The Golden Gumboot of Tully, QLD I got a banana job and my first day was Tuesday. I work at a Mackay farm- Bolinda Estates. The biggest banana farm in all the land apparently. As a female I am restricted to the shed to do womans work, which for a newbie like me is sorting and cutting. The shed is the size of an airplane hanger, if not larger, and it is literally a banana factory. The males are out in the paddocks ‘humping’ the banana bunches aka cutting them off the trees and putting them in a trailer attached to a tractor. Then the tractor takes the trailer to the shed and it is unloaded. Then a more males hang the bunches, take off the bags (banana bunches grow in protective bags, snakes and rats and frogs and spiders get in anyway), and then more males cut off big ‘hands’ from the bunches and throw them in the water of a big table like thing. IN the water the bananas get clean and that’s when the women start there work. We get to sort the fuckers. Looking for gashes, big spots, rottenness, etc etc etc. Then another female (or unlucky small male who couldn’t get a humping job) has a knife and cuts the hands into small hands consisting of 2-9 bananas. Then the bananas go down the line a bit more and get more clean and then the packers, more women, pack the bananas in boxes. Then the boxes go down a conveyor belt and someone puts a lid on them. And then they are sent all over Australia for people to eat.
The number of bananas thrown away is appalling.
Sometimes tree frogs hide in the bananas and we get to catch them and put them in a bucket to be re-released to the wild later. The bucket says ‘Poison’ on it and that sort of confuses me.
The sorting line tables are too low for me and I have to lift the bananas high to see them when I’m sorting and it makes my back sore. Hopefully it will pass in another few days.
Oh yeah, the work day is 8 hours long. I catch the bus at 6:25am, get to the farm by 6:50am, work starts at 7. Then we have four 2 hour sessions separated by either smoko (break) or lunch. An old school bell marks the start and end of each session- I feel like I’m back at Sinclair! Work ends at 4pm. I’m back ‘home’ by 4:30 and then have to wait until about 6pm for the water in the showers to be hot again (people at other farms get home earlier, but also start earlier too). But I don’t get very dirty at all since we are required to wear gloves, an ugly ass hat with a hairnet attached, and an apron that is forever covered in banana sap.
After just 4 days on the job I now realize why people drink so much on the weekends in Tully.
The number of bananas thrown away is appalling.
Sometimes tree frogs hide in the bananas and we get to catch them and put them in a bucket to be re-released to the wild later. The bucket says ‘Poison’ on it and that sort of confuses me.
The sorting line tables are too low for me and I have to lift the bananas high to see them when I’m sorting and it makes my back sore. Hopefully it will pass in another few days.
Oh yeah, the work day is 8 hours long. I catch the bus at 6:25am, get to the farm by 6:50am, work starts at 7. Then we have four 2 hour sessions separated by either smoko (break) or lunch. An old school bell marks the start and end of each session- I feel like I’m back at Sinclair! Work ends at 4pm. I’m back ‘home’ by 4:30 and then have to wait until about 6pm for the water in the showers to be hot again (people at other farms get home earlier, but also start earlier too). But I don’t get very dirty at all since we are required to wear gloves, an ugly ass hat with a hairnet attached, and an apron that is forever covered in banana sap.
After just 4 days on the job I now realize why people drink so much on the weekends in Tully.
In other news, I'm in Cairns for the weekend with Andy and his brother and some of their friends from home. It's nice to escape Tully for a bit and be back in civilization!
ALso, my apologies for getting so far behind on posting, I'm going to try to be better with shorter updates!
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