BY LORETTA B MANELE
Patience is a virtue, they say and so this was the case of a young man who is working in Australia under the PALM (Pacific Australia Labour Mobility) Scheme.
Simply going by the name “Richie”, he hails from Malaita Province and in an interview with Island Sun recently, Richie shared his story about working at the Riverina Dairy Farm in New South Wales, Melbourne.
Richie started working at the farm in July 2023 under a 4-year contract.
His main goal to go and work in Australia is to support his family and improve their standard of living along with helping to meet their needs and wants.
When he started working, he was put in the department responsible for processing milk and after 1 year and 6 months, he was moved to another department.
At the moment, he said his job is to clean cow dung and he does this using a machine and water after he and a colleague lead the cows to where they get milked in other words, where cows go to supply milk.
“I enjoyed my work, it’s easy and relaxing,” Richie said smiling.
At the farm, there were 8 Solomon Islanders but after 5 of them left, only three including Richie remain working there.
Richie said in a week, they work for 4 days and have the remaining 3 days as their day offs and in the week after, they work for 5 days and rest during the 2 remaining days and this rotates as they work.
Like in different workplaces, there are always some challenges one faces.
Richie explained that one challenge when he got to the farm was wanting to transfer to a different place of work.
Not turning out as he wanted, although the job was tough at first, he stayed and was patient going to work.
The cold weather is also one other challenge they faced but for Richie, at the back of his mind, despite how cold it gets and how lazy he may feel at times you have no choice but to go to work.
“This is because you’re thinking about the money and your family.
“And this job is what I came for so despite the challenge of working during the cold weather I have to do my job,” he said.
Like positives there are also negatives and Richie found some advantages of working for Riverina Dairy Farm.
He says the advantage is he can earn good money and in turn help his family.
Aside from that, Richie says they have a very good relationship with their boss who often comes around to talk with them and to see how work is going.
“He also tells us good things and encourages us.
“He tells us that we have to work faithfully and he will be able to help us like to help us extend our visas.
“That’s why we’ve sticked to working at this farm since day one,” says Richie.
Speaking of holidays, he explains that you can only apply for leave to go on your holiday if you’ve worked reaching a certain number of hours.
In their case, he says if you’ve worked for 150 to 200 hours you can apply for leave and go on for a holiday for two months but if you’ve worked for only 100 plus hours you’ll only get a month’s period to go home for your holiday.
When asked if he wanted to share some advice for Solomon Islanders thinking of applying for work under the PALM Scheme, Richie gave some pretty good advice.
He said the first thing you should do is to think about why you’re going to Australia for work and not waste the opportunity.
“You should bear in mind that you came here to work to help support your family. You should not think about doing other things even though you may find the work difficult.
“Just be patient and faithful in your work and after you will achieve what you came for,” says Richie.
He also pointed out that one thing is to avoid being absent from work because your presence at work is what the bosses want.
“It’s good to have a good relationship with your boss and to always pray,” he added.
As a single father, for Richie leaving behind his two beautiful young children was the hardest part in pursuing his job.
At the same time, he says it’s his kids that pushes him to work as best as he can.
Today, Richie now has a 2-bedroom house built with a living room and a veranda, he says happily.
And it was his kids who motivated him to reach where he is today.
This is the result of him being patient since day one and making sure he goes to work every day and working to the best of his ability.
He plans to work on another project for his kids so they can have a good life and bright future.
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