Profile information
Host rating
80 %
Last replied
1 Mar 2025
Reply rate
70.6 %
Usually responds within 5 days
Feedback
41
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Badges (3)
Details
Description
We are a family living on a hobby olive grove in southern Tasmania. We produce a small amount of high quality organic extra virgin olive oil.
We moved here because we fell in love with the beautiful, untouched, peaceful countryside, and we wanted to produce something from the land.
We have 600 hundred olive trees, we love creating the best quality olive oil we can, and enjoying the lifestyle of working outdoors in such a beautiful environment.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Farmstay help
Babysitting and creative play
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
You'll learn about olive growing, you'll learn some outdoor skills, and you'll be getting a taste of living in the Australian countryside. We have LOADS of wildlife, mostly wallabies and possums, and even have 2 platypuses living in our dam!
My husband is a furniture builder/designer and also used to work as a guitar builder, and is happy to share his skills with anyone who is interested in learning about that side of things. Past workawayers have often enjoyed the chance to do things they've never done before, like driving the tractor, learning to weld, or making their own chopping board out of local timbers.
I'm trained as a book editor so can help with English language skills.
We've both travelled extensively around the world as workawayers ourselves, and love learning about other languages and cultures.
Projects involving children
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Help
We're particularly looking for help in early June, when we harvest our olives. Harvest is our busiest and most fun time, when we will need help harvesting and sorting the olives and taking them to be pressed into oil. We have friends and family come to help then too, so while it's hard work, it's a very convivial atmosphere. This is in winter, so bring some gear for cold/wet weather! This would best suit a couple, or close friends who are happy to share a caravan.
The rest of the year there is some opportunity for work maintaining and improving the property. This means things like: pruning the olive trees, brushcutting, and clearing overgrown blackberry bushes and other vegetation.
We have some chickens and geese and quail which you could help look after. And there may be some work finishing off a reno or doing some wood/metalwork in the shed if that's your thing.
Sometimes a bit of help around the house, such as cleaning or gardening, will be requested as part of your 5 hours work. But we do have the philosophy that you're staying with us as part of our family, we're not a hotel, so basic household help such as clearing up after dinner, a bit of cooking if you like to, and tidying up after yourselves at the end of your stay are expected and appreciated as just good manners.
We will try our best to match tasks to your skills and interests... but at the same time, when a job needs doing, it needs doing!
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Accommodation
You'll share our house for living, eating and the bathroom, but because our house is quite small you'll be sleeping in a caravan outside. It has a double and a small single bed, so it would suit either a single, a couple, or two friends who are happy to share the caravan.
What else ...
We live in the beautiful Huon Valley, surrounded by apple and cherry orchards, natural bushland and secluded beaches. The area is famous for gourmet food and wine, and is close to Bruny Island, home of the unique white wallabies and a great place for bushwalking.
As we have kids our lifestyle is pretty quiet, but we're only 10 minutes from the nearest small town, and 45 minutes from the capital city, Hobart.
Public transport in the area is limited. It's fantastic if you have your own car as this will give you a lot more freedom in your time off. If not, we try our best to enable you to see the surrounding area whenever we can make it fit into our family commitments.
We have Daisy a Great Dane, so she's very big. She's super friendly but very boisterous so it won't suit people who are scared of dogs. We also have 2 primary-school-aged kids, so you'll need to like kids.
You may know that Tasmania is not as hot as the rest of Australia. But we have very high UV, so it's very easy to get sunburnt in summer. So if you'll be visiting in summer, we recommend you pack clothes that cover a lot of skin, and a big hat. Also, like anywhere in country Australia, we do have snakes in summer, so you should pack proper shoes. The weather here can get hot in summer and cold in winter, but all year round the weather is quite changeable so it's a good idea to pack a variety of clothes. Also, most of the work you'll be doing is outdoors, so you need to bring clothes that are suitable for working that you don't mind getting dirty.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
This host has indicated that they love having digital nomads stay.
Space for parking camper vans
This host can provide space for campervans.
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
Feedback (21)
Tasks was very varied, from… read more
The work was nicely varied… read more
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Feedback
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Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)
Cultural exchange:
(5.0)
Communication:
(5.0)
Tasks was very varied, from… read more
The work was nicely varied… read more
They are such a lovely young family with a very nice daughter, who have traveled the world using workaway and know exactly how to treat their guests. The work was fun and relaxing and Clare always cooked up a storm. We loved our stay and wish them only the best with the… read more
We absolutely ADORE the entire James family! There are not enough words to express how thankful we are that our trip made a detour and took us to Tasmania to work on the Seven Goose Grove. We learned so much during our short stay: from pruning… read more
The food was very good all days and the caravan was the most comfy that we have been!!
We learned lots of kids music with Charly :D
We can now say with 100 percent certainty that this was for sure the best first workaway experience we… read more
well. She jumped into pruning our olive trees and was a total natural at
it, with a real affinity for plants. Conversation was always interesting
and she has a great attitude. She also had a lovely way with our daughter
and our new puppy. Thanks for all your help, Ivy. We… read more
You, the beautiful Huon… read more
I'd like to thank you both,… read more
