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Find the nearest MADEC
If you are a jobseeker looking for work in regional New South Wales, we have good news for you. The regional Harvest Trail Services (HTS) for the ‘Hunter Central West’ area is now being delivered by MADEC Australia.
Already operating eleven of the 16 regional Harvest Trail offices across Australia, MADEC has expanded its footprint by adding the Hunter Central West as Harvest Area number twelve.
The office provides a personal service to put you in touch with farm employers. You might be a local looking for an opportunity in your own back yard and available immediately. If you are a grey nomad or backpacker, you will be highly mobile and potentially anywhere in Australia. The regional and national harvest offices coordinate to help you move to where the farm jobs are.
Whichever category you put yourself in – a local, grey nomad, backpacker or student, a simple phone call is all you need to get the ball rolling.
The service is funded by the Australian Government so there is no cost to use it.
Meet Dean Glawson – Local Field Representative
MADEC’s Dean Glawson, a Bathurst local, is newly appointed to the Hunter Central West region as HTS field representative. He joins MADEC with over 20 years’ experience in the employment services industry, and brings with him a strong understanding of placing people into jobs, particularly on farms.
Dean’s role is to link the right workers with the right employers and to make sure the experience is positive for both. To speak with Dean, contact him on 02 6648 2303, or send him an email on harvesthuntercw@madec.edu.au.
If you prefer, you can also contact the Harvest Trail Information Service on free call 1800 062 332 (Monday-Friday 8am-8pm), and our operators can assist with enquiries and pass you on to Dean.
What work is available in the Hunter Central West?
The Hunter Central West region offers great opportunities for harvest work across a wide variety of crops.
Whether grape picking in summer or vine pruning in winter, the Hunter Valley wine and tourism district offers plenty of work opportunities. But winegrapes are also grown at Orange, Mudgee, and the Hilltops district near Young.
Young calls itself the Cherry Capital of Australia, so there is plenty of picking work towards the end of the year. Orange is also a big cherry growing area, and apples follow a couple of months later.
You will find vegetable farms scattered around the region including at Cowra and Canowindra, and a few around Bathurst. Year-round work is a feature of this crop.
But if it is ‘big’ you are looking for, that certainly describes the broadacre farms across the western half of the region. Grains such as wheat, barley and canola are grown, also legumes like chickpeas and soy beans, as well as beautiful sunflowers that produce edible seeds.
Cotton is the other dominant crop on the big farms, with irrigation jobs as well as harvest work.
For broadacre farms in particular, tractor driving skills are highly regarded and provide many opportunities for anyone with experience – or are willing to learn.
What to do in your down-time
In addition to the Hunter Central West offering a wide array of harvest work opportunities, the region also offers tourist hotspots, excellent food and wine, historical places of interest, and exciting adventures.
While the Hunter Valley quality wine and hospitality experience is probably the best known, it’s not the only place to get your tourism fix.
A weekend road trip to Mudgee for food and wine is well worthwhile, while a gold rush history experience in Bathurst is also recommended. Cowra also has a gold in its history, but nowadays instead promotes golden fields of canola crops in flower.
For the adventurous, you can hire a trike around the Orange wine region, or see it by air on a glorious, calm morning in a hot air balloon – also available at nearby Canowindra.
For those looking for an animal experience, the impressive Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo and the Hunter Valley Wildlife Park are highly regarded. And to enjoy the great outdoors, walking trails in bushland settings are everywhere.
This region truly offers something for everyone to relax and enjoy after all their hard work.
