By DANE LILLINGSTONE
SOUTHERN Downs Regional Council has held its first welcoming session for backpackers.
On Friday at the Stanthorpe Civic Centre, councillors, Stanthorpe police and local businesses all took part in an information session and welcoming for new seasonal workers.
Mayor Peter Blundell gave the official welcoming speech.
“We realise how important it is having you in our community,” he said.
Dan O’Dea from Stanthorpe police station warned the new arrivals to take care on the roads.
“There will be three to four thousand extra people in Stanthorpe over the summer months,” he said.
“Backpackers represent a lot of our local crashes.”
Representatives from NAB Bank, Grove Juice and Rugby Farm were all present and there was also a free sausage sizzle.
Rugby Farm Liaison officer and Stanthorpe local Tane Gravatt said backpackers played an important role in the running of the local business.
“They are the most important labour source to us,” he said.
“We have many jobs that require skills in terms of harvesting, but not everything can be mechanically harvested, they need to be cut by hand and indeed in many cases need to be graded and packed by the cutter.
“We do need the man power.”
Rugby Farm has been in Stanthorpe for a handful of seasons now and employs up to 100 people in the local region.
Councillor Vic Pennisi said he would like to make the event bigger in the future.
“It would be good to have a street parade to introduce them and get more local businesses involved,” he said.
