Australia: Farm work in Victoria

Leaving Melbourne to do our farm work was a very last-minute decision, but we figured it was all a part of the Australian experience so we gave it a go!

A few hours after placing an advert on Gumtree, we were called by a man who owned a family-run vineyard a few hours north of Melbourne. Our positions would be varied across the business, it included accommodation and they even had a couple of Airbnb properties we would be able to help out with so we agreed on a start date, transferred the lease on our flat and moved up to the Rutherglen wine region.

Before Christmas, we were mainly helping out with order picking in the warehouse as there were lots of Christmas orders that needed sending. We also spent a few days helping to bottle and label some of the products. This was a good way for us to learn about the wines sold and to gain more knowledge on wine in general as neither of us were too familiar with the industry. We also were invited to join the work Christmas fancy dress party and came up with very original costume ideas...

Christmas Day was spent in a similar way to the previous year as we went for a float on the river on a couple of lilos with a few beers. We also had a Christmas dinner, but this time it was home-cooked and delicious (last year's was a questionable affair in Laos!).

In the new year, we moved outside to help more with the gardening and property maintenance. This involved a lot of deadheading roses and weeding but it was nice to be outside in the fresh air - even if we did have to endure a whole week of 40+ heat! Around this time our previous housemate left (he was an absolute nightmare) and we gained two new housemates (they were the best!). Our evenings and weekends got a bit more interesting from then on; we went on a tour of the region to a few other vineyards and spent a lot of time having beers and BBQs.

Our last week at the vineyard consisted of preparing for a big music event that would be happening on the property at the weekend, which we attended and had (from what we remember!) a great time at.

Overall, the farm work experience was fairly disappointing as we weren't given the range of work promised and the hours weren't as long as we were hoping for, but we had heard some horror stories of other people's farm work and ours was a dream in comparison, so we can't complain too much! We made some great memories and learnt a bit about a new industry, which was the main reason we took the job in the first place.