It's Back to Work We Go

Grey nomads … your country needs you! Or at least it needs some of the skills and work ethic you have aquired over a lifetime of hard slog.
Yup, it’s time to fold up the campchairs, put away the stubby holder and the fishing rod and get back to the coalface. It seems that Generation X, Y, Z and all the rest just can’t cope so it’s “hi ho, hi ho, off to work we go” … or at least that’s the thinking in some quarters.
Indeed, the Queensland Government has officially declared that grey nomads could be the answer to the ongoing skill shortages in regional Queensland.

“Caravanning grey nomads play an extremely important role in regional Queensland's tourism industry travelling on average for six months or more during a single trip,” says the Minister for Tourism, Regional Development and Industry, Desley Boyle. “These people are usually recently retired and come from professional or trade backgrounds – what we say to them is ‘stay longer in regions where their skills are needed’.”

She says there is currently a particularly high demand for skilled labour in flood affected regions of the state.

“It is a great time for travelling grey nomads to use their skills in these areas while also funding their highway adventures," Ms Boyle says. “Travellers are finding skills they have had for years are suddenly in demand in a regional towns, turning a stay of weeks into months.”

Now, Ms Boyle reckons backpackers have been taking working holidays in Queensland for years so there's no reason why retired Australians can't do the same thing. I guess it has to be said that with fuel prices heading north at a rate of knots and grocery bills doing the same thing, the prospect of picking up a bit of extra cash will hold some appeal for many grey nomads – even those who thought they’d clocked on for the last time.

Okay, so setting the alarm clock to be on time for your first day at your new job may not have been the way it was advertised in the ‘Grey Nomad Brochure’ but hey it’s nice to be wanted .. and it’s certainly better than the alternative.

And Department of Employment and Training-commissioned research would seem to suggest that most nomads agree. According to the Queensland Grey Nomads: Profiling a Potential Workforce report, some 56.7% of those interviewed were interested in undertaking paid work of some form while travelling … and more than half were interested in undertaking voluntary work.

The report also revealed that retirees were particularly interested in finding paid or volunteer work along major tourist routes such as The Pacific Way, Capricorn, Warrego and Matilda Highways. Incidentally, an estimated 913,000 visitors stayed in a Queensland caravan park or camp ground over the past year … a 4% increase on last year. Now that’s quite a potential workforce.
Holidays … who needs them?

For more info:

Our site provides free listings and access to employees, employers, volunteers, and people who are advertising their services:
•  Help Wanted
•  Work Wanted
•  Volunteers Wanted

Check out the experiences of two different couples on the fruit picking trail:
•  David & Cheryl
•  Brian & Linda

Interested in volunteering? Read the story about The Grey Nomads Action group in Queensland:
•  Barcaldine

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