During Covid I was spoilt. At the end of our big dry in Central Australia, 2019, we had a European couple work for us, and they returned for the 2020 and 2021 cattle work season. I also had an offsider for two years, a school leaver, who helped me daily and could “fill my shoes” if I were not home.
In 2022 when the world was beginning to return to “normal” we had to go back to finding seasonal workers. We usually advertise for a couple or two friends travelling together as they have each other for company and work better as a team.
When we first advertised again for seasonal workers in the second half of 2022 we had three applicants where previously we might get as many as fifty+ responses. Working Holiday Makers were only trickling back into Australia. My concern was that this might be the “new normal” so started looking into the NT DAMA Migration agreement.
DAMA stands for Designated Area Migration Agreement and the NT has an agreement with the Federal Government enabling Territory Businesses to sponsor overseas workers to fill workplace shortages. The current DAMA has 135 eligible occupations listed, including Mixed Livestock Worker (Station Hand).
In late 2022 I contacted the NT Migration Department but did not hear back so I approached the NTCA for assistance. Romy Carey contacted the NT Migration Department to attend the next NTCA Alice Springs Branch meeting early the following year. This session was invaluable to me, and I am grateful for the NTCA for organizing it.
I elected to undertake the process of sponsorship myself as I had only one suitable person in mind, a Scottish national that had worked for us previously for two seasons in 2017 and 2018. I knew she had the skills and the ability to live and work in our remote setting.
Most people elect to hire a Migration Lawyer to undertake the process, I did it on my own with the help at times from the NTCA and staff from NT Migration who I had met at the NTCA meeting. The process was long, starting in March 2023 and the visa was approved October 2024 but I saved the company thousands of dollars and from March 2025 I have a guaranteed offsider for three years. After three years her visa enables her to apply for residency in Australia.
I am ever so grateful for the assistance of the NTCA for facilitating the meeting with the NT Migration. Having faces and names from NT Migration was so vital during the process. As every business knows, finding and training suitable staff is time consuming and at times tiring. Having committed staff who are willing to live in our remote area of the world and look past the media sensationalism of the NT being a crime capital is so vital.
By Paddy Weir – Todd River Pastoral Co
