Western Meat Exporters say Pacific Islanders boost meatworks and footy team

The goat and sheepmeat abattoir is almost doubling its processing capacity and is expecting that to come online, with a need for an extra 60 staff, in May.

The company is filling much of the void left by the lack of backpackers with workers from the Solomon Islands and Samoa, and managing director Campbell McPhee said the Pacific Labour Scheme was giving them great relief.

"After years of struggle, it's great to have guys keen to work and earn," he said.

And the Charleville Hotel, which hasn't operated as a hotel for a number of years, is providing ready accommodation for them to live in.

"That's a lifeline," Mr McPhee said. "More are arriving from the Solomon Islands at the end of the month and it's good to know we have somewhere for them to live."

All up, WME is bringing in around 50 workers under the Pacific Labour Scheme, all of whom have a three-year visa.

Mr McPhee said that was a good length of time from an employer's point of view, meaning they could become skilled in a number of operations.

"We buddy them up with someone with experience at the start, give them a trainee hairnet and put them in a low risk area for the first two weeks," he said.

"They need to learn to adapt to the work as much as anything - being here at 5am every day, learning knife skills, and learning how to be physical.

"It's a particular type of work that you have to be fit for."

Thirty-year-old Ekueta 'Junior' Tauialo arrived in Charleville from Samoa three weeks ago, with six years of experience on a fishing boat plus working on his family's 1ha banana and taro plantation, and its chickens and pigs, under his belt.

He said he had come to Australia to help his family and he was hoping to make enough money to buy a car and start a taxi business at home.

"On Samoan money, you would have to work a very long time or inherit a car - those are the only ways," he said.

His average weekly wage in Samoa would equate to $120.

Although he has a five-year-old son and two-year-old daughter back home, he said he was able to video call them each day.

"Charleville is nice and quiet and the people are very nice," he said.

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Although Murweh Shire Council mayor Shaun 'Zoro' Radnedge has high hopes the local Western Ringers rugby league team might get a boost from the influx of young men, Mr Tauialo said while they might join some groups, work was their priority.

Each of the island groups has a company minibus to get around town in and to commute to work.

From Mr Tauialo's point of view, getting work in Australia had been a simple two-week process from when he received the call but Mr McPhee said it was more involved from his end.

"The company pays for the flights, for quarantine, and for Q fever needles," he said. "They started work wearing masks and keeping apart from the rest of the workforce but they can move around more freely now."

He also said they were continually working on attracting domestic workers and taking part in school career days in the region, which had generated interest.

"We get a lot of walk-ins, and we advertise away and get people relocating, sometimes from great distances," he said. "We can inherit staff from other abattoirs, or ex-fruit pickers who are looking for constant work rather than moving all the time, especially with COVID restrictions."

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