Hell Hill: Underbelly of backpacker scene where hostel murder hero Tom Jackson died

ON THE night he was fatally stabbed at a hostel, backpacker Tom Jackson was meant to be hundreds of kilometres away.

Foreign backpackers flock to Ayr in Northern Queensland (pictured) and its twin town Home Hill where the recent double murders took place. Picture: Candace Sutton

HOME Hill hostel murder hero Tom Jackson wanted to leave the backpacker town where he died in his last “miserable” week before he was allegedly fatally stabbed trying to help Mia Ayliffe-Chung.

A special investigation by news.com.au has uncovered the underbelly of the backpacker scene in remote Home Hill and its twin town Ayr communities in far north Queensland.

Backpackers have asked for the reality of what goes on in Home Hill and the labour system of fruit and vegetable picking travellers be revealed.

A friend of Mr Jackson, 30, told news.com.au that the British backpacker wanted to leave Home Hill up to a week before the fatal incident occurred.

Instead of holidaying elsewhere in Queensland, Mr Jackson was in Home Hill on August 23.

At about 11pm, police claim Algerian-French backpacker Smail Ayad went on a murderous rampage, allegedly stabbing to death the young woman with whom he was infatuated, Mia Ayliffe-Chung, 21.

Mr Jackson sustained more than 20 stab wounds trying to save her and eventually succumbed to his injuries, dying five days later on August 28.

Backpackers in Home Hill gather together in shock the day after the alleged murder of Mia Ayliffe-Chung, 21. Picture: Tim Marsden

British backpacker, Tom Jackson, died in hospital almost a week after he was stabbed while allegedly trying to protect fellow British backpacker Mia Ayliffe-Chung. Picture: Facebook

Mia Ayliffe-Chung, 21, was allegedly murdered by her roommate Smail Ayad while on a backpacking holiday in Home Hill, North Queensland. Picture: Facebook

Smail Ayad worked with his alleged victim Tom Jackson on a capsicum farm a month before Mr Jackson was fatally stabbed at Home Hill. Picture: Facebook

Accused murderer Ayad, 29, Ms Ayliffe-Chung and Mr Jackson had all been living in Home Hill and working on farms on a special Australian government working holiday visas scheme. Ms Ayliffe-Chung was picking up stones on a sugar cane plantation.

Home Hill and Ayr, which straddle the Burdekin River 120km south of Townsville, are inundated between May and October with backpackers looking for work on local farms.

British backpacker, Mia Ayliffe-Chung, 21, was violently stabbed to death. Picture: Facebook

Mia Ayliffe-Chung was in Home Hill working as a vegetable picker. Picture: Facebook

Young travellers arrive from all over the world to work in the fields picking zucchinis, melons and capsicums which are sold in Coles and Woolworths.

Most describe it as “backbreaking” toil, but a positive experience which allows them the “holy grail” — an extended visa to travel Australia for up to two years.

Mr Jackson and his alleged killer, Ayad, both worked simultaneously at the same capsicum farm at the tiny town of Gumlu, 45 minutes outside Home Hill and 135km south of Townsville.

One backpacker, who lived at Home Hill at the same time as Mr Jackson, said the environment was extremely hostile.

“It is a dangerous place that encourages fighting, is unjust and run in a disgusting way,” he said.

Backpackers are woken up just before 6am to go picking in one of the farms south of Home Hill. Picture: Candace Sutton

One of the capsicum farms at Gumlu 135km south of Townsville where hundreds of foreign backpackers work in the field and packing sheds. Picture: Candace Sutton

Young foreigners say accommodation costs and transport fees cut into the money they earn from doing ‘backbreaking’ field work. Picture: Candace Sutton

According to backpackers who have stayed at Home Hill before the double murder, violence has broken out previously and there is a drinking culture among the backpackers.

One of the backpackers called the town “Hell Hill” and warned others to “avoid it at all costs”.

French backpacker Edward Moine told news.com.au that he had left Home Hill because he felt isolated.

“There is nothing to do except drink. It was like a jail,” he said.

Another male backpacker who stayed in Home Hill two years ago described to news.com.au an incident in which a fight broke out after a drinking session and backpackers were confined to their rooms.

“At one time the drinking wasn’t allowed anymore — I think because of the daily disturbances,” he said. “After one night a fight between two travellers broke out and the police came and ordered us to stay in our rooms.

Backpackers in Home Hill the day after Mia Ayliffe-Chung was stabbed to death. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

‘Nothing to do but drink’ was how one French backpacker described Home Hill (above) which he left just nine days before the alleged murders. Picture: Supplied

“I stayed for another two weeks and got a couple of days of picking by my own sources.

“I don’t know what they could have done to make the place better with 50 French 20-year-olds on the loose.”

Several backpackers from the UK and Europe described a system in which they were paid minimal wages and had to pay for transport to their jobs and other expenses.

Jarno from Europe, who stayed in Home Hill two years ago, wrote on Trip Advisor that he witnessed fights and complained about money being docked for work expenses.

Under the working visa system, backpackers must be credited with 88 days work in one year if they are to attain the much-prized second-year visa and extend their travels.

Many backpackers said that getting consistent work to total the 88 days was, for some, impossible.

Jarno said he stayed for a month in Home Hill but only managed to get seven days’ work.

He admits he could not cope with the constant noise of others partying when he had to wake up at 5.30am to board the minibus to the picking fields.

“I witnessed two major fights and three times police arrived shouting at us to get back to bed,” he said. “If you do manage to get work, they charge you $10 a day for transportation.

“The only reason I stayed for a month was the hope for getting to work. Some people worked five days a week, others were waiting for weeks without nothing to do. There has to be better options than this Hell Hill.”

Smail Ayad drank with other French backpackers at the Kalamia Hotel in Ayr on Saturday nights. Picture: Candace Sutton

Burdekin locals hold a minute’s silence for the two backpackers killed in Home Hill.

The main street of Home Hill where backpackers say they have nothing to do at night but drink alcohol.

Young travellers get paid $22 an hour and work anything between two and eight hours, plus up to an hour’s transport each way to farms north and south of the towns of Ayr and Home Hill in the Burdekin region.

Minivan owners charge them up to $12 a day for transport, and several hostels run their own licensed bars.

Rent at a hostel ranges from $150 to $165 a week per person in a six to eight-bed dorm and $170 to $180 in a double room.

French backpacker Edward Moine was Smail Ayad’s only friend in Australia. Picture: Candace Sutton

“They know we are expendable,” Mick from Canada told news.com.au. “My first farm I got sacked on the first day.”

Colum, a young Irishman, also got sacked on his first shift for “not bending down enough”.

“It’s backbreaking work,” he said. “I’m six-foot-five and I’m fat, so I’m just not made to continually bend over and pick a little vegetable that’s a foot off the ground.”

Mia Ayliffe-Chung was living on the Gold Coast and visiting Home Hill to work in the field for her visa, when she was murdered. Picture: Facebook

English backpacker Natalie Sexton sorting and packing cucumbers in a shed at Bowen, south of Home Hill. Picture: News Corp

Andrew, a traveller from the UK who writes a blog, accused the police of being heavy-handed in dealing with a drunk backpacker in 2013.

Andrew and his friends then endured the “coldest winter in 40 years and the worst season in 10 years”.

But he conceded that “everyone is very friendly”, even though one of his friends was sacked from packing melons for “having one slow day”.

Phil, a German traveller who stayed at Home Hill three years ago and left a review online, said his earnings from picking capsicums, melons and pumpkins shrunk from deductions for accommodation costs, daily transport to the picking fields, drinking and food.

Smail Ayad is due back in court in October. Picture: Facebook

Smail Ayad, wearing a helmet and spit/bite mask, in a police van in transport to Townsville Magistrates Court. Picture: Nine News

In 2009, another German traveller Florian said that the money earned picking on the fields was easily frittered away on alcohol and “grass” in the evenings.

The Burdekin Shire Council told news.com.au that the backpacker fruit and vegetable picking scheme contributed millions to the regional economy.

“We love our backpackers and we have many hundreds through here in a season,” the council’s media manager Julie Davies said.

A sheet made into a memorial for slain British backpacker Mia Ayliffe-Chung. Picture: Mark Calleja

An emotional backpacker with tributes and flowers for Mia Ayliffe-Chung. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

A backpacker on crutches after the stabbing in Home Hill.

Ms Davies said the region was a river delta which lay over the Great Artesian Basin, making it very fertile and “virtually drought proof”.

Burdekin Shire Mayor Lyn McLaughlin told news.com.au that the entire town of Home Hill had been traumatised by the alleged murders.

“People are sad and become attached to the backpackers in town like their own children,” Ms McLaughlin said.

“The tragedy that occurred here has touched many locals and the backpackers wrote a note thanking Home Hill for all their care following the tragedy.

“But [backpacker fruit and vegetable picking] is a well-established industry here for the last 15 or 20 years and I see it continuing.

“We have another proposed hostel in the approval stages.”

One backpacker hostel owner told news.com.au that rather than the two alleged murders affecting business, it was a looming “backpacker tax” which threatened the industry in the region.

Under the new scheme, which the Federal Government has proposed but not yet introduced, the tax-free threshold of $18,000 would be removed.

He said that backpackers would no longer come if they were going to be taxed and that meant that the fruit and vegetable industry in the region would collapse.

“Australians don’t want these jobs, it’s too much hard work for them,” he said. “My business won’t exist if this comes in.”