With Australia’s borders closed due to COVID-19, the nation’s supply of working backpackers has all but dried up – leaving our farming industry faced with an unparalleled labour shortage.

Right across Australia, perfectly good crops are under threat. Not because of drought, pests or disease, but simply because there aren’t enough hands to harvest them.

With the seasonal labour force stuck overseas and Australians unable to travel abroad, we set out to solve to problems at once, hoping to play a part in helping our farmers.

Enter the ‘New GAP (Go And Pick) Year’ – a creative and engaging social campaign encouraging Australia’s youth, who would otherwise be backpacking abroad, to get out of the house and onto the nation’s farms.

The campaign highlights to our young and intrepid audience the amazing travel destinations in their own backyard, encouraging them to swap the running of the bulls in Spain for Mid-Winter Fest in Tassie.

To bring it to life, we partnered with recruitment agencies across the country, making the New GAP Year as exciting and as easy as possible for our backpackers – helping Aussie farmers all the while.

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