ABOUT THE FARMS

• The two Blueberry farms operate 9 months of the year, was 6 but next year will be 9 as they have planted raspberries and additional blueberries. (Mountain Blue Riperian on Tabulam Rd and River Run, Hooton’s Rd )

• They employ a lot of locals, mainly in maintenance, management, catering and accommodation.

• For the Blueberries we require accommodation for many workers, Riparian at Tabulam rd has had to create accommodation for 200 to help fill those spots, but prefer locals to take advantage of the income and the experience.

• Pickers and Packers don’t always stay the full season as they may go down south for example, cherry picking but there is always a worker that will want to take their spot in the height of the season, so normally I can fill that bed immediately.

HOW IT WORKS

• The best locations are those closest to the Farms, Tabulam and Bonalbo are in close proximity as is Mallanganee, so any areas close by are suitable, although those with town services are in higher demand such as Bonalbo,Drake and Tabulam.

• Depending on the height of the ceiling we work on bunks, single beds or doubles/ couples who do require privacy. Also a requirement is water, power, internet and washing facilities.

•The bigger houses can cater for up to 12 people dependant on what services they have and how many bathrooms, the rate is $140 pw per person. Homes out of town may be a bit less if more travel is required. The homes on offer must be clean, tidy and have good facilities.

• Crockery, cutlery, cooking utensils etc, sheets, blankets.( These all can be purchased locally and online, we can organize all of this if required)

• Maintenance is usually done if a group changes over, we do this all in house as I have a cleaning team , this is additional, may only need one cleaner for example to do a tidy up.

• At the end it may need a full clean.My team does this and the yard work. Rates are very reasonable but depends on the size of the house etc as to the cost. Pickers are required to pay a security deposit of $140 so costs are covered if beds are not changed or in the event cleaning is required during the season and if they leave any rubbish.

FEES
• For the Management, fees are the 1st weeks rent then 10 % inc gst.
This includes handling rents, liase and organize pickers/ workers, contractors , I have regular contact with the farms and receive work direct from the farm , individuals and contractors with large groups.

• Regular property checks are done.

• Unlike full time tenants we are free to go there at any time, they are mainly from different countries, all very easy to get on with, and many are very respectful and thankful, really enjoy the Australian experience bringing new cultures to us, cuisine and most are just learning english.
There are many Australian workers that do the work as well, coming from all around Australia to do this.

We continue to have Covid safe policies and procedures, this last season we had 0 cases and have a strict policy in place of pickers traveling to hot spot areas when determined from here to there.