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Try It by Career Calling

Sugar Cane Farm Worker

LabourersUsually a certificate or some on-the-job experience

What the work is

Performs routine tasks on a sugar cane farm, such as cultivating and fertilising soil, and planting and irrigating crops. May spray pesticides on crops to treat disease and pests.

Would you enjoy the work?

These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.

  • Patrols, inspects and reports on the condition of sugar cane crops
  • Prepares soil and plants sugar cane setts using hand tools and farm machines
  • Undertakes cultivation and maintenance duties, such as thinning and weeding sugar cane crops
  • Operates water and irrigation systems for sugar cane crop growth
  • Maintains and cleans sugar cane farming infrastructure and equipment, such as sheds, fences and machinery
  • May spray sugar cane crops with pesticides to control weed growth, pests, fungus growth and diseases

Try it

A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a family-run fruit and vegetable farm in the middle of harvest, with picking crews, irrigation and a spray shed. They are fictional.

The kind of days you could have

Good days

  • Walking a block at sunrise and spotting a problem a week before it would have cost the crop
  • A full day of picking ends with the last crates loaded and a crew that is tired and proud
  • Rain arrives right after you finish the planting you were racing to get done

Hard days

  • Picking or hoeing in forty degree heat with the sun straight overhead
  • A frost, a hailstorm or a pump failure that undoes a month of work in an hour
  • A boss who needs the whole block picked today and a crew that is running short

Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.

Work a mission

Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.

Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 841137, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.