Every year thousands of locals, backpackers, and travellers descend on our farms to harvest our iconic cherries, and as the afternoon shadows begin to lengthen on a season of hard work, Stephen Wales reached out to the pickers of Fairfields Orchards - a family owned establishment about fourteen minutes south of Young - to see what really draws these seasonal soldiers to our town.
“So I met a guy in Chile.” picker Paul Hernandez of France informed me cheerfully.
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“His brother is the teacher in the secondary school in Young. That guy told us that there is a big cherry season, a lot of backpackers coming from all around the world to do cherry picking and packing.
“So, here we are.”
For others like Marcus Schmid of Germany, Young’s cherry picking is a welcome job on an extended working holiday around the country.
“I’ve met a friend, actually.” he said.
“We decided to work together on a construction site, and since then we’ve been travelling around Australia and cherry picking, it makes for a lot of fun.”
A local by comparison, store manager for Fairfields Orchard Polly Bryant has travelled down from Sydney to help out with the farm that originally belonged to her grandparents.
My friend and I have been travelling around Australia and cherry picking, it makes for a lot of fun
- Marcus Schmid
With farming in her blood and a cherry blossom romance in her heart, she tells me how she met the love of her life while working at the orchard.
“For me I guess you could say it was quite lucky that we have all these tourists here, and he was travelling round with his friend - he’s french - and ... that’s how we met.” She continues, offering a cheerful perspective on the influx of workers over course of the harvest season.
“This year’s been amazing. We’ve had some really lovely people come from all over the world, and I quite like that diversity we get; … Not a lot of country towns get to experience that - I think it’s very rare - and I think it does Young a lot of good to have that culture here, and meet new people.
“There’s nothing ever wrong with meeting new people.”
