WWOOF Australia

[Guest The Pom Queen]

There are quite a few members who haven't heard of WWOOF ing, unfortunately it is nothing kinky as some of you may think.

WWOOF stands for ‘Willing Workers On Organic Farms’ it is a great way to work and travel Australia. Receive free accommodation and meals in return for around 4 hours work every day on the farm. There are around 1900 farms to in Australia to choose from.

 

When you join WWOOF you will receive your WWOOF Guide Book and Membership. Your WWOOF Guidebook contains listings of all host farms. Simply choose the farms you are interested in and call or email the host to check if vacancies are available.

 

Working in exchange for food and accommodation is the basis of all WWOOFing. The amount of time spent working varies according to the degree of self-sufficiency expected, how busy the host is at the time of your visit and other factors - but it should average out at about a half day's work for a full day's keep. It is normal that 4 to 6 hours a day is a fair exchange for a days full board and accommodation.

 

The work varies greatly between farms but could include weeding, planting trees, pruning, building fences, painting, mowing lawns, etc... The best part is you DO NOT need a work visa to become a WWOOFer! Travellers on a tourist or ETA visa are fine.

Also the work usually counts towards your 2nd working holiday visa:

 

If you are planning to apply for A Second Working Holiday Visa, it is advisable to start early on your 3 months of work in Regional Australia, rather than doing it at the end of your first year, as people often end up running out of time and will fail to qualify if they are 1 or 2 days short of the required 3 months. Remember, if you are building up the 3 months at a number of different WWOOF Hosts, or with a mixture of paid work and WWOOFing, to allow for travel time in between hosts as this does not count as days worked.

 

It is the WWOOFers responsibility to bring form 1263 (attached) with them to each Host property, the Hosts do not have the forms on hand (and should not be asked to supply it), so ensure you download and print the form BEFORE you visit any Hosts.

 

To be eligible for a second Working Holiday visa, you must meet a number of general requirements:-

 

have completed three months of Specified work in regional Australia while on your first Working Holiday visa

 

be aged between 18 and 30 years (inclusive) at the time of applying

 

if applying from outside Australia, be applying no more than 12 months before you intend to travel to Australia

 

not have any dependant children

 

hold a passport for a country or region participating in the Working Holiday program.

 

WWOOFing is accepted by DIAC as a suitable activity to qualify for this visa, you must ensure that the Hosts you work for are located within the areas set out by DIAC Go to the DIAC website for more information

 

For the purposes of meeting the requirements for a second Working Holiday visa, see the DIAC definitions for 'Specified work' and *'Regional Australia'

 

*Regional Australia: is defined as anywhere in Australia except Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong, the NSW Central Coast, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Perth, Melbourne or the ACT. Check the Postcode list on DIAC's website for details of places that qualify, work MUST be done within these postcode areas in order to be included in your application.

 

The work need not be paid work e.g.: "work undertaken as a volunteer or through the WWOOFing scheme (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) may be counted toward the three months of specified work if your WWOOF Host is in regional Australia. You will still need to provide evidence that you have done a minimum of three months of specified work.

 

Three months work can be spread over a number of WWOOF Hosts, each Host must be located in one of the postcodes listed on DIAC's Postcode list, and must sign your form stating the number of days you have worked with them, so make sure you ask the Host prior to staying with them if they are happy to sign your form. Hosts will only sign these forms if WWOOFers have actually done the required amount of specified work each day as agreed with the hosts when arranging to stay. DIAC check almost every application with WWOOF Hosts and other employers to see if the specified work has been done for the number of days stated on the form, so ensure your host records this information in their guestbook.

 

Please note: Hosts do not need to be a commercial operation or hold an ABN to sign your form, but you cannot lodge the form online if they don't have one, in this case you will need to mail your completed form.

 

With voluntary work DIAC prefer that Hosts actually sign your form 1263 as this is good evidence that you have stayed with that host, volunteers do not have pay slips or tax records to prove they were on a particular farm, so if you want your application to go through smoothly it is good to ensure you can document your stay on each farm clearly. There are many unscrupulous people who are paying people to sign their form without them ever getting out of the city, so DIAC are checking almost every application. Some of the things you could do to prove you stayed with a host are:

 

Keep a journal or blog, and take photos you can show DIAC of you working on the farm.

 

Make sure you sign you Host's guest book and fill in the dates you were there, if you can, scan or copy this page.

 

If you can, give your host a copy of your form 1263 after they have signed it and ask them to keep it with their guestbook page in case DIAC call them to check the dates you were there.

 

Keep records of the bus/train you took, or petrol receipts showing you were in that area.

 

Fill in the back of your WWOOF book, recording which Hosts you stayed with and the dates you were there

 

Keep ATM or eftpos receipts that show you were in the area.

 

Hours of Work for the 2nd Working Holiday Visa

 

Three months is considered to be three calendar months or 88 days. Time worked is taken from start date to end date e.g., if a person works for one employer for two weeks, weekends will not be deducted (i.e. this counts as 14 days). Work must be full time. Full time work is taken to be the norm for that employer, that region and that industry, as WWOOFing is 4-6 hours per day, this is considered the norm for WWOOF.

 

DIAC recommend that WWOOFers work the same period that is considered full time work on each individual WWOOF Host farm. If this is more than 6 hours per day, then you will need to make arrangements with the WWOOF Host for any additional hours you work over 6 hours per day. These hours can either be paid work (but please note this is not considered WWOOFing and WWOOFer Insurance would not cover these hours) or you could have time off on weekends or other days in exchange. As with all WWOOFing arrangements flexibility is the key, but in all cases flexible hours must be negotiated in advance with your WWOOF Host to avoid misunderstandings and conflict. Here are a couple of examples:

 

For long stays, 7 days or longer:

 

* Hosts could have their WWOOFers work for 8 hours each day for 5 days in exchange for 7 days food and accommodation (8 hours x 5 days = 40 hours, 6 hours x 7 days= 42 hours) This counts as 7 days on form 1263. WWOOFers work a maximum of 42 hours as WWOOFers in exchange for their food and accommodation, so any hours they work over 42 needs to be either paid hours or time off in lieu.

 

* Hosts who consider a full time week on their farm to be 28 – 38 hours could have their WWOOFers work these hours over 4 1/2 or 5 days then have 2 days off. The WWOOFers would have all their meals and accommodation provided for 7 days and the host would sign for 7 days on their 1263 form.

 

For short stays DIAC have given the following ruling:

 

"In regards to a standard day, WWOOF Australia's volunteer work hours are 4 to 6 hours/day. We (DIAC) therefore count a minimum of 4 to 6 hours worked on a WWOOF farm as one day of work. If a worker chooses to work more than the standard 4 to 6 hours, eg 8 hours or more in a single day, this does not count as 2 days work of the specified work. Similarly WWOOF Hosts should not require workers to work for more than 4 to 6 hours/day given that this is the standard for volunteer work hours set by WWOOF Australia."

 

How do I join?

 

WWOOF Memberships can be purchased at Travellers Contact Point Sydney, or online.

 

Single membership costs AUD $60 / year

[bell123321]

Thank you for that very useful information. :biggrin: A question in regards to Regional areas, am I correct in thinking that now Perth is counted as a regional area?

[olly]

Thank goodness you explained that, not like a friend of mine who advertised dogging manuals and got few interesting enquiries.......:laugh:

[Guest The Pom Queen]

Here is a list of regional postcodes:

Australian Capital Territory

The Australian Capital Territory is not classified as part of regional Australia.

 

New South Wales

2311 to 2312, 2328 to 2411, 2420 to 2490, 2536 to 2551, 2575 to 2594, 2618 to 2739, 2787 to 2898.

Note: Excludes Sydney, Newcastle, the Central Coast and Wollongong.

 

Northern Territory

All of Northern Territory is classified as part of regional Australia.

 

Queensland

4124 to 4125, 4133, 4211, 4270 to 4272, 4275, 4280, 4285, 4287, 4307 to 4499, 4510, 4512, 4515 to 4519, 4522 to 4899. Note: Excludes the Greater Brisbane area and the Gold Coast

 

South Australia

All of South Australia is classified as part of regional Australia.

 

Tasmania

All of Tasmania is classified as part of regional Australia.

 

Victoria

3139, 3211 to 3334, 3340 to 3424, 3430 to 3649, 3658 to 3749, 3753, 3756, 3758, 3762, 3764, 3778 to 3781, 3783, 3797, 3799, 3810 to 3909, 3921 to 3925, 3945 to 3974, 3979, 3981 to 3996.

Note: Excludes Melbourne metropolitan area.

 

Western Australia

6041 to 6044, 6083 to 6084, 6121 to 6126, 6200 to 6799.

Note: Excludes Perth and surrounding areas.

 

 

NOTE: Postcodes within this list is subject to change - for further information visit http://www.immi.gov.au

[Guest The Pom Queen]

Thank you for that very useful information. :biggrin: A question in regards to Regional areas, am I correct in thinking that now Perth is counted as a regional area?

There seems to be a lot of confusion out there about Perth now being regional. This is true in respect to PR Visas, but it is not for the WHV if that makes sense:wubclub:

[furkew]

Friends of ours in Emerald quite often have woofers staying.

 

They have 17 acres of part bush, part cleared land that they are putting horse paddocks in and clearing a lot of overgrown vegetation, and it works quite well for them.

 

I have even thought of trying the same with our unit, but we need qualified sparkies or experienced chippies for the jobs we still have to do (nudge, nudge, wink, wink :laugh:)

 

For anybody wanting to travel around and earn their food & lodgings as they go, its a good idea.

[Guest The Pom Queen]

Friends of ours in Emerald quite often have woofers staying.

 

They have 17 acres of part bush, part cleared land that they are putting horse paddocks in and clearing a lot of overgrown vegetation, and it works quite well for them.

 

I have even thought of trying the same with our unit, but we need qualified sparkies or experienced chippies for the jobs we still have to do (nudge, nudge, wink, wink :laugh:)

 

For anybody wanting to travel around and earn their food & lodgings as they go, its a good idea.

What work are you doing now, you never stop:wubclub:

[furkew]

What work are you doing now, you never stop:wubclub:

 

believe it or not we are nearly done.

 

just need to:

finish the bike shed

put up guttering areound the shed

seal the pool pavers

put a new fence up down the left side of the property

build a bar down by the pool

put up a plexiglass screen to stop the wind on the upper deck

put in a veggie patch

plumb in 2 more water tanks

re seed the front lawn

heavily trim a few 100ft gum trees

get a couple of truckloads of toppings for the drive

 

then for myself

strip & rebuild 3 dirt bikes

finish the last mods on my road bike

put a pit bike together and ebay it off

respray my ute

respray the beetle

 

other than that, i'm bored ****less :biglaugh:

 

(i've probably forgotten a couple of other projects the wife wants me to do)

[Guest The Pom Queen]

believe it or not we are nearly done.

 

just need to:

finish the bike shed

put up guttering areound the shed

seal the pool pavers

put a new fence up down the left side of the property

build a bar down by the pool

put up a plexiglass screen to stop the wind on the upper deck

put in a veggie patch

plumb in 2 more water tanks

re seed the front lawn

heavily trim a few 100ft gum trees

get a couple of truckloads of toppings for the drive

 

then for myself

strip & rebuild 3 dirt bikes

finish the last mods on my road bike

put a pit bike together and ebay it off

respray my ute

respray the beetle

 

other than that, i'm bored ****less :biglaugh:

 

(i've probably forgotten a couple of other projects the wife wants me to do)

Not a lot to do then:wink::chatterbox:

[furkew]

Not a lot to do then:wink::chatterbox:

 

i've had worse :wink:

 

Although we are already talking about moving in about 5 years when the kids move out (both kids are looking like going into the forces) to something smaller, but preferrably a dooer upper. :eek:

[bell123321]

There seems to be a lot of confusion out there about Perth now being regional. This is true in respect to PR Visas, but it is not for the WHV if that makes sense:wubclub:

Yeah I understand now :GEEK: It is a little confusing! Hehe! Thank you for clearing it up :jiggy:

[Guest The Pom Queen]

i've had worse :wink:

 

Although we are already talking about moving in about 5 years when the kids move out (both kids are looking like going into the forces) to something smaller, but preferrably a dooer upper. :eek:

Still in Monbulk?

[furkew]

Still in Monbulk?

 

No idea. Probably somewhere local, but a lot can change in 5 years.