I have been on the road fulltime for 18 months and mainly work 3 month at a time, mainly in meat processing.
I have also twice now had a crack at some of the Caretaker situations advertised on Gumtree (maybe my first mistake) and twice bitten.
First property was run by a cranky goat, who decided I hadnt put enough work in during the week and was only going to pay me half of the $200 we had agreed on, and also having to share amenities with a station hand, who drank heavily, smoked in the kitchen while watching pornography non-stop, and got the dirts with me as I didnt cook him any dinner, which was as far as I was concerned was not part of the deal.
Second wanted money up front for parking my van and hooking up to the power, and then after ending up out of pocket for parts (as he didnt have an account with the local CRT) he couldnt reimburse me until the wool cheque cleared.
Has anyone else had this issue? Or am I just unlucky?
Yes you are unlucky, but saying that yes there are some people out there like that, but he majority of them are pretty good. I dont use Gumtree, seems tk have to many shonky adds. I use Grey Nomads jobs, Seek or other job search places. If you are in a small country town ask at the newsagent or servo if they know of any work. Word of mouth works well in the bush.
I think what you experienced is more prevalent than others may care to admit !. Sure everyone has to check things out but what you have described amounts to fraudulent and or illegal behavior and should be reported either to Fairwork Australia, The Tax Office, the local equivalent of the old CES and every social forum you can find - name and shame them. This is not to mention Gumtree and reporting them to authorities for not properly vetting adverts.
The further you go the better for all of us out there !
