Farm work in Australia: A once in a lifetime experience

Abstract

This thesis looks into farm work in Australia and what the experience is like. Farm work is a huge topic of discussion in Australia between working holiday makers, as well as authorities, as there has been misconduct reported happening on farms in recent years. This is the main reason for doing research on the topic and giving a voice to the working holiday makers, who have been mistreated, as well as to those who have had positive experiences.

The main goal of this thesis was to find out what kind of experience farm work in Australia is, by using qualitative research methods. This was done by interviewing six working holiday makers, who have done farm work in the past two years. To understand why these working holiday makers end up working on farms and come to Australia in the first place, both life in Australia and visa regulations are explained in the theoretical part.

All of the interviews were conducted in February 2018, in Melbourne Australia. The results showed, that their experiences were hard to deem just as negative, or just as positive. There were multiple aspects that needed to be taken into consideration, when evaluating farm work as an experience. Having heard what the participants had to say and how their experiences were, there were suggestions included in this thesis, on how to improve matters for working holiday makers as well as potential future research ideas.