, who had a grocery cart full of food for me. I’m staying in the cottage at the back of the house. They can fit up to five people in the cottage, but I’m the only wwoofer right now. Breakfast and lunch are my own business, but I join the family in the evening for dinner. They have four kids - Amy is almost 18 and writing her final high school exams, Mitchell is almost 16 and goes to boarding school so I don’t get to meet him, Levana is 10 and Tessa is 8. The family has been hosting wwoofers for almost 10 years, so the kids are used to it and are all really friendly. I happen to be their last ever wwoofer because they have just sold the farm and are handing it over in about 3 weeks. Donna said she had been turning people away lately because of the sale, but that she had a good feeling when I called and liked that I spoke English - they figured I would make an easy wwoofer.

From 7:30 am to about 1:00 pm, plus a morning tea break at 9:30 am, I cut carnations and bundle them to be sorted later for shipping. It’s not particularly hard work - carnations grow tall like sunflowers or pea plants, so it doesn’t involve a lot of bending over - but the flowers are grown in greenhouses, so when the Australian sun is out it can be really, really hot. I have the afternoons to myself, so I nap, play cards, read my book, and just generally relax. The farm is out in the middle of nowhere, so there isn’t much of anything else to do. But its nice, I like not doing anything. Plus, I have a whole cottage to myself so I can lounge around in peace. Dinner in the house is at 7:00 pm and we all eat together. After dinner I’ll watch tv with Amy, or color with Tessa and Levana, or just talk with Donna and Matt (I’m learning a lot about life in Australia). It’s nice to be around a family and get home-cooked meals.

Saturday is my day off. The only thing nearby is a small waterfall about two kilometers down the road, so after sleeping in and watching a Scooby Doo movie on TV, I take a little walk. It isn’t far and its not very big, but its pretty. I’m not gone for long so I come home and just play cards until dinner and then watch the Rugby League World Cup with Matt. Apparently Rugby League is different from Rugby, which I think is different from Australian Rugby (though Australian Rugby might not be a real thing). Once I get to Melbourne I’m going to see if I can see a live game because it looks like lots of fun.

Wednesday morning I’m going back to Sydney. I’m only about an hour away now, so it’s not far. I’m not going to make it to Newcastle, but Amy tells me there isn’t much to see there anyway. Donna is going to drive me to the bus station and I’m meeting Lea when I get in. She’ll have already been there for a while before I arrive because she hasn’t been there yet, but we’ll stay till Saturday morning and then it’s off to the Blue Mountains. Even though I’ve already been to Sydney it should be fun because I’m going to be able to Mel and Tim again, the couple I met at the beginning of my trip, and David, a friend of a friend, who says he’ll show me some cool places. My first WWOOFing experience has been really great. The work, though hot, made me feel productive, the family was nice, getting a cottage to myself was nice, just sitting around and not really doing anything was nice. I might try it again as I continue my travels, and I’ll definitely keep it in mind from now on, where ever I travel.

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Photos

Floragrove
the view from my cottage - the family owns 40 acres but doesn't use much of it.

carnations
carnations come is just about every color and size - Donna and Matt grow most of them.

hard at work
Donna and Matt cutting carnations

morning's work
once we've finished, the bundles are trucked into a shed where they are stored in a cooler until Donna sorts them for delivery

Levana
the kids celebrated their first ever Halloween while I was visiting.