Introducing an educational, well-rewarded and safe working holiday for young Canadian farmers, fully-organised by Dodgshun Medlin – one of regional Australia’s most respected agricultural and professional services firms.

Our Big Bold  Country

Just 10 years ago, Australia’s Mallee – a stretch of open plain spanning two states – was a dust bowl. Today it’s a garden feeding millions. Truth is, it remains reluctant land with a fickle climate, but farming practices changed radically, machinery got bigger and more technical, and the landscape has been tamed as far as a broad slice of country bordering the harsh Australian Outback can be. If you’re Canadian and from a farming family or have some background in farms and farming machinery – and are aged between 18 and 30 – this big bold country is yours to explore, housed and paid.

Rich Crop Knowledge

The Mallee is a living case study in innovative farming practice. And young people from Canadian farming families are invited to learn from it. It’s different. On the Mallee, a single paddock can be 2000 acres. You might be harvesting a mile or two in a single line. Your grain cart could be 30 tonnes. The combine front could be 40 feet or more. You’ll learn more about efficiencies in large scale machinery, GPS mapping, no-till seeding, yield-mapping and monitoring, working in teams of up to 10 people, and a wide variety of different crops. It’s not Canada – but so many of the lessons are the same.

An Indelible Experience

“So here’s this young Canadian with me in the combine and I see his jaw drop and he’s pointing at this big tall kangaroo out in the paddock. Eating my crop. The place is full of kangaroos, emus, lizards and snakes and everything else you can imagine – but I say, 'Righto mate, jump in the ute and go have a look'. So he tears off chasing this thing and it’s off. Tell you what; he was no stranger to kangaroos by the time he finished up. Didn’t need to visit the zoo. Our Farmaroos see the lot, out where it belongs.”

APPLICATIONS FOR 2015 HAVE NOW CLOSED