Hello Wineberserkers! My daughter wants to do a 2014 wine harvest in Australia but its difficult to find out any information. Bibber International wants to place her but their fees are about $3200 for three months. This doesn’t include accommodations or anything, just placement, correct? If she makes minimum wage, it seems that with the Bibber fees, she will be paying to work in Australia. I would hope for a break-even situation but don’t want to pay to work there.
Can anyone provide information as to how accommodations work (provided by winery?), which locations are best, any wineries you would recommend her to submit a resume, travel to and from winery for work. How does it all work and where can we get more info?
Thanks!!
i would recommend she shouldn’t go through bibber or any other placement companies. she should start sending resumes/emails now as this is primetime for hiring in australia/new zealand.
-she will apply online for a working holiday visa from the australian government. it costs 200-300 dollars and will be approved online within days, requiring no visits to an embassy or anything because it is an electronic visa.
-tell her to join the travelling winemakers - living the dream facebook group and to just post there - lots of people hire on there
-the main australian wine job sites are:
accommodations/transportation varies place by place from zero assistance to providing both for free to employees.
pay is substantial in australia with starting rates being around 18-25 AUD/hour plus OT rates applying as well as superannuation (government mandated retirement pay) on top of that (which i think is +/- 10%) which she can get after she leaves the country.
Thank you so much for the information! Is there any particular region of Australia that would be best in terms of proximity to towns, transportation, etc.? She is focusing on the Victoria and Adelaide areas now. thanks!
Brian gives very good advice.
Does your daughter have any preferences of varieties and or regions? There are a number both in Victoria and around Adelaide that can offer different experiences. Would she prefer a large or small place? Does she have any experience? (this could swing whether she gets a job offer or not; there are a lot of people with cellar experience already in Australia).
One key thing is that she would probably require a car. While public transport is available within cities in Australia, it is very much lacking in rural areas. Especially in South Australia, second-hand cars are relatively cheap and easy to come by.
Regarding accommodation, some wineries help their harvest staff and some don’t; there’s no set practice.
Dear Barbara,
Does your daughter have any wine qualifications, previous study or experience ?
Most good wineries will only take people with some appropriate and complementary winemaking / viticulture experience.
Thank you so much for your replies. My daughter worked as a tasting room attendant while finishing up her senior year in college and currently she is a laboratory tech doing all the wine lab tests and also cellar work for a winery in Northern California. She is working with many varieties of grapes and has no preference to size of winery. Just a place that will help with accommodation and hopefully not too far from a town/city.
if she wants close(ish) proximity to a large city, yarra yarra is only a 40 minute drive from Melbourne and is a great quality grapegrowing region. I’m sure any of the places is south australia/adelaide areas would be close enough to something, plus there are so many wineries in that area there will be a ton of people in the industry, both locals and internationals in for the harvest, that it would probably be more fun for her and a great way to expand her network. most grapegrowing regions in australia are fairly rural though.