Those who want outback farm or station work must attend one of the Introduction to Agricultural Course at Springbrook Farm, or one of their associate farms.

The cost of this course is automatically included if you are booking direct with Visitoz from Overseas.  

Depending on the participant's skills successful completion of the Course will open the door to working with horses, cattle and sheep, tractor and header driving, bulldozer work, fencing, mechanical work, chain saw work, horse work at stables, in trail riding centres, on Host Farms, with racehorses, polo ponies, campdraft horses or on cattle properties, doing bore running, yard work, maintenance and ag bike work with cattle and sheep.

During the training Course you will ride an ag bike across broken ground whilst carrying out simple tasks such as checking cattle and fences. You will ride a stock horse and move cattle, also work cattle on foot in the yards. Tractor driving, routine maintenance and operation with implements is also covered. Lastly you will learn Australian fencing techniques and use a chain saw as part of timber control and you will be taught about many aspects of outback and farm safety.

While on the farms you will:

Look after cattle, muster them, drive them and work with them in the yards, drafting and doing routine jobs such as injecting and spraying.

Ride horses, learn how to care for them and for the tack, use the horses to muster and drive the cattle.

Ride agricultural motorbikes, learn how to use them for jobs such as checking the cattle, checking the fences and bringing in the horses.

Drive tractors, maintain them and understand how they work. How to use implements such as forks and buckets; how to mount and use ploughs, seeders, post hole digging and slashing.

Learn how to use a chain saw safely, how to look after it and to sharpen the blade. Using the chain saw to cut down small trees, and possibly to cut fence posts from bigger trees and de-barking them.

Learn how to do fencing tasks, using both wire and wood. How to do the 'Cobb & Co' or Queensland Hitch, and tensioning, tricks using a 'monkey', pieces of wood and pliers.

You will help with the household jobs on all the farms, laying and clearing tables and washing up, keeping your own space tidy and behaving as you would to an employer.

It is important to remember that you need to look tidy and business like. Very few employers can see any reason for young men needing to have long hair and earrings - they are regarded as 'silly city habits' and young men not wishing to tidy themselves up find they have a much smaller choice of jobs. If your employer has time to shave in the morning, then so have you. Also girls with hundreds of earrings, nose, chin, eyebrow and mouth rings are not so easily employable. Table manners are terribly important too, no family wants a messy eater with them when they are trying to teach their children!

If your first language is not English and you go to a job with another of your nationality, it is important to remember not to speak your own language in the presence of your employer. People have been sacked for this: 'I don't understand what they are saying, must be about me, they can go.' You are in Australia - speak English, please.  If your English is not perfect it will rapidly improve with practice!