‘I just broke down and I said, ‘I ... I’ve got myself into a weird situation and I don’t know how to get out’.
“So I went to bed that night with that ringing in my ears,” she told 7NEWS.com.au.
Laura’s horror night in the motel was the grim experience she wasn’t prepared for after her seven-year dream of travelling to Australia became a reality. The unsettling experiences would continue after arriving at the property. She was told she would be staying in the main homestead in what looked like a sunroom-turned-bedroom not far from the bedroom occupied by the grazier and his mostly absent wife.
Just weeks later, an unwelcome episode left the Laura horrified, humiliated and now planning her escape. Emboldened, the farmer’s behaviour soon became more brazen — he told her he preferred her not wearing a bra while she worked, Laura said. Laura agreed — but was shocked to realise the grazier’s wife had no prior knowledge of the arrangements until he announced the trip over dinner.The following day, an exhausted Laura fell asleep in the ute as the grazier drove to Queensland — only to wake to him touching the side of her breast.
“I could see the horror on her face. And she said, ‘No, no, no, this isn’t right. We need to get you out of there.’ She was checking in, while the farmer parked the car, when the receptionist told her only one double bedroom had been booked. “And he started banging on the door and said, ‘Oh, come on Laura, come on, come on out. Come on’,” she said.
“He said that, historically, ‘this is how they begin’. That’s what he said. Take that from that what you will,” she said.It was only by coincidence that Laura learned about the other girls who later stayed at the grazier’s property. Less than three years after Laura had left the property, French backpackers Chloe and Celine arrived separately at the same cattle farm after also being contacted via Gumtree.
Another thing she found unsettling was his insistence that she wear the work clothes he gave her — a pair of jeans, a flannel shirt and a pair of undersized shoes — instead of her own. Once he agreed to drive her back to the station, she — like Laura — thought it would be the last she would see of him.
One girl told Celine of a dog attack, while another said she had been raped at the property and became pregnant with a baby she was now raising. Celine said she made a police report about her ordeal and found work at another property, before eventually leaving the country.The federal government has since committed to crack down on employers exploiting temporary migrant workers.
However, discontinuing the specified farm work requirement for visas — as recommended by the panel in the final review of Australia’s migration system — does not seem to be on the cards. National Farmers Federation Horticulture Council executive officer said while farmers were open to changes which improved the safety of workers, many farmers relied on the Working Holiday Maker Program.