Devonport : Life as an Apple picker

Apple Carving by Peter

We work at the Sassafras Orchards, which grows apples and pears. Our pay is contract basis, $36.50 per bin for the gala apples. The bin measures 1m X 1m X 1m. We have to fill up a shoulder bag (which carries bout 20kg) then pour it in that big bin. It takes about two hours for both of us to fill up a bin. Intensive exercise! Climbing up and down the ladder. Oh god, we had to work nine hours to get just four bins on the first day. Eventually we manage to get 3 bins per person a day, weather permitting.

 

The apples are so BIG. Tasmania is also known as the ‘Apple Isle’, exporting their big juicy apples to the world, once upon a time ago. Not anymore, since the invention of cold storage tech, the European market no longer require Tassie apples during their off season, as there are no such thing as off season!

Working in apple farm, we ate apple every day, hopefully this helps to keep the doctor away! Besides that, we also use apples to cook soup. It’s a refreshing and sweet soup, very good for body heat, we think =P we use apples, pears, chicken and jujube dates to cook it for 2 hours. YUMS!

We work for three weeks in the apple farm and manage to get a better pay at the potato farm through job agency, Work Direct. It’s one of the popular agencies for backpackers, located just near the city. 

Working at the potato harvester is quite easy. We’re actually inside the potato digging harvester, waiting for it to dig up the potatoes, then our job is to remove any dirt and rotten potatoes out of it. We were paid $19 an hour, which is quite good for us compared to apple picking. But some people can earn about $1000 per week picking apples, and we just don’t know how =.= Being in the potato harvester is a dirty job, very dusty and you will get a foundation make up on yr face every day. LOL. 

We only get to work as ‘diggers’ for 9 days, so we are quite on track on traveling around Tasmania. With 17 days left before leaving to Melbourne, hopefully we can withstand the freezing weather in Tassie!

There are all kinds of weird looking spuds (potatoes) dug up. Look at this:

This kind of potatoes is Russet Ranger, used for chips! YUMS

There was once, a rat was dug up and ended up being beaten to death before being rolled down back to the ground by the machine. Poor rat. . .

Inside the potato harvester

From Devonport, we took a short drive to Lillico Beach***** to watch the little penguins returning back to their nests. The penguins are so cute! There are a couple of volunteers at the beach during peak season that show visitors the penguins using the red torch light. What we learn from them is that the penguins will only be at the coasts of Tassie for breeding season from September till May. The adult penguins go out to sea before dawn and come back after dusk to feed their young. Say mama penguin stay at the nest with her young, while papa go out to find food. When papa come back, he’ll feed the young but not his wife. The wife will have to find food the next day for herself and the young.

There are only one type of penguin in Australia, which is the smallest penguin species called Little Blue Penguin or Fairy Penguin. They stand around 40cm tall.

 Oyster Feast~! We picked up many oysters and clams on the beach of East Devonport! Plenty on the beach . . . it was a great free meal!

The apple pickers! (Peter, Ian, Lucy, Show Lin, Cherry and Angie)

 Our neighbours and friends from caravan park, Han, Johnny and Yumi.

Our new tent! After using the Coles tent which we bought for $15 [which lasted for 3 months of intensive use, GOOD JOB!], it’s finally time to upgrade to a better quality one =) This tent costs $95, a 3 person dome tent. It has the look of ‘quality’, LOL and has the windbreaker. Which allows us more space to put stuff.

 Fatty Possum near our campsite. Waiting to be fed! Hmm. .

Weekend trip to Launceston