Zucchinis & Tomatoes Picking in Bundaberg, Queensland

Zucchinis and tomatoes picking were some of the hard works I tried in Australia. Most backpacker jobs in Bundaberg were provided by the working hostels and I stayed in one of them. A van usually reached the working hostel at 6 am to pick up the backpackers to the field. Frankly, working early in the morning in the field was not fun as it was extremely cold and my pants easily got wet caused by the dew on the plants.

 

Workers got to the field when it's still dark and cold in the early morning

 

Every worker in the field was provided a knife and some number tags every morning before the picking started. Then, we’ll be arranged to work in different rows of plants.

  

Zuchinnis field

Rows and rows of zucchini plants

 

 

For zucchinis picking, we used the knife to cut off the zucchinis from plants and put gently into a bucket until it’s full. To identify everyone’s work, we were asked to show the number tag we owned on top of each bucket we filled.

 

 

 

 

 

For a full bucket of zucchinis, it’s only paid as much as $2. Sometimes we’ll get penalty and lost the wage of buckets if the contractor found that the zucchinis picked are damage, too small, too large or they’re slightly less in a full bucket. The hardest part was my body required to bend and also carried the bucket along the row in order to perform the work.

When there’re not many zucchinis to be picked on the day, we’re arranged to pick tomatoes as well. To me, tomatoes picking was slightly greater as it could be picked by hands and easier to fill up a bucket. However, same as zucchinis, tomatoes picking required energy to carry or drag the bucket before it’s fully filled.

 

 

We usually get off work before lunch hour and went home. It’s good for our body but we could hardly earn enough to pay rent and shared petrol L