I worked here in Oct - Nov 2011 as a cherry picker. I was recruited by a Korean man named Inho who works for one of the many labour hire agencies that recruit for the farm. Cherries have a repution for being a good money maker for pickers in Australia; that is, if you go somewhere OTHER than Hillston, NSW. Several backpackers showed up at this farm disappointed as they werent making anywhere near what they believed they would. I don't know much about the pay or circumstances elsewhere, but I heard that Cherry King is one of the worst contracts for cherry picking in the country. From my experience, I'd definitely agree. I'm a considerably fast picker (one of the fastest in my group for the time I was there) given my previous farmwork experience on an apple orchard, and that my grandparents own cherry and apple trees at home. However, my earnings every day fell far below minimum wage. The least I ever earned was $56 and the most was $120. This was pretty tight considering the rent was $100/week and we were charged $5/day for a bus to take us from our accomodation in town to the farm which was about 20km away. After taxes and living expenses added up, I felt lucky just to put aside a couple hundred dollars from my stay here (which I cut short due to the poor working conditions.) However, I was lucky as all the housemates I lived with were only earning a fraction of what I was. If you're not extremely quick, it'll probably COST you to work here rather than you actually earning anything.
Of course there was the odd extremely fast picker in each group, who could pick 3 or 4 times faster than even the average picker. At that rate, they often earned about minumum wage. However, this was rare. Another thing that I never understood was how the same size "lugs" we picked every day were set a different price each day, based on how the manager felt. Sometimes he'd say we'd be paid $15 for 1 lug, other days it was $12 or as low as $10. It irked a lot of people and several left early.
DO NOT come to pick cherries here, it will be the most disappointing farmwork experience you'll have. Photos to come.
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