Planting Australia Info
Outlined below is a description of the work, the conditions we work in, the qualities we are looking for in prospective tree planters and the payment system.
Tree Planting
Tree planting is challenging physical work requiring a good level of physical fitness. Trees are carried around the waist in a special harness while planting. Planters carry up to 200 seedlings at a time while walking along prepared mounds in the plantation.
Using one of a variety of planting tools, each suited to different conditions, trees are planted in the ground at 2 to 3 metre spacing. Each tree planter averages from 1500 to 8000 trees per day depending on the conditions. This may seem like a lot of trees, but with proper training most motivated people can learn to plant this many trees in two to three weeks.
While a good level of fitness is required, you do not have to be a champion athlete- we have trained people of all shapes and sizes to plant at this level. More important than physical fitness is your level of motivation. As payment is piece rate, based on the number of trees you plant each day, tree planting works best for highly motivated people. Tree planting is described by many people as the most challenging work they have ever done, but the rewards can be high with experienced planters often making over $300 per day.
On some contracts you will need to do fertilizing work. This is similar to tree planting, but with different tools. Granular fertilizer is carried in a backpack and applied through a hose from the back pack out a special tool beside the planted trees. It too is piece rate and you can expect to earn about the same amount of money as planting.
Travel
In most cases you will be working, living and traveling with at least one crew of ten to fifteen people. We work on a contract basis – a contract being one tree planting project for one client. Contracts run from 2 to 3 months on average. We ask you to complete at least one planting contract by committing to working with us for three months. You will need to be able to travel from planting site to planting site while you are working with us, often interstate. We often work in one remote location after another finding different accommodation as we go, but on some jobs you will work out of the same accommodation for a whole contract, however there is no way that we can guarantee this. While we arrange sleeping quarters wherever we can, you must have a tent and sleeping gear for those situations where you need to camp. You will need to be able to commit to a three-month period of work and to traveling with your crew before we will hire you.