Quitting your 9-5 office job to live in a van and travel around Australia is a pipedream for many people.
But Gippsland local Kobie Notting and her partner Vaughn Turner made it happen and say it's been the best decision they've ever made.
The couple met in Cape York in far north Queensland in 2019, after exploring the Telegraph Track on separate four-wheel-drive convoys.
"I was with my good mate Nicola and Vaughn was with some boys from Perth and we kind of just met up there and convoyed with everyone," she said.
"We've been inseparable since."
Winding down from the hustle and bustle
To fund their permanent adventure and van lifestyle, Kobie and Vaughn started picking up work on farms and "have never been happier".
"We were sitting around at a café and there was a pop-up van nearby. I looked at it and thought how much I'd love to live in a tiny house," Kobie said.
"Vaughn had the same idea. Both of us agreed, let's do that!
"So we thought, well, if we permanently live on the road, we can just go back and forth and visit our families as we go."
The chance the couple took in 2019 to renovate a van is a success so far, with the pair saying they have never spent more time with their families and have never been so financially secure.
"It really wound us down from our normal nine to five and the hustle and bustle of what our lives used to be," Kobie said.
"It took us quite a bit to adjust because every day felt like a weekend.
"But then when we had to work on a farm we'd knuckle down and work for two months solid every day.
"Then we'd have a holiday with the van and by the time we wanted to work again we got into a really nice routine."
Kobie, who has experience in horse handling and harvest work in Canada, said farm work was available at every turn.
"When we decided we wanted to live on the road, it was perfect timing because our lease was ending.
"We had a crack at harvest in WA and applied for a couple of grants to help get our names out there in agriculture.
"If you've got common sense, are willing to learn and can drive a car, you can basically do anything on a farm that needs to be done."
Accommodation an obstacle
Debbie Dyke and her daughter Belinda Dyke, dairy farm owners based in Dollar in eastern Victoria, said while they always needed labour on farm, accommodation was extremely difficult to provide.
"Not every farm has a spare house and when we do offer accommodation, we also have to consider what we get out of it," Belinda Dyke said.
"Overseas workers require a 90-day turnover and quite often they don't have their own van to park on the property."
According to an ABARES survey about labour use in Australian agriculture, the pandemic caused a reduction in the availability of farm workers from overseas and restricted movement within the country.
Debbie and Belinda found it hard to recover afterwards.
"It was very hard to find people. We were lucky that we had good neighbours that supported us and helped us through the pandemic," Debbie said.
"We advertise jobs on Facebook and the paper but people rarely answer our calls and if they do, they want cash in hand or a house with the job.
"The expectations are a little bit unrealistic."
Backpacker hostel 'full to the brim'
Maffra hostel owners Adam and Rebecca Mair are passionate about providing safe and affordable accommodation to backpackers working on farms.
And it's in demand. At their Cambrai Hostel there is a four-month waiting list for a bed.
"There is such a big labour shortage in our area, especially for our dairy farmers," Rebecca said.
"[Farmers are] wearing themselves into the ground … they need that help on the land and Australians often won't do it."
Adam liaises with local farmers and backpackers for work contracts and said there was work year-round on dairy farms.
"There's also a huge demand for workers at salad farming, which is starting to go year-round now," he said.
The couple said transport to farms was hard to come by so they purchased six hostel cars to take backpackers to and from work.
"Many guests are new to the country and second-hand cars can be difficult to get," Adam said.
"Many overseas backpackers have said to us they like to get out of the city and like the quiet lifestyle," Rebecca said.
"We've had a few Australians come past our hostel to do some farming work but most of them are buying a camper van now.
"From what we've seen, more Australians are doing the van trips rather than staying in hostels."
