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Vineyard Worker

LabourersUsually a certificate or some on-the-job experience

What the work is

Performs routine tasks on a wine vineyard, such as cultivating and fertilising soil, planting, training and pruning vines, and picking wine grapes.

Would you enjoy the work?

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

  • Plants, prunes and sprays vines to establish, maintain and manage the health and growth of wine grapes in vineyards
  • Picks and sorts the wine grapes during harvest season for processing
  • Cultivates and fertilises soil in wine vineyards
  • Monitors wine vineyards for pests and diseases, and takes appropriate action
  • Assists with irrigation and watering of vines
  • Assists with the installation and maintenance of trellises and supports for vines
  • Maintains and repairs wine vineyard equipment and machinery, and performs general maintenance and cleaning in vineyards

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 841142, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.