It's a once in a lifetime experience and the opportunity is there for the taking.
Young Canadian farm-family people are being invited to travel to Australia to participate in the harvest - October to December - on a paid, educational working holiday, known as 'Farmaroos'. Guaranteed work, above-award wages, comfortable accommodation, insurance and safety training are all a part of the deal.
The program was established by a firm of chartered accountants, based in the Mallee region of the southern state of Victoria. The firm, Dodgshun Medlin, has a solid rural base, with fifteen full time agricultural consultants on staff and a large client base of farmers.
"These people need extra hands at harvest time," says operations chief, Mark Dodgshun, "We set out to find a solution and Canada fell very neatly into place."
Specifically, the Farmaroo initiative is looking for Canadian people aged between eighteen and thirty, who are familiar with farm life and the basics of operating machinery, have a bond with the land, and who are interested in learning. Program coordinator, Carling Henderson - herself a Canadian - says there is indeed much to learn.
"Just a decade ago, this region, which borders Australia's Outback, was a virtual dustbowl, but innovative farming practices and bigger, better machinery have turned it into an agricultural showcase that now feeds millions," she says, "It's certainly different from Canada. In Canada you might be cultivating a field of 100-acres or so. On the Mallee, a single paddock could be fifteen times that. You might be harvesting a mile or two in a single line, all on GPS. Your grain cart could be thirty tonnes. The combine front could be forty feet or more."
Henderson says Farmaroos will learn more about efficiencies in large scale machinery - John Deere, New Holland, Case and so on - and about GPS mapping, no-till seeding, yield mapping and monitoring, coordinating in teams of up to five people, and a wide variety of different crops. She said that while the Canadian and Mallee landscapes were worlds apart, many of the lessons were exactly the same.
Henderson's role is to ensure that Farmaroos are welcomed, given comfortable quarters and conditions. "We match the right people with the right roles on the right farms. We handle the initial safety education, payment and so on direct. As a firm of chartered accountants we know which I's to dot and T's to cross, so there is no complication. And I'm there on call to handle any questions or issues that arise.
"It's a safe, sensible and rewarding way to experience farming in Australia, and there's plenty of recreational opportunity to go with it."
Henderson also says there is additional reassurance in the solid reputation of Dodgshun Medlin itself - established fifty years, with a large staff of financial and agricultural specialists, and very much part of the landscape. She says Farmaroos can be confident in the company's ethics, arrangements and guarantees.
On that note, participants are fundamentally guaranteed five, 40-hour weeks of work - more if the harvest demands it and Farmaroos are willing. When the crop is in, they are free to travel and work in Australia for anywhere up to another twelve months, and to return for the following year's harvest, should they choose.
Why Canadians? "I'm not sure exactly what it is,' says Henderson, "but Canadians and Australians naturally get on. You see Canadians and Australians gravitate toward each other, wherever they happen to be in the world. Similar values, same work ethic, a shared sense of humour and there's that bond with the land."
Canadian Drew Cardy from Minnedosa agrees. He was part of the pilot Farmaroo program involving young Canadians on the Mallee two years ago.
"You get good pay, a nice house to stay in; I was given my own vehicle," says Cardy, "It's quite a surprise. You know you're going to be working on a farm but you don't know what the landscape is going to be like and you come out here and it's really beautiful. You see the wildlife everywhere - kangaroos, emus, snakes, echidnas and lizards. The farmer I worked for - really nice people, really nice equipment, the best technology. They don't overwork you but if you want the experience they'll give you extra hours. You learn so much, see new things, meet new people. It's a great adventure. You couldn't ask for a better situation."
To find out more about the Farmaroo project and how you can get involved, visit the website www.farmaroo.ca .
