French fruit picker who saved $15,000 in three months on a Western Australian farm wonders how poor Australians can be

The French traveler who claimed to have saved $15,000 in just three months while working on a farm has annoyed some Australians by wondering how poor people can be in the country.

The man claimed to earn more while working 50-hour weeks at minimum wage, operating a cherry-picking machine to harvest fruit and “cut down some trees” on a farm in Western Australia, than he did as a professional marketer with a postgraduate degree in Europe. .

“So here’s my question, how can you be poor in Australia?” He said in a video posted on Tik Tok.

The French national is one of 112,335 people with working holiday visas in Australia as of 31 December 2022.

Many of these choose to do agricultural work as it can extend their stay by up to 12 months and open the door to a longer visa in the future.

Having saved a large sum of money in a short period of time, he wondered how “it could” be that someone could be poor in Australia.

“I charge the minimum rate of what you would be paid here in Australia,”

The minimum wage in Australia is $21.38 an hour with a 25 per cent load to $26.73 an hour for casual work.

“I’m probably doing 50 hours a week… I’m trying to make a lot of money,” he continued.

“And in three months I have maybe $15,000 in my savings.”

Then the backpacker claims he makes more money with a “****y” job on a farm with a cherry picker and I cut down some trees” than when he was working in France with a master’s degree.

In the comments section, he details what he has to pay for.

“I pay rent, I pay electricity and gas, and I have a car,” he wrote.

“The truth is, I don’t spend my money on beer and cigarettes.”

The video sparked a strong reaction online with some Australians praising the man for his work ethic while others thought he was “a bit off the hook”.

“Well done, I hope you make a lot of money, we need hard working people here,” one user wrote.

“As an Aussie who doesn’t give my best, this was a good kick in the ass. Really appreciate hearing this,” one wrote.

A third wrote: “Good job brother, show Australia how it’s done”.

But others were quick to point out the huge difference between living and working on a farm and doing the same in the city.

“Come to Sydney, these (savings) will last 2 weeks,” one user wrote.

Someone wrote: “When you make $960 a week, rent $540, gas $80, food $200, electricity, etc. It’s not easy.”

When you pay your rent/bills in full, you may realize why, my friend. Good for you for working hard, but living on a farm is so cheap, I say,” wrote a third.

Australia’s unemployment rate in January was 3.7 per cent, up slightly from December’s 48-year low of 3.5 per cent.

The unemployment rate was 523,200 which is nearly half the level of 1.015 million in July 2020 during the first months of the pandemic after the initial lockdowns.

But even when the unemployment rate was at its lowest level since 1974, in November 2022 there were 772,674 recipients on JobSeeker, which includes benefits and other payments, despite 494,100 people being classified as jobless by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Social security and welfare is Australia’s largest recurring expenditure item, costing $228.8 billion in the 2022-2023 budget.

Meet the young Australian, 23, who traded the city for the country’s ‘nomadic’ fruit-picking life – but still made $500 a day

A young Australian woman has revealed she earns up to $480 a day picking fruit in regional Australia after switching her life in the city for the country.

Kirasie Tate, from Sydney, has moved to Orange to work with her father who is a full time professional fruit picker.

The 23-year-old is originally from Lismore, New South Wales, but moved to Sydney five years ago before deciding to return to her roots.

“I’ve been to beautiful regional towns across the East Coast that I wouldn’t normally go to,” she told FEMAIL.

“While it’s certainly not a glamorous job—you work long days and camp with shared facilities—there are upsides.”

Scroll down for the video.

Tate has also been to places such as Gayndah in the Queensland country, and Huonville and Richmond in Tasmania for her work.

The process of picking the fruit is arduous, the 23-year-old told FEMAIL—workers have to use scissors to carefully snip the fruit from the stem and then throw it into their bags that go on to fill crates.

Fruit pickers must also be especially careful not to bruise or damage the fruit in the process.

Tate is particularly fond of the “beautiful” sunrises and sunsets she sees as part of her work, along with the added benefits of interacting with farm animals such as horses and cows.

But the part-time fruit picker revealed that certain parts of the work are less than ideal, citing an example in which she woke up with a green tree frog stuck to her cheek.

“The rain is especially bad – because it means you can’t work and you just have to take the day off.”

The tangerine season, which runs from April to June, was interrupted by heavy rains.

She said, “All the fruits fall to the ground.”

Many expressed a desire to experience Tate’s nature-oriented life.

“You’re living the dream – I wish I could and get away from the city,” said one man.

Another said, “My mother had great experiences picking fruit in her twenties, and I hope one day I will too.”