Steven moved to Australia from Hong Kong to be with his wife while she studied in Sydney. After looking into different visa options and costs, the Working Holiday visa seemed like the most suitable choice. Friends who had done it before warned that farm work could be tough, but Steven felt confident he could handle the challenges.
Soon after arriving, he began looking for regional work to complete the 88 days required to extend his visa. He moved to Mildura and stayed in a house organised by an agency that promised steady employment. But the reality was different. Days passed with little work, and he still had to pay rent and buy groceries with almost no income.
“The agencies want to make sure they have enough manpower for picking,” he said, “and even with no actual job, they tried by all means to made us stay there. But you can’t live without a job.”
The situation grew uncertain. The agency blamed the lack of work on the weather, and many of his housemates began to suspect a scam and left. Feeling anxious and unstable, Steven decided to return to Sydney to spend Chinese New Year with his wife before trying again.
Like many working holiday makers, Steven’s arrangements were informal — no written contract, no rental agreement, just spoken arrangements and payslips. Later, he found another grape-picking job through a Facebook group. The work was more regular but paid by the piece, around four dollars per basket. Because pay depends entirely on how much and how fast you could pick, workers who are new or slower earn much less. Even after days of effort, most of Steven income went toward rent and food, leaving almost nothing to save. Accommodation cost around $200 a week for a single bed in a shared room, often in isolated areas with little to do outside work.
After a few months, Steven moved again, this time to Griffith, where he found work at a chicken factory as a de-boner. The job was stable and better paid, but physically demanding. He developed back pain but didn’t feel comfortable talking to his supervisor or taking time off.
“To be fair, jobs for working holiday makers aren’t that good,” he said. “Otherwise, local people would just do them instead of us. That’s why the government provides this visa, so Australia has enough manpower.”
His first year in Australia was the hardest. He remembers feeling lonely and unsafe at times, adapting to a new language, culture and way of life far from home.
“You have to face a lot of new challenges — job, living conditions, lifestyle. I had to leave my family, my friends, everything I was familiar with”
After completing his visa work, Steven went back to Sydney to be with his wife. For him, returning to Hong Kong isn’t possible because of the political situation there, so he continues to build his life in Australia. “I can advise new holiday makers that there are a lot of scams because some job agencies use misinformation,” he said. “People from a new country who come for a working holiday may not have a lot of information, so the agencies use this to take advantage or to abuse the situation. It’s hard to avoid, but I hope my experience can help others be more aware.”
