Harvest workers go north months early

Uncertainty around workers being able to cross borders leading up to grain harvest has meant some Victorian contractors have sent staff to NSW and Queensland early.

Getting prepared: Bingham Agriculture, based in Victoria, have already been sending workers and headers to NSW and Queensland ahead of harvest, due to border restriction concerns.

A VICTORIAN grain contractor has dispatchedworkers to NSW and southern Queensland 10 weeks earlier than usual in preparation for harvest, amid concerns border constrictions may change.

Dan Bingham, of Bingham Agriculture, said uncertainty around workers being able to cross borders leading up to harvest was his biggest worry.

“If the rules change next month there will be a large problem,” Mr Bingham said.

“We have got 12 headers over in NSW and harvesters sitting in Queensland and we have been taking one a week over there.

The earlier arrival into NSW and Queensland also allows workers time for two weeks of self-isolation.

About 35 full-time staff work for the business, Mr Bingham said, with 25 being with the group for “a number of years”.

“They have got to know the farmers they work for very well, and luckily some customers are helping workers quarantine on farms,” he said.

Mr Bingham reiterated that his business had no problem sticking to the rules, but needed clarity to allow him to “reactively manage the situation”.

“We just want more clarity around the rules, then we can get confidence to put a plan in place,” he said.

And with the best season expected for growers in NSW in a number of years, he said it was crucial his workers got crops off.

“I have talked to customers in NSW and it is the best season they have had in four or five years,” Mr Bingham said.

This year, Mr Bingham said he expected contractors to harvest about 130,000 to 150,000 tonnes of grain in northern NSW, worth about $39 million.

“They have waited years in northern and central NSW and it is crucial to get it off for them,” he said.

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