Caboolture’s “Doc Spiros” Sentenced to Serve Jail Sentence

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Have you ever heard of the infamous “ Doc Spiros” from Caboolture, known within working holiday maker and harvest circles for all the wrong reasons, Doc Spiros ( Spiros Pandelakis) has been fined $1.1 million dollars for running budget / working holiday maker accommodation that didn’t meet safety regulations since 2009. ( According to Sunshine Coast Daily) He was known to promise harvest work that did not exist in order to obtain tenants weekly board. Facebook pages such as Shut Down Doc Spiros and Victims of Doc Spiros were setup to alert harvest workers and working holiday makers of what was Read more

Backpackers Dominate Workforce

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It seems that backpackers are taking over Queensland farms, the vast majority of the sector is staffed by overseas workers, most being backpackers. To give you a snapshot backpacker visa numbers jumped from 185,480 in 2010-11 to 249,231 in 2012 -13, now that’s a lot of potential fruit pickers. Growcom is the peak body for fruit and veg producers in Queensland, the chairman John Bishop was quoted saying “ “We can’t live without backpackers and Queensland can’t live without them.” Many farmers have been quoted saying “ employing Australians is a rare thing – they don’t want to do hard Read more

Strawberry Season commences at the Beerenberg Farm

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The Beerenberg Farm is getting ready for their upcoming harvest, with strawberries, cherries, gherkins, plums, roses (their petals go in their petal jelly) and hot chillies. Beerenberg Strawberry Farm grow so much that they have over 50 people working just to look after the harvest! The Farm is also a Tourist Attraction which has attracted pickers from all over the world since 1975. To give you an insight into how big the harvest is, last year over 28,000 people picked 5 tonnes of strawberries! That’s alot of picking! If you’re in the area this Sunday, October 27th,  the farm will Read more

A special year for farmers begins

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One of the men behind the Australian Year of the Farmer says 2012 is a good year to be in agriculture. Geoff Bell is the managing director of AYOF. “Farming is actually the world’s largest growth business,” he said. “As the population of the world grows, and it is growing very, very rapidly and it will for the next 40 or 50 years or so, agriculture is going to play an absolutely essential role in feeding and clothing and housing all of those extra people.” Mr Bell says the idea for a special year started years ago when he and Read more

Canola bonanza

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Australia has delivered its biggest canola crop on record, both in volume and value. Nick Goddard, from the Australian Oilseeds Federation, says the season’s harvest exceeds the previous record set in 1999 by over half a million tonnes. And with prices between $450-$490 a tonne, it should deliver record earnings. Mr Goddard says even the rain in NSW didn’t ruin the party. For the full story please visit ABC Rural

Marginal melon season for QLD growers

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A southern Queensland watermelon grower says significantly lower fruit quality and a very low price has combined to make a disastrous season for queensland farms. Ian and Sharon Beard grow 11 hectares of seedless melons near Chinchilla and this year they’ll probably have to throw out 70 per cent of their crop because of quality defects, which means less harvest jobs. Ian Beard says despite growing the fruit the same way they have for years they’ve had serious melon imperfections. “I think the combination of the cold and we had a bit of heat in November, lack of pollination has Read more

Making a buck from bananas

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Making a buck is suddenly very hard again for banana growers, a challenging period for Australian Farms. The shortage caused by Cyclone Yasi last year pushed prices in the supermarket to $17/kilo, but there’s a massive oversupply now and they are as cheap as chips. Growers on the north coast of NSW are struggling with other problems as well. They blame the supermarkets for preferring big bananas and those grown in QLD which have less skin blemishes. Ron Gray, president of the of the Coffs Harbour banana growers, says prices have plummeted in the supermarket and he’s struggling to make Read more

Farmers clean up after Christmas floods

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Farms in western Victoria are cleaning up after flash flooding damaged properties during the week before Christmas. Stock and fences were washed away at Joel Joel, east of Stawell and some areas received more than 100 millimetres of rain in an hour. Farmer, Larry McLean from Joel South didn’t lose any stock but says the clean-up has kept him busy during the summer break, there’s still many jobs out there though, especially those looking for the 2nd Working Holiday Visa. For the full story please visit ABC Rural