wesleyandjoanne

Just wondered if anyone knew how much an average general gardenerwould earn in Perth and are there plenty of jobs?

Would appreciate any feedback, ta

ACE

Hi W & J,
We live down south in Port Bouvard, we know a couple gardeners and apparently most of the gardeners around here go out buy a truck, gardening equipment, get business cards printed and target the estate agents as well as leaving cards at local shops etc. As you can imagine renting is huge over here so they go for contracts where they are taken on to maintain the gardens on the agent's books. Our gardener comes once every three weeks, it takes him about an hour to do our garden and he charges $40. He gets the odd lanscaping and retic job which pays a lot better.

ACE

wesleyandjoanne

Thanks ACE.
We are nearly ready to send off everything to the TRA and start the waiting game. Have looked at job sites to see if there is much about, but none of them really tell you the rate of pay. There seems to be more advertised over there then there does back here. Was planning to work for someone for 6/12 months to get the idea of how they work, where they go etc, before starting up on our own. Did it take long for the gardeners you know to build an estalished round up?

wesleyandjoanne

Also what's Port Bouvard like?? is there plenty to do there? Prices? Accommoation? Its hard as we look at Realestate.com, but it doesn't give you a feel for the areas? Houses look amaing though,compared to our box over here!

ACE

Hi W & J,
We really love Port Bouvard, if you search on Realesate.com PB properties are listed under Wannanup. I have pasted a couple of links to a some of my previous posts.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...E+PORT+BOUVArd

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...E+PORT+BOUVArd

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...E+PORT+BOUVArd

Here is a link to the Port Bouvard website
http://www.portbouvard.com.au/pbsite/index.htm?77777

The gardeners that I know set themselves up, started working straight away and kind of picked it up as they went along. Their initial work seemed to be just basic lawn cutting and weeding that sort of thing but as they have gone along they have gone more into retic instillation and maintenance, garage clearance and a bit of handy man work.

ACE

Santa

I've got 3 gardeners working for me, they earn $40/hour. Getting work through real estate agents is good, as is property management companies.
Dont forget to include travelling !
Mowing is different, the reward is usually around $50, but setting up expenses are large. Good mowers ie MEY or D and F are about $5000, a decent rotary is $1200, blowers are $400, Whippers are $800, edgers are not cheap, but never bought one.
Dont but domestic rubbish, it wont last !
You'll need to got a book or books on Native plants and clue yourself up with some of the more common plants and shrubs.
Matbe to start you could join a shire or even enquie at Kings Park, dont suppose the money would be so flash, but your training would be good !
Hope this helps, you could M me if you like

Santa

And while I'm on the subject ! I'm about 3 hours south of Perth, and down here you cant get gardeners for love nor money. In fact you cant get anyone.

Jacqui

If you look in the small ads jobs each week in the local paper, there always seem to be lawnmowing rounds for sale, price usually includes the trailer, all the gear and a ready-made customer list. It would be enough to get you started and pay the bills. Our gardener charged about $30 just to do the lawns, extra costs if he had to stop and repair a sprinkler. $40 an hour sounds about right. I would imagine you'd earn much more as a qualified landscaper, and there are always courses running at TAFE for that, which you could fit in around the lawnmowing jobs I guess. Perth and Mandurah councils also run free "Heavenly Hectares" workshops where you can learn more about native species, types of soil here, waterwise plants etc.

Amazulu

We have a gardener for 4 hours every fortnight. He charges $110 including GST per visit. I reckon it's cheap and am happy with his work. He's a Pom, ex-chef who retrained in gardening.

wesleyandjoanne

Thanks everyone, have been working the weekend so not had much time to catch up.

That's the most info I've had in ages, worth using the expat site!

Jacqui - is it really as simple as that - picking up a round in the local paper?? My OH hates his current job and can't wait to get back into gardening, mind you we can't wait to get to OZ, but that's going to take a year!

Santa - where are you based? Did you start out on your own, did it take long to get yourself and established round? Did you want to take on an extra gardener in about a years time???

It amazes me that gardeners do only one or the other, mowing or weeding? It's all inclusive over here!

Thanks again - jo

silverski

Hi all,

Excellant information.
Would it be a good Idea to ship all my existing equipment over there.
We are at the first stage of applying for our Visa's.
Looking forward to the move to Perth.
Have not yet decided where we would like to live.
We have to very young children. I hope that they will adapt to the change.

Thanks again for posting your advice.
Regards
Stephen & Ingrid

Santa

I'm based in Dunsborough which is 3 or so hours south of Perth. I bought an existing business which was lawn mowing and gardening, the guy who had the business before me had built it up from scratch. I had two sub-contractors who did all the gardening when I bought it, they are still gardening for me (thank god) and I have managed to get another gardener who has bags of knowledge. As well as this, my wife does some gardens and I throw a hedge trimmer around every so often.
The kind of work you'll do depends where you base yourself, 80% of my work is holiday homes (Perth's rich and famous...lol) A lot of these homes are on at least 5 acres and several are rented out at huge cost. Therefore, they have to look pretty decent all year round. One of the main positives for looking after this kind of property is that on the whole the owners are realistic about the cost of owning large houses and land. On the other hand, some of them are shocking payers, although in the end you do get what's owed !
There are a few Contractors who do gardens as well as mow down here, but you'll find that most do one or the other, basically there are not enough people here to support the amount of homes, so you'll find one you have a decent reputation work will roll in !
Good luck
Mark

wesleyandjoanne

Thank Mark

We got the last of Wes' references back today and should hopefully be sending everything off to the TRA next week. Fingers crossed. My B-I-L leaves for Perth at the end of April, he's a carpenter and already has a couple of job offers. Not sure where he's setting up home though. It's going to be a long year waiting to get over there.

BTW, I'm not the best with creepy crawlies - what's the spider/snake situation like? Have been doing some google research and there's alot of bugs!

Cheers, jo

Jacqui

There are always lots of lawnmowing rounds going in the paper. I wonder if a lots of guys do it thinking it's easy type of work, but eventually find it too boring or too hot. But I think you'll find there's a difference in their gardening "knowledge". There are those who will mow and weed but know absolutely nothing else about gardening, so will be pretty cheap. Others will offer additional services like sprinkler repairs, fertilising lawn, looking after the flower beds, and will be more knowledgeable about native plants. A "landscape gardener" will be considerably more expensive, you would expect him to have done tertiary horticultural studies, and is not your average bloke mowing the lawn! If your OH wants to earn a better wage, it would be worth his while retraining at TAFE, with lawnmowing jobs as well to earn a wage and gets some hands on. Even the grass here is different, and there are so many different types of palm trees. We see lots of attractive shrubs walking out and about, but don't know half of them, lots of different trees too. The soil in WA is generally sandy, but this varies too, depending on your area. It's easy to put plants in, like digging at the seaside, but lots of extra compost needed with soil-wetting agent and then mulch on top, because the weeds grow so fast in summer. Lots to learn, and I'm not really much of a gardener myself, but we have 5 acres so there's lots to look after (would like to hire someone to tell you the truth but can't afford it).

As to spiders and snakes, well the guy who did our lawn in our old house, he never bothered wearing gardening gloves, and didn't seem unduly worried about them. I always wear gloves though, just in case. Lifting up bricks may reveal redbacks underneath. Lifting up a log might reveal a snake, but the noise of working in the garden (lawnmower, whippersnipper) would be enough to scare most snakes away. Maybe OH should practice throwing a spade before he moves out here...... Snakes are usually found in overgrown grass, not crawling over well-kept lush lawns, so you'd have to take precautions then. Lizards are harmless, but can give a nasty bite. Best to ignore them, or scoop them up on the spade and fling over next door! My friend in Halls Head sees more snakes around the beach sand dunes and walkways than we do living on acreage. It wouldn't hurt for you to take a short first aid course and be prepared.

Santa

Yep, there are a few creepies about. I've only encountered a few snakes, some do venture onto lawns but on the whole they tend to hang around sand dunes and paths. You have to put it into context, I've only been bitten once, and that was a bull ant ! Made me swear.... but that was it.
The last poster was right. To be a 'proper' gardener here you really do need a fair level of knowledge. As I've mentioned before, I mow and although I'm handy around a garden I would never call myself a gardener. Maybe you could start to read up on natives. Most large gardens have these as they dont require large amounts of water, but dont be fooled, these plants dont look after themselves. You'll find that there is still a fair amount of cutting back to be done, and this has to be done at the right times.
Depending on your locality, you may well be best to buy a mowing round and build up the gardening side of it as you go along. Check out www.lawnmow.com This is a site for lawn mowing contractors. It's stuffed full of information including what you can expect to pay for a round.
There are various grass types here, each one requires different care, one thing that they have in common though is that they all require a lot of water. Most of my customers require lawns to be mowed every two weeks, if you leave it for much longer they look crap and take an age to mow, as well as putting a lot of strain on your mowers !
Hope this is of some help
Mark