Everything I cook in my hostel working 12 hour shifts on a strawberry farm in Australia – Backpacker

In this video I’m gonna show you what my life looks like working on a strawberry farm in Australia as a backpacker who is trying to get their second visa. You will also see the dark side of the Australian Dream and what it takes to live here on a Working Holiday Visa. But of course not without also showing you what I eat on a budget, because we need a little bit of fun 🙂

Let me break my journey down for you:
On the end of September I moved from Cairns to Morayfield (near Brisbane) after my friends stumbled across a job add for this strawberry farm on a Facebook group. We were not informed about the work hours or the system of paying them back.

The second I arrived, I knew something was off. I had the worst gut feeling about that place. But I ignored it and focused on getting the pay slips. After talking to the backpackers on the farm I heard some shocking things. Some of them revealed that they had already tried to sue the company, because they had to pay them their salary back, but without any success. I also heard that the Fair Work Commission had a visit to do a check up. But they didn’t find any illegal activity on the farm. Why? Because the workers were given fabricated answers, lies they had to tell the FWC in order to keep their job. They feared the consequences of losing their job, the only pathway to another year in Down Under.

If you watched the video till the end, you know that I just recently quit the job and moved back to Sydney for a little break.
But now I am stuck in an inner conflict between doing the farm work, sticking up with the bad conditions and just getting it done to finally get my second visa OR going against this exploitative system which means refusing to do any farm work since it will only contribute to the exploitation of more people in the future.

While I was living in Germany and planned on coming to Australia, I did my research on the farm industry and only came across one story of a German couple who experienced exploitation on a farm. I thought that was the exception until I got here. The amount of stories I heard shook me to the core.

If you don’t believe me, have a look yourself

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-15/backpacker-farm-workers-speak-of-wage-exploitation/12545294

https://amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/sep/26/88daysaslave-backpackers-share-stories-of-farm-work-exploitation

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/backpackers-overworked-exploited-and-harassed-while-working-on-aussie-farms/news-story/b1121e2af64435ee2106423cab3bd1c2?amp

88 Days a Slave

I will keep you updated, guys!

If you like my journey so far and want to support me, check out my Throne account: https://throne.com/begibou

If you want to partner with me, hit me up: Begibou.Contact@gmail.com

Check out my other social platforms
Instagram: Begibou
TikTok: Begibou

Thank you so much for watching! Stay tuned 🙂

Chapters:

00:00 – 01:09 Getting ready for work
01:09 – 01:32 Arrival and set up
01:32 – 02:21 Strawberry picking
02:21 – 02:28 Lunch break
02:28 – 03:03 More strawberry picking
03:03 – 03:15 Driving back home
03:15 – 04:04 Dinner (frozen pizza)
04:04 – 05:07 Getting ready + Updates
05:07 – 05:41 Breakfast (smoothie)
05:41 – 06:13 Going grocery shopping
06:13 – 06:39 At the grocery store
06:39 – 07:08 Dinner (Rice, fried egg, peanut butter)
07:08 – 07:18 Preparing breakfast
07:18 – 08:08 Morning routine
08:08 – 09:32 Strawberry picking + Updates
09:32 – 09:53 End of work
09:53 – 11:10 Dinner (Tortellini)
11:10 – 11:51 Getting ready for work again
11:51 – 13:10 More work
13:10 – 15:55 Why I quit
15:55 – 17:45 Breakfast (bao buns, rice, fried egg)
17:45 – 18:22 The next morning
18:22 – 21:19 Breakfast (smoothie, toasties)
21:19 – 22:10 Outro and infos

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35 COMMENTS

  1. The victim mentality is off the charts. Haven't stopped whinging since arriving here.
    Australia is the best country in the world so you either need to work hard or pay hard to stay.
    Otherwise there's a very simple solution. ✈

  2. Yay! Capitalism! The type of capitalism that is meant to have regulation and oversight. But nobody cares here because it's "just lazy foreigners" and "farmers are the backbone of our country", yadayadayada. Supermarkets rip off farmers, farmers rip off workers. Everyone says farmers work hard, but they're not doing manual labour for 10+ hours. You can read stories going back decades about this, but nobody does anything about it. Mind you, me having a rant on social media isn't doing jack either. Also, politicians want rural votes, so they're not gonna rock the boat too much.

    That type of work is going to be very difficult to get into if you're not conditioned to it. Going from zero to 12 hours a day is insane and would be a big shock to the system. Anyway, welcome back to Sydney.

  3. Makes sense why the farmers didn't want to hire Aussies during covid times even though they had no overseas workers to rely on. They knew they wouldn't get away with treating Aussies/locals like shit like they do with these foreigners.

  4. Its not often i struggle to think of something to say/type, i know two things you DONT want to hear 🤣
    Look, well done for not taking any sh!t begibou, dont stop that, ever.
    Theres a spark in you that no one will extinguish.
    Ps – i like your waffling (not the food, the talking too much – english lesson over)
    OWARDS WOMAN!!!!!!! 👍🏻
    🙂

  5. How work visas are treated in rural Australia is absolutely fucked. I was wondering how your adventure would go, but sadly wasn't expecting a happy ending.
    I'm from Sydney, but an overseas cousin of mine nearly lost their foot from not having PPE, a girl from work was paid $3-6/hr on one farm, left and flew across the country to WA only to be told there was no job for her there. No one seems to be treated remotely decently.

  6. I think that you no longer need to do farm work for a second visa here in Australia . Farmers are a holes and most of them are Italians who have plenty of money but love to rip off their workers . Best of luck in Sydney !

  7. Omg I’m so so sorry you had to go through this, that’s so terrible to see how these people treat others, as an Australian this is not something that is talked about at all and it’s really unfortunate. I have been having a tough period in life too, it’s nice to know that there are people going through even harder struggles, makes me feel like I can get through it if my life has only like 10% of the problems of yours. Anyways, I love your videos, you are so sweet and genuine, hope you feel better and it’s so cool that you are actually moving back to Sydney, since I am from there too.

  8. As an Australian I am embarrassed of what you have gone through just to get a visa, I had heard the stories before but I had no idea it was this bad in the farms, I think in a capitalist society people will try to get away with whatever they can to increase their bottom line but it falls to the government to properly police laws and regulations. I love your videos and I hope you have more positive experiences in Australia. Namaste sis 🙏

  9. You should not be treated badly- This does not seem right , that you need to pay these people back- you need to report this ! I hope you find a job where you are treated fairly . Please do what is best for your own physical, mental & emotional well-being 🥰

  10. The exploitation of backpackers on farms is an absolute embarrassment to Australia. To complete your rural time I know there are a few backpackers going out to places like Cloncurry/Mount Isa and getting paid fairly working bars/restaurants if you're looking for something new other than farmwork.

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