It was back breaking seasonal work, with pickers often knee deep in mud as they filled large bags with beans, peas or corn for the Australian market.
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For decades, the relationship between the region’s traditional owners and the agriculture sector is one which helped the industry thrive, and one elders fear is quickly being forgotten despite renewed interest in the history of the region from the Djiringanj perspective.
Whatever was going, whatever was in season that’s what they followed.
- Djiringanj and Ngarigo elder Aunty Glenda Dixon
Djiringanj and Ngarigo elders Aunty Glenda Dixon and Ellen Mundy both began working on farms along the Bega River as small children.
“What I used to love was that everyone was always in a happy mood, laughing and telling stories, and it sort of lifted our spirits,” Ms Dixon said.
“As kids we were taught to work and be hard workers.”
Now aged 61, Ms Dixon was just five-years-old and Ms Mundy aged just nine when they began picking, learning from their parents, and fulfilling both morning and afternoon quotas around their school work and chores.
“We had to get up at the break of dawn at Jellat, pick a quota before being picked up and taken home to wash up and have breakfast, then went to school, and then got picked up again and taken back to the farm,” Ms Dixon said.
Despite working and living in Jellat Jellat, Ms Dixon said the five children were not allowed to enroll in the local school, and forced to walk to Bega, sometimes with “bullets above their heads”.
Seasonal workers from across NSW and Victoria were drawn to farms on the basalt rich soil of the Bega Valley, many camping on the farms where they worked.
Often the journey to the Bega Valley, especially from the Lake Tyers Mission or Bung Yarnda, was a one-way ticket to a region previously known for its large festivals and gatherings.
“At that time there was a lot of Aboriginal people here,” Ms Dixon said.
“Whatever was going, whatever was in season that’s what they followed.”
They said working conditions began to improve as farmers competed with each other to attract the best workers.
“They [farm owners] would argue over pickers and who could accommodate them better,” Ms Mundy said.
“It was hard work, it would take a toll on your body.”
The 53-year-old said pickers were often given credit by farmers during the off season in order to keep them in the region, with none allowed to open bank accounts, saving income was made extremely difficult.
“One of our biggest enjoyments was to go to the show each year,” Ms Dixon said.
