UNEMPLOYED Australians are shunning local agriculture jobs, forcing farmers to rely on backpackers to fill a workforce gap.

The Federal Government is facing mounting pressure to open up the working holiday visa program to fill a desperate shortfall of willing workers in the bush.

Working holidaymakers aged 18-30 largely fill many low-paid jobs in pubs, motels, restaurants and on farms across regional Australia.

“There is a reliability issue with local workers doing this type of work,” National Harvest Labour Information Service state manager Peter Angel said.

“We wouldn’t be able to get all the work done on farms without the backpackers because they are so reliable.

“They have no fallback to the dole and they want a visa so they can stay in Australia for a second year.”

The service runs the National Harvest Trail program, which coordinates fruit-picking jobs around the country.

Mr Angel said backpackers who worked for 88 days in a “specified industry” in regional Australia can qualify for a ­second-year extension to their visa.

He said about 500,000 overseas backpackers came to Australia each year, of whom 300,000 were on working holiday visas. Of these, more than 30 per cent applied for a second year visa, mostly by doing horticultural work.

“Jobs in horticulture are very popular with backpackers, particularly from Europe, because of the poor jobs situation over there,” he said.

“Some nationalities are more popular, such as the ­Koreans and Taiwanese ... they have a very good work ethic, they’re highly productive, they stay and they don’t party hard.”

Mr Angel said the Riverland is a prime location for backpackers because of the large range of jobs in the horticultural and wine industries.

“The backpackers are very important to harvesting in the Riverland, while grey nomads are also popular because they have a good work ethic and they are reliable, but there are not many of them,” he said.

Tourism and Transport Forum chief executive Margy Osmond said the cost of a working holidaymaker visa had more than doubled in the past 10 years.

“To keep these working holidaymakers coming to the state, we need to ensure visa application costs are reasonable,” she said.

“They are also big spenders in the local economy.’’

There is now more than one backpacker, aged 18-30, for every Year 12 graduate in Australia, according to Monash University research.

Figures show more than a third of the labour on farms and in harvesting teams is provided by young foreign workers from Ireland, Scotland, France, Denmark and Germany.

The number of working holiday visas has grown by a third since the 2008 global financial crisis.

Ripe for the picking

SA harvest jobs available:

CITRUS: June to November

APPLES/PEARS: January to May

STONEFRUIT: January to February

CHERRIES: October to January



GRAPES: January to April

Note: the picking season varies from region to region.

Originally published as Tourists get pick of jobs on farms