Teenager Bella Mahiny is spending her summer holidays sorting and packing mangoes in a shed down the road from her family's central Queensland home.
"Mum found it [the job] on Facebook," Bella said.
After a week of dawn starts, and hours immersed in the sweet but intense smell of freshly picked mangoes, the 15-year-old said she had landed a "pretty good" first job.
"It's so fun," she said.
"I like the people here, they're really nice."
Bella was one of a handful of people who answered Tim and Jenna Keogh's social media callout for workers to harvest mangoes at their 5,000-tree orchard west of Rockhampton.
"Getting enough workers has been an issue this year, probably the biggest issue we've ever had," Mr Keogh said.
Australia's unemployment rate fell back to its lowest point since 1974 in November – 3.4 per cent – according to estimates from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Labour shortages have plagued many industries, including agriculture, but with first-time pickers and packers willing to have a go, Mr Keogh is optimistic the issue will ease.
Good news after hail damaged crop
The Keoghs have harvested mangoes and avocadoes on their Kabra property for eight years, but last season's fruit did not make it to the commercial market.
"We didn't have a crop last year because of the hailstorm," Mr Keogh said.
Selling the cosmetically damaged fruit to suppliers was not viable, so the Keoghs threw their farm gates open for locals to pick themselves, saving the tasty but tarnished crop from the bin.
This season, the Kensington Pride and R2E2 mangoes have seen favourable conditions though the harvest is later than usual.
"Normally we've been around that 10th of December, this year we didn't start until the 20th," he said.
"We're pretty happy with the fruit.
"The size is good. We had some help with some rain during fruit fill, which always helps."
Mr Keogh said picking conditions had been fantastic this season but finding workers two years on from the last commercial harvest had been tough.
"We missed a season so a lot of those younger people that keep coming back to us every year, we lost them for a year and you're not training the staff up," he said.
Employing a local workforce
With a crew of about 25 required each day, Mr Keogh said finding staff during Christmas and New Year was always difficult.
The farm does not use Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) workers and rarely employs backpackers.
"We want the locals to support us so we try to support them as much as we can," Mr Keogh said.
"But we do struggle."
The Keoghs' social media call-out for workers had plenty of engagement and in the end a handful of people were hired.
"We got a lot of people out of the woodwork, and some have had a go and some we never heard from again," he said.
"[But] it worked pretty well."
Rockhampton local Jemuel Lacap found the job through social media, and has returned for a second season.
"Picking mangoes is not that hard, and it's easy money," he said.
The Filipino migrant said he preferred to work through the holidays.
"I choose to work here, to earn money and then send back money to the Philippines," he said.
"Last year we didn't work because of the hailstorm, but now it's really good.
"The fruit is big, fat, juicy and sweet."
Mr Keogh said he was keen to train more young people, like Bella, who were interested in learning.
"They come back a year later and they're a year older and of course as their age goes up their money goes up," he said.
"They get a lot out of it, and we get a lot out of it."
Reducing costs
The Keoghs have made some changes to their operation to make it less labour intensive and reduce soaring costs.
"This year, I chopped all the tops off all the tree while they had fruit on them because with our cost of labour, it's too expensive to pick that fruit up there," he said.
The produce usually goes to Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and sometimes Adelaide, but Mr Keogh said it was likely the fruit would not make it too far this season.
"Freight has gotten so dear," he said.
While it was wonderful to see quality fruit after last season's hailstorm, Mr Keogh said he would not celebrate until the produce had safely made it through the supply chain.
"It's more than a long way from over yet for us, but things are looking up," he said.
