Planting in Australia

[TimberwolfOZ]

Hi Everyone,

I'm an ex-Canadian tree planter working in Australia for the company, 'Timberwolf'. As mentioned above. I have 4 seasons of previous experience working in Alberta and BC with Folklore and I also planted for a month in Scotland.

Timberwolf was conceived by a couple Canadian planters who were studying in Brisbane and started working a side job in the landscaping industry as contracted planters, but were using 'augers' - gas powered, hand held, machines. The inefficiencies of the previous model were quickly apparent and the planters introduced the use of bags, shovels, and incentive based pay, which in turn, led to the creation of the company, Timberwolf.

Timberwolf has grown rapidly over the past year; when I began planting here in November 2014, I was one of 7-8 planters who operated exclusively in the Brisbane region, now we have anywhere between 20-30 planters operating in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, and Brisbane.

Our contracts are wildly variable in length, ground, and species type, but I've never been paid less than 15 cents and have often received over 20 for land that a good planter can put in 2000-3000 plants/day and daily earnings can be between $300-600. The consistency of work is likewise variable, especially when we have a lot of smaller contracts, and because we work on construction sites, we usually adhere to a Mon-Fri working schedule. There is no guarantee of 5 days of work/week and indeed, some weeks you'll only get 2-3 days of work, but the flexibility is a benefit if you're eager to be a tourist/beach bum on your days off.

If this is sounding good thus far, please send a resume and crew boss/supervisor references to jobs@timberwolfplanting.com.au for more information. We are currently recruiting and expecting high volumes of work leading up to Christmas. Please do spread the word if you may have other interested pals.

Thanks,

Susie Carmichael

[Scooter]

Susie, that's all in AUD right, not $CAD?

[Mike]

I'm just dumping a Facebook thread here for Archival reasons.

Does anyone have anything to share about experiences planting in Australia?

Adam Greenwood Pick your company carefully. Some companies will keep you busy full time for multiple months while other will have you working part time. Dont get discouraged if the heat slows you down at first, its hot as fuck, but you will acclimate within a couple weeks and get your speed up. Dont worry about the snakes and spiders, its seems scary, but I have planted 6 months in Oz and the only snakes I saw were slithering away at top speed. Research your superannuation fund and make sure your company is making deposits into it for you. They owe you 8% in super payments on top of your wage, and you collect it once you leave the country.

Emma Zener thank you so much for that info. are most crews in bush camps? is it piece work or do they operate on day rates?

Adam Greenwood The crews I have worked on and heard about pay piece rate. Nobody does bush camps as far as I know, more likely to rent motels/share houses or in some cases you need to find your own accomidations. Definitely ask about accomidations when talking to companies! Also message Andrew Lewis who is a Canadian supervisor who started a company down there. They might be full but worth a shot.


Georgia Pondeljak Super should be 9.5% of your wage, and yes it is a good idea to check your employer is paying this on top of your pay.
My own experience was in Tasmania, the temperature is much cooler, and there are some snakes, but nothing to be afraid of. The land was well cleared (for the most part) and no vegetation, they spray everything when prepping the land. Although the planting style wasn’t very freestyle as the trees had to be strictly a minimum of 2m x 4m apart, and straight lines so when the machines came back to cut the trees down they could get down the rows .. sometimes difficult when the long wind rows (very long piles of slash that run in lines to create long rows of land) were crooked, uneven, ended without warning, split into several rows
Almost everyone on the contracts I planted used pookies (long pipe device that stabs a hole in the ground then opens to release the tree). I was allowed to use my own shovel and planting bags (they used a large hard plastic side bag with no padding that was just horrible) we also had to wear a 3-4kg sack of beaded fertiliser on the fanny as you had to give 25gms of fert to each tree
The days were short, as it was a full time job for people (a lot of dads) and everyone wanted to finish by 3 at the latest, we also never planted in the rain.
I feel planting experiences vary across Australia, as I’ve heard many different stories from other states.
Good luck with your planting endeavours

Tommy Pelletier Outland, had a great time, winter planting was crazy nice

Emma Zener Do you mean winter planting during our winter season or their winter season?

Tommy Pelletier their winter. same time as canadian summer (still worth it)

Tyler Evergreen ya, dont work for Hibbens.

Timberwolf was awesome on the Fraser Coast.

Nicolas Major Yes...don't do it they pay 5 cents per tree...

Emma Zener No way, is that common? Low specs fast planting??

Nicolas Major high spec fast planting regional work in australia is a rip off for backpacker, only timberwolf was paying decent money but they dont have much forest planting so its hard to get on the forestry crew i'd say most of the others company are exploiting foreigners, its common practice in australia its really hard to find a decent "farm work" employer


Nicolas Major My point was its really hard to find a decent one in fact I was in Austria for 1,5 years never heard of a decent one company advertising 150$ a day which they consider a lot and people make 20$/h doing any job in australia, tree planting in australia is not like in canada its really average money compared to other jobs, regional employer exploit the fact that a lot of foreigners are trying to extend their visa and under pay them. There isnt much money in the forestry industry in australia like in canada. You can do any other job and have the same pay cheque without the planting struggle. And enjoy the beach life which is in my opinion why most people travel to australia

Gavin Swan Timberwolf! It's more comparable to landscaping meets tree planting but the pay is great and you have the opportunity to travel around aus a bit with them as well.

Jasmine Maschotta Check out civil construction planting. Crazy good money, travel opportunities and you get to spend time in the cities. Ecoplant is awesome and timberwolf is good too but it's hard to come by consistent work. Keep your eye out for 'speed spade' job ads as that's the term they use.

Seppel Patchouli Saünlust There are opportunities to make money but in my experience they were somewhat hard to come by. There were a lot of times when it was hard to keep good morale. A lot of the time I was making as much planting as I could have been working literally any other job in Australia.

That being said, Outland was decent their payment system was set in tiers of production. 11 cent under 1500, 12 over that, and 13 for anything over 2000. If you can work for them in the winter that's a pretty sweet gig.

Timberwolf was alright at times. Work was a bit spotty, sometimes I'd only work 2 times in a week or not at all. There were a lot of urban planting worksites where the ground was just brutally hard and I ended up developing some gnarly injuries trying to plant with a spade. I'd say one of the better things they had going for them was that they'd still pay 25$ an hour if you made less than that planting. Also they might put you up in a planting house for a bit and fly you around Australia for various jobs. Also sometimes you get lucky with really sweet jobs, I had a few where I made $400+ in five hours.