The Banana Job

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.

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!

Mount Tyson

View from the top

One of the things I like best about Tully is the surrounding natural environment, especially looming Mount Tyson that serves as backdrop for the small main street of town. Shortly after arriving in Tully I learned that there was a hiking trail that took you up to the top of the mountain, where you could see as far as Mission Beach, so knowing that there was a way up there made me want to do it.
Now, I’d been waiting to go up this mountain for some time but you really have to time it right with the weather; a clear day is ideal as any kind of cloud cover can mean it is raining at the top (the top is legit rainforest). So yesterday, Sunday May 7, a friend of mine, Andy, and I went hiked up Mt Tyson. We couldn’t have timed it better since we ended up not starting til 1:30pm and two groups had already started up before us. This was good because usually, or at least the first time Andy went up in March, there were spiders, massive spiders, everywhere. We’re talking spiders the size of your head, the kinds that eat birds, and if they bite you you can get sick or even die I think. So you have to take a stick and go slow and make sure all the webs and spiders are out of your way up the path. We didn’t see a single spider or web. This may have been because it is winter here and they’re all hibernating or something, but either way it made it much easier. There were still leeches near the top in the rainforest section but if you caught them early you could just tear them off before they latched on. Andy got a big one in his shoe that had to be burned off with the lighter we’d brought. The mozzies were also insane but nothing some Musoka Deep Woods couldn’t handle.
Anyway, it was a class 5 hiking trail and definitely not easy. I also came to realize how terribly out of shape I am, haha. There were sections going up that you literally climb up but don’t realize how vertical it is until coming back down. It was all worth it though. Since the day was so clear the view was spectacular! We could see Mission Beach and surround coastline, plus miles and miles of farm land on the other side. It was also really nice to get out and do something active for a change.

In other news, I helped Andy make Mud Crab risotto for a big group of people on the weekend. I actually only did the crab handling. The man at the seafood shop told us that the most humane way to kill the sucker was to leave him in the fridge all day, like 4 hours, and then take him out and clean him before cooking him. But after 3 hours in the fridge he was still alive and moved to the freezer for the final hour. After that he appeared to be dead but as I cleaned the mud off his shell (luckily he was still strapped up in twine) he came out of hibernation. It was like we were trying to kill Super Crab. I got him clean and when the water finally started to boil (damn electric stove tops in this place made it take forever) we had to cut the twine before dropping him in. Andy did the cutting but as soon as his huge claws were freeze he started to flail about in protest, causing Andy to run away with me left holding the thing. I half dropped him into the pot and used a big knife to pry his remaining legs and claw into the pot to meet his fate. It was all pretty funny. Once the crab was dead and cooked and a lovely red-orange color, this German guy and I cleaned the crab, getting all the meat out. Breaking into his huge claws was a challenge and I ended up with crab bits and juices all over me. It was a good learning experience to say the least and the risotto was excellent.

Andy's Leech

This Shit is Bananas

(Written week of June 1st)
Working with bananas makes people go bananas in this town. I’ve been in Tully over three weeks and well it has been an experience and a half. First impressions were good: it wasn’t raining. The town slogan is “A pretty wet place” and the joke is that they measure the rain fall in meters, not millimeters. There is a 7.9m tall Golden Gumboot in town that you can actually climb up to get a view of the area. Another thing about this town is that the banana work attracts a lot of Asian people, so the population of my hostel is about 90% Asian and most of them don’t speak very much English at all. It’s a little bit fascinating. I’ve decided that there is a certain charm that makes me really like this town. The town is tiny but everyone is so friendly and outgoing. It’s the Australia I’ve been looking for I think. Tropical North Queensland is beautiful with its hills of rainforest and it doesn’t hurt that it has only rained a few days since I’ve been here. The weather is actually a lot like August in Kingston- warm in the day but then kind of cold once the sun has gone down.
Unfortunately, with the Australian winter just starting my timing to find banana work couldn’t have been worse. It is the depth of the slow season and so it took me just about three weeks to finally find a job- I start tomorrow.
The weekdays are pretty boring when everyone is off at work (people who have been here a month or 2 or 14 have jobs, there just aren’t any new jobs right now) but the weekends are ridiculous. They’re actually ricockandbullsulous. Since there is nothing to do in Tully but drink, the booze (mostly goon) is consumed at astonishing levels, which makes for an entertaining evening. The only bar in town that stays open late is down the street- Rafters- and is attached to the Banana Barracks Backpackers, the big one in town that gets the most work (they also charge more) and is a wild place due to all the banana workers letting off steam after a week of hard, tedious work. Good times indeed on a Friday night there. I’ve met some really cool people here though and would certainly like to stay for a couple months, despite the lack of wifi, to get my 2nd year visa and make some sweet moola.
Anyways, I could go on and on with anecdotes of the funny and crazy things that have gone on here but I won’t, although I will tell you about my bogan ‘BBQ’ experience. As I mentioned some months ago, I think, a bogan is the Australian slang word for a redneck/hick/hillbilly what have you. Andy, one of the English guys I’ve been hanging out/partying with, asked me if I wanted to go to this BBQ at one of his co-workers houses. I said sure, not like I had anything else to do, and who doesn’t like a BBQ? Now, the people he works with are the banana workers who aren’t backpackers, aka locals aka total backwood hicks, and he sort of warned me of this before we went but... It was a fucking insane experience. Going out to this woman’s house, which was in the middle sugarcane fields, in a taxi with these people who were all loaded, like retarded drunk (it was like 4:30-5pm on a Friday). The woman’s whose house it was, Chrissy, had no front teeth and the rest of her teeth were all black and rotting. But she was really nice, a good hostess. Like other bogan’s I’ve had the great pleasure of meeting I’ve found that they are always explaining themselves, like she was about 45years old and told the same story over and over- about why she was a little broke at the moment, because her daughter just turned 16 and she is trying to keep her in school but the government isn’t helping her blah blah. The house was shabby as, like run down and just redneck hillbilly dirty. This BBQ ended up just being drinking and smoking out at a picnic table in the yard. The other guests at the BBQ were fucked as well. One old man, early 50s, fell asleep at the table pretty quick. Another guy, who apparently can’t read or write, is late 40s, terrible teeth as well, just sat there starring at me the whole time. They all commented on what great teeth I had. There was a guy in his late 20s who was probably the most ’normal’ but still Aussie bogan trash, drunk and stoned as like the rest of them, with fuck being every other word. Chrissy’s 16 year daughter was there too and acted as barmaid. I asked her why she didn’t want to do school anymore and she said it was just too hard, involved too much focus. At one point some man came walking out of the sugar cane, it was a little weird, but he ended up being the guy who lived in Crhissy’s shed. He joined in on the ‘BBQ’ too. We ended up not staying for very long because it was such a retarded situation and not actually the kind of BBQ either of us expected., plus they were getting pretty mean with the dirty pom comments towards Andy. But I thought it was pretty hilarious and a really unique Aussie experience.

One more thing- the Golden Gumboot Festival ended up being a bust. We weren’t expecting such a family oriented event, especially in Australia where drinking is part of most everything, so we lasted about 15 minutes before going back to the hostel and having our own festival of sorts. Good times in Tully.

Don’t Forget: Say No to Banana Exports in Australia.

TROPICAL NORTH QUEENSLAND

So I've been in Tully almost a week and am staying another week... why? Not too sure, there isn't much to do, but there is something about it that I like. I haven't found banana work because it's the slow part of the season, but I have my new Tully friends vouching for me by asking farmers they know or work for or serve in the bar downstairs. I might leave in another week if nothing turns up... we'll have to just wait and see and sit tight!
I had a nice long blog post typed out on my laptop but alas, Tully doesn't have a single wireless connection and this computer I'm currently using has it's USB ports locked away.
The area is beautiful though; the backdrop to town is Mount Tyson that is covered in rainforest. Palms trees are everywhere. AND! AND! For being called 'A Pretty wet place' it hasn't rained since I arrived! Beautiful!
Oh and one more thing, this tiny town of 3,500 has a 50m outdoor pool.... whaaaaat?

For Realz.

Heading North is a Good Thing

Whoever thought that heading north would be a good thing? Only in upside down land, right?
So after 4 nights in Townsville I have finally found somewhere else to go. I spent my days here mostly wasting energy in a negative way on worrying and being hopeless about ever leaving and finding a fruit or veg picking job. But I think I need to appreciate that my search is just a little over a week old and probably relatively short compared to what others face. I've spent a far amount of phone credit, or at least more than I would normally spend in almost 2 months, on calling backpackers that offer work and transport to and from, but such is life. Anyway, that is all very abstract, so here are the real Ds: I've found a bed in Tully, Queensland, which is about 2.5 hours North of Townsville, about 1.5 hours South of Cairns. Part of the reason I have found a bed is because there is currently because there is no work to be had picking bananas (the major crop in Tully and area) because there was been too much rain. Oh, did I mention that Tully is one of the wettest towns in Australia? At least it will be tropical rain. haha.
SO tomorrow afternoon I head to Tully to wait for the work to start again, hopefully it won't be long, but for the time being I am extremely happy to be in a position that has plenty of potential.

Back to my time in Townsville- it wasn't entirely all bad. I actually think Townsville is quite a pretty place, it's too bad it's so dead. I took a hike up Castle Hill (only a few metres short of being a mountain) and got a great view of the city, surrounding suburbs, Magnetic Island 8km from shore, and the outlying hillside and country for miles. I ran along The Strand on the waterfront, which is quite beautiful, and exquisitely maintained. I experienced the cleanest public toilets EVER. I also got to check out the Sunday markets, which didn't quite compare to the Byron ones, but had some unique wares nonetheless. Unfortunately, the Rock Pool, was closed the entire time I've been here for maintainance. But it looked cool (a man made enclosure with pumps from Sweden that pump ocean water in and out of the pool. So it's like you're swimming in the ocean but don't have to worry about stringers ie jellyfish. They're bad here, there is even vinegar jugs set up along the beach to ease the pain should you get stung), and I'll check it out when I come back on my way to Maggie (Magnetic Island) where I plan to get my SCUBA certification after I've served my time in Tully.

The next time I post it will probably be from the home of the giant Golden Gumboot!

On the Road Again

I have left Byron Bay. I repeat: I have left Byron Bay. Right now I’m sitting in the bus terminal in Brisbane waiting for my lovely 23.5 hour bus ride up the coast to begin. It’s already warmer in Queensland than Northern New South Wales (Byron). This morning was the coldest morning yet I think; I was awoken because I was so cold, even under two big blankets.
Anyways, I said in my last post that I was hoping to go to Bowen for seasonal harvest hard labor. Well it turns out that all the hostels in Bowen, as well as Ayr, Home Hill, and Cardwell are full at the moment, so why don’t I call back later? I have not experienced this much frustration and stress in months and it has come as quite a painful shock to my system. So after calling what felt like a million hostels looking for a bed and being rejected each time, I gave up, and decided that my efforts to find a place might work better if I am only a couple hours drive from the potential location rather than over 24 hours away. Thus, today, I head to Townsville, Queensland. It’s the largest town on the East Coast (North of Brisbane that is), with a population above 100,000. Maggie Island is a short 8km ferry ride away and I am hoping that it will be a good starting off point to find some work or at least be much easier to pop down to Ayr or up to Tully at short notice should a bed become available.
I’m definitely excited to be on the road to a warmer place with the possibility work in the form of a physical challenge that pays.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I come into work soon and with it have an address for a solid 3 months so you can all send me my belated birthday goodies ;)

So Update: I'm in Townsville now. The bus ride was long but not that bad. It is definitely warmer here but overcast today. Townsville seems pretty dead and I've only been here about 2 hours. Luckily they have free wi-fi at the Macca's near my hostel... speaking of- I'm in a 4-share room with a bunch of young Scandinavian girls who at 2pm in the afternoon were still in bed nursing hangovers. My favorite! I will hopefully be heading back down to Ayr or up further North to Tully on Monday. Oh, and somehow I managed to leave my raincoat on the bus, it was attached to my backpack with a carrabeener and now they're both gone- oh, fiddlesticks!

Turn up the heat, and turn off the rain

Still in Byron Bay. Still cold. Actually I think I am adjusting a little bit, the mornings don’t feel as cold as they did at first, but that’s not a good thing as I am going to head up the coast shortly towards the warmth. I’ve made the decision to go ahead and try my luck at harvest work and see if I can last for 3 months (88 days!) to get the automatic second year of working holiday visa and make some sweet moola. I’ve done some research and found a town that I think might work out well and will hopefully be warm enough for me: Bowen, Queensland, known as the Top of the Whitsundays. The town is right on the beach and my plan is to stay in one of the backpacker hostels there that assists its residents in finding harvest work. If Bowen ends up getting too cold for me or I don’t like/get bored with it I’ll go a little further North to Ayr or Innisfail. I’ve already decided that if I make the 3 months of picking that my reward will be bungy jumping at the AJ Hackett site in Cairns! Oh, and cashing in on my birthday present of getting my SCUBA certification on Maggie Island (Magnetic Island… a hot Aussie I met in Bali told me I had to go to “Maggie Island”). Now my only big decision left to make is how to get up there. Lifts up the coast aren’t really materializing of late so I might just book a bus, train, or plane up there and get down to it, rather than having some long road trip up with strangers being anxious to get started already the whole time.
In other news, Byron has been pretty fun despite the weather. The girls had a House Warming Party last week that was an awesome night. We had BBQ, fresh watermelon and pineapple, yummy salads, and plenty of booze and music. Dance parties happened as well, of course. Since then I’ve been getting the most out of my season pass at the pool and running along the beach plenty. I made a big pot of chili for everyone a few days ago along with homemade cornbread muffins (plain, pineapple, and jalapeno) that turned out prefect! A new reality tv series started last week called ‘Master Chef;’ it’s very similar to Top Chef from American Bravo. It was on every night last week and we all watched every episode. One of the hosts says “yeah?” at the end of almost all his sentences and we turned it into a drinking game. Last night we had a little birthday party for Katie (one of my fellow squatters… did I mention that last time? Laurie’s friends from home Justin and Katie are also squatting in the living room of this fine house. We’re one big, happy family). There was cake and goon and the most intensely focused and high-paced games of ‘Kings’ I’ve ever played. We even got through the entire deck- that never happens! After Kings we all walked into town, but Laurie and I ended up walking back home not long later: we were game over. When we were over halfway home it started pouring rain, like monsoon style. A friend of ours and former housemate of Laurie and Diva’s, Chris, rode by on his bike as we trudged drunkenly through the rain, we tried to take refuge under a palm tree but it wasn’t any help. Chris rode off after a while and then returned later when we were nearly home and the rain had stopped, with an umbrella. Greatly appreciated even though we didn’t need it, but it’s the thought that counts. We were soaked to the bone when we got back, it was quite the ridiculous night. Luckily I didn’t enter the Annual Byron Bay Ocean Swim that took place the next morning at 10am. I’d thought about it but just couldn’t justify the $50 entry fee because of the horrible shape I’m in swimming-wise right now.
Yesterday the big Sunday market was on in Byron and I briefly hit that up before walking out to Satori to see Diva in action and use their free wifi. The place was busier than I’ve ever seen it before but Diva handled it like a veteran manager. It poured some more rain in the afternoon but I managed to not get caught in it again. Phew. I had mild hungover-y kind of feeling all day so when I got back to the house I ran down to the beach and jumped in the ocean hoping for a shock from the cold water… but it was warmer than the air and actually felt kind of nice. Not what I was looking for but the run down and back felt very nice.
Tomorrow we’re celebrating Laurie’s 25th Birthday a few days early. The theme is ‘nautical.’ Should be interesting. I’m making devil’s food cupcakes with pink frosting!

They had Borat on network TV last night. I still sort of can’t believe it.