About my job- the first six months
I was drafted into weed spraying through what was then known as the department of Labour. I had been unemployed for some time- waiting for just the "right" job in a climate where any job was hard enough to come by. The department of labour ran PEP (pre- employment) schemes. If you turned down a job they offered, you risked losing your unemployment benefit. Each job ran for 6 months and you were paid a minimal wage but was however, slightly more than the unemployment benefit.
I thought I was too highly qualified for this job and dreaded my first day of work. It was quite hard at first, but wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
There were 4 of us employed for the first six months, 2 guys and 2 girls (including myself). After a couple of months one of the girls left and was replaced by one of the locals.
The job involved travelling from farm to farm, using whatever equipment and transport the farmers provided, spraying ragwort. Some of the farmers loaned us a tractor with a 44 gallon drum of weed spray on a trailer and gave us the back packs and guns they use for drenching sheep. Others gave us soft drink bottles we filled with a pink powdery herbicide. We never wore gloves and we never wore masks. Whenever we used a liquid herbicide, a red marker dye was added so we could tell where we had sprayed. At the end of the day, our hands and clothes were stained red from the dye.
We couldn't spray on rainy days- we would sit in the work van hour after hour hoping for a break in the weather- or sometimes we just got sent home. One of the farmers would give us farm duties to help out with. I assume the County council billed the farmers for part of the costs involved with employing us to eradicate the ragwort, so they would not have liked to see us sitting around doing nothing for too long!
The people I worked with during the first six monhts were a diverse lot, who never had anything to do with each other outside work. I became friends with the local girl who joined our gang later on. At the time phone calls between Blenheim and Picton (including Koromiko) were toll calls. It was during our friendship that these became free and dial telephones were replaced with push button ones! I stayed in contact with her for a few years.. she got married, had a son, separated... it's been a few years since I've heard from her. Work became less of a chore when you got to hang out with someone you got along with. Outdoors, sunshine, green grass, cows... what more could you ask for? Well there were occassions when no one told us there was a bull in that paddock.... fog and frosts made working outdoors less pleasant, but overall it was enjoyable.
The 2nd six months
After another 6 months or so on the unemployment benefit, I was drafted once again to go and kill the yellow weed.
The crew this time were totally different than the previous gang. The day started with certain members having to call their probation officer...
Previously we had set to the task at hand -it was what we were employed for after all. This crowd thought it was some sort of paid picnic. A lot of spray got wasted, not much work got done! They smoked cannabis at work, went out drinking just about every night... turned up in no shape to do any work. I was unofficially put in charge, as I knew the job and most of the farmers already. I quit. I stayed at the job but there was no way I was taking responsibility for that lot!
They grew on me after a few weeks... and as the old saying goes- "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" Which is exactly what I did. Went from being fairly shy, responsible, naive to some perpetually drunk and/or stoned person who partied when I wasn't at work.
It was during the 2nd six months that we were sent to spray weeds out at Rai Valley. A bit of a commute in the work van. On one farm, the farm owner was absentee and his 18 year old son was running the place. We spent a lot of the time at his house, smoking cannabis and watching videos. It got to the stage he had to plead with us to do *some* work because he was going to get in trouble himself otherwise. We couldn't have that and obliged.
The Rai Valley farmers didn't provide us with a tractor, or any real help to get the weed spray to their farms at all. We sometimes got dropped off and other times we had to carry 20 litre containers of spray and walk. We got the feeling having us there wasn't entirely their idea. In fact, they may have been railroaded by the council.
When the noxious weed control guy from the council came out to see how we were getting on, he found the situation unsatisfactory and insisted we be given the use of a tractor. The farmer needed it to feed his stock so I was volunteered to help him while the others started on foot. It was the first time I had ever driven a tractor and had a lot of trouble figuring it out. The brake wasn't holding the tractor and trailer unit on a slope and it inched further forward until it rolled down the bank. With me still on it and luckily the farmer clear. Completely wrecked the draw bars on both tractor and trailer.
We were sent back to Koromiko after the tractor incident. Not sure if that was really a good thing or a bad thing. We had little or no supervision in Rai Valley and at any given time, there were probably only one or two of us working. I was sort of the outsider in the group and I would take all the hill work. I said it was because I wouldn't ask anyone else to do something I wouldn't do myself but really it was so that I would get fitter and stronger than any of the others.
We were almost constantly supervised in Koromiko, but also got a bit more co operation from the farmers.
Every weekend, we would hang out together and drink. There was always a party somewhere. Once the six months was over, we stayed in touch for a while. Some moved away. One of the girls was the sister of my sister's best friend so we remained drinking buddies for a couple of years after the scheme finished.
Photos
Click for larger images
Jacky surveys the paddocks we are about to spray
We sprayed from the river beds to the bushline
A view of the ranges separating Koromiko from Linkwater
Jacky and Vonna discussing a plan of attack in the now dried up river bed
Some of the weeds we have sprayed along the river bank.
Brian our foreman (left) and Eric the noxious weeds offical from the council, refilling containers for us to carry up the hill.