COVID has created outstanding opportunities for grey nomads
NEW YORK: Both COVID-19 and the release of the film Nomadland have focused attention on Grey Nomads.
Both have given a lift to and focus on ‘life on the road’.
South of Bundaberg, in the heart of Queensland’s fruit and sugarcane district, the avocado season is coming to an end. Orchards across the region are closing and growers have begun pruning in preparation for next year.
For grey nomad Allison Peters, it’s been a busy five months. After arriving in Childers at the end of summer, she set to work packing avocados at Dons Fort orchard, where she’s been living and working ever since.
“I used to work in retail in Maryborough and when I retired I decided I wanted to see more of the country and do a bit of work along the way,” she said.
In 2017, after convincing husband Michael, she bought a caravan and took the plunge.
“We’ve done the harvest and silo trails, mango picking in the Northern Territory, grapes and apples in Victoria, oranges and tomatoes in NSW. You name it, we’ve probably done it or are thinking of doing it.”
But what started as a simple sea change for two retirees in their early sixties has recently stepped up a notch. “All of a sudden, grey nomads are in demand,” Ms Peters said. “We’ve been getting the kind of jobs we never used to get before the pandemic when it was harder to get picking and packing work because it went to the backpackers and seasonal workers.”
Since international borders were closed in March 2020, Australia’s horticulture sector has been battling a labour shortage.
Last September, Ernst & Young estimated the industry would lose more than 25,000 workers within six months as a result of border closures.
The government has offered incentives to encourage students and the unemployed into horticulture, but industry leaders say the schemes as ill-conceived and inadequate.
Meanwhile, growers have turned to grey nomads. “At the moment they are helping to fill some critical shortages,” said Growcom policy chief Richard Shannon.
“While it’s traditionally been viewed as a lifestyle choice, even a rite of passage, grey nomad work has changed during the pandemic, and we should be trying to use their skills and experience.”
Since November 2020, blogs, websites and social media forums – often boasting tens of thousands of grey nomad members – have gone into overdrive, with picking and packing workers in high demand. Deborah Symes, who launched an online farm stay directory for grey nomads in 2016, said it had never been busier.
“You’d expect traffic to fall off because of border restrictions, but we’ve never had more requests for the work and it’s the type of work that wouldn’t normally go to grey nomads,” she said. “Instead of just doing small farm jobs, they’re picking and packing more.”
At Comboyne Avocados, on the NSW mid north coast, grower Kevin Debreceny has been recruiting grey nomads for more than a decade to help during harvest.
“They’ve always been a reliable group of workers to complement the backpackers and Pacific Islander workers, but now they seem to be playing a bigger role,” he said.
“I’ve had former engineers, tradies, nurses, lawyers and accountants who’ve helped to lend a hand and they bring great skills and life experience to the job.”