Where Koalas grow on trees...

Well, i managed to find myself about 4 jobs, so decided to go with the fruit picking one, as i really wanted to have the experience.  At this time of year, and in this orchard, the fruit is not yet ripe for picking so the work that needs doing is called thinning.  This is where you pick off all the little fruit that is just too small, and then space out the bigger fruits nicely along the branch (yes, it would be nice if you could literally space them out, but it is more the case of picking off the ones in between to create the space for the others.  The trees are quite tall, so at first we walk, picking the lower level fruits, and then we get on the truck to reach the higher levels.

Now the truck is pretty cool, and yet it is also pain inducing!  The truck has two platforms, so you can drive between the trees with two people on either side, and each platform on a different level.  I somehow managed to get the top level, which is where most of the fruit grows, so yes it is the busiest level.  The trees also don’t grow nice and straight, so some trees lean this way and others that way – so there is lots of leaning to reach the branches.  The next factor to take into account is the moving of the vehicle.  It generally travels at a very slow speed and every now and then we have to stop when we get an abundant tree. And doing the top level means that when the people ahead of you doing the middle level don’t do their job properly, then we need to do their section and ours!  At the end of the day, after having been on the truck all day, i tend to still feel the motion of the truck, which is a very strange feeling indeed!

So far i have been thinning the nectarines and the peaches – and it is the hairy peaches that led to my dreaming of picking of tiny furry koalas from trees... lol!  So it feels that my dreamtime has entered the Australian dreamspace...