Regional Victoria jobs: Seasonal and professional roles vacant

From stock agents to surgeons, paramedics to crop supervisors, vacancies abound in the regions. And the wages are worth a look.

Can you fire up a harvester, shear a sheep, perform major surgery or lend medical aid to others in time of need?

If so, regional Victoria desperately needs you.

While Covid has ignited a mass exodus from cities to country areas, it has put greater strain on sections of the rural jobs market already desperate for workers. This is despite recent Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showing Victoria leads the nation in jobs growth.

ELDERS ON HUNT FOR WORKERS

National agricultural services group Elders has been run off its feet in the past year, helping producers bounce back from drought, operate through the pandemic and make the most of the stellar seasonal conditions across southeast Australia.

A bumper year for agriculture has meant more demand for everything from property and livestock to machinery and agronomic inputs, all sectors in which Elders specialises.

Elders agents selling stock.

Executive general manager Malcolm Hunt said demand for the company’s services had steadily increased, creating jobs opportunities in the regions.

“Elders is performing exceptionally well because ag is performing well,” Mr Hunt said. “Activity has grown dramatically and … even though there are people coming out of the cities, looking for real estate in regional and rural areas, we don’t seem to be getting people to apply for roles yet, from a Covid-related point of view.

“The gap at the moment clearly is in retail sales and agronomy. We have lots of opportunities in that space.”

Elders was also recruiting people to fill livestock handling, livestock marketing, crop protection services and real estate sales vacancies, Mr Hunt said.

“We have roles for people who are formally trained, but are just as happy to put on people who are not formally trained as long as they are passionate about agriculture and primary production,” he said.

The group is advertising to fill 28 roles, in every state and territory. Applicants should be prepared to travel as part of an Elders role.

Mr Hunt encouraged interested jobseekers to register their interest for current and future job opportunities online.

CAREER FOCUS

More than half of regional vacancies are for professionals and skilled trades people.

Positions abound in the engineering, food manufacturing, science, construction and primary industries.

Demand for medical professions is also critical. Ambulance Victoria has launched a campaign to find 300 more paramedics, including nurses, in the coming year. The shortage has worsened by immense increases in ambulance services during Covid lockdowns.

In the shire of Mitchell alone, which takes in the towns of Broadford, Kilmore, Seymour, Tallarook, Pyalong and Wallan, demand for lifesaving care increased 30 per cent in a year.

It’s the same with GPs, in short supply in numerous country towns for some years.

A general surgeon position in Shepparton for instance was recently advertised online with a comfy annual pay packet of $350,000.

Jora recently listed 1776 positions in regional Victoria ranging from an account manager at a Ballarat animal pharmaceutical company ($100,000 a year) and a doctor in northeast Victoria, to a sales agronomist in Shepparton ($110,000-$130,000 plus car) and a physiotherapist in Lakes Entrance ($68,401-$95,688).

Dentists are being sought to work for the Royal Flying Doctor Service and a recent senior clinical psychologist position just across the border from Mildura offered $125,146-$132,507 a year.

It’s estimated 200 new local security positions will become available in the recently opened Latrobe Valley GovHub complex in Morwell, and more than 200 will be on offer when Bendigo’s $130 million GovHub opens in late 2022.

Already state government workers relocated from Melbourne have moved into Ballarat’s $100m GovHub, opened in April, and it’s geared to accommodate 1000.

There are expected to be at least 150 manufacturing jobs in Ballarat next year when construction starts on 25 new X-Trapolis 2.0 trains to be made at revamped workshops by French rolling stock company Alstom.

It’s understood a total workforce of 750 will eventually be created to manufacture the six-carriage trains intended for the metropolitan network.

Flavorite chief executive Chris Millis in a glasshouse.

FRESH APPROACH AT TATURA

One of Australia’s largest glasshouse producers of fresh fruit and vegetables has become the flavour of the moment for regional jobs.

Following the merger of Flavorite with tomato-growing family group Murphy Fresh in May, up to 150 new rural jobs are progressively becoming available.

The jobs, mostly for full-timers, will be based at Tatura in the Goulburn Valley where the joint company, Flavorite Group, is developing a 60,000sq m glasshouse and hydroponic growing complex.

Foundations have been laid and immediately after completion it will be followed by another 60,000sq m complex, giving the group an extra 12ha of glasshouse capacity.

The vacancies will keep flowing over the next six months, both to cover the peak production season and to fit out and operate the state-of-the-art new glasshouse, due to be planted with truss tomatoes in February.

“There will be about 60 to 70 jobs over the coming months and then after the glasshouse is fitted out in December there will be another 70 or so in February,” said Flavorite chief operating officer Chris Millis.

Family company Flavorite is keen for as many successful applicants as possible to be from the local region.

“We have a strategy of getting as many full-timers as we can,” Mr Millis said. “We do take on casuals but as they develop their skills we convert them to permanent.”

And the experience needed? Not a lot, he said.

“Because we are in a pretty new industry, no experience is really necessary – the best thing is a good attitude and a good work ethic,” he said.

“We do a lot of on-the-job training. If you have picked fruit or done a harvest, or worked in horticulture/agriculture, that helps, but it’s not necessary.”

Jobs could take in anything from plant and harvest work to leadership positions, HR, IT, logistics and construction.

By 2022 it is expected the Tatura operation will be producing 10 million kilograms of produce, including four million of truss tomatoes a year.

SEASONAL SHORTAGE

Hort Innovation warns of a possible 24,000 shortage of fruit and vegetable workers – many in Victoria – within six months, and vacancies are plentiful.

It’s a similar picture across numerous of the state’s rural sectors, with the stellar seasonal conditions for agriculture driving more demand.

Although skilled workers are needed, lack of experience should not be a barrier to jobseekers.

Bumper grain crop forecasts have heightened demand for harvest labour.

Agricultural group Viterra alone is seeking to fill 1500 seasonal positions across western Victoria and South Australia.

Though jobs are short term, companies such as Viterra say they are happy to provide training that can be used elsewhere.

Similarly woolshed workers are in huge demand due to hundreds of New Zealand workers who would normally travel here now not doing so.