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As a publican in Darwin's rural area, Leah Sloane is used to asking questions in job interviews — but this time last year, she found herself on the receiving end.
Key points:
- Changes to visa rules allow backpackers to work in regional hospitality venues
- It reverses a recent trend of worker shortages in the sector
- There are still shortages in some areas and for some professions, such as cooks
"The potential employees were actually interviewing us," Ms Sloane said.
"We were having to prove we were the best people to be working for.
"They were certainly unusual and interesting times."
Despite COVID travel restrictions into Australia lifting in February 2022, the impact of the border closures was still being felt at Darwin pubs last tourist season.
"Post COVID, we found that there wasn't massive confidence in travellers," Ms Sloane said.
"We weren't seeing those backpackers coming through."
Twelve months on, at the start of the 2023 tourist season, interviews at Berry Springs Tavern are now being conducted in a more orthodox manner.
"This year, it's been a complete flip," Ms Sloane said.
"We've actually got too many people looking for positions. Now we can afford to pick and choose a little bit as far as people that are … suited to our business."
Chief executive of Hospitality NT Alex Bruce said it was a familiar tale right around the Top End.
"Our hostels, as in Cairns, are chock-a-block full at the moment," he said.
"We have more backpackers than positions to fill."
Changes to visa rules make impact
Irish backpacker Sinead Coady has been living in Australia for nine months.
She moved to Darwin two weeks ago from Sydney in the hope of extending her visa for a second year.
"I need to complete 88 days of regional work, so I chose Darwin to get that," she said.
In northern Australia, the 88 days of work required for backpackers to extend their visa to a second or third year can now be completed in hospitality.
The same applies in remote or very remote areas.
Before March 2022, working holiday-makers had to complete 88 days in industries such as plant or animal cultivation, fishing and pearling, or mining.
Ms Coady – who recently began working behind the bar at Berry Springs — said her original plan was to complete her 88 days on a fruit farm before the hospitality opportunity came up.
Ms Sloane said her pub had been inundated with people asking for 88 days of work.
"The travellers are not shy in being very clear and saying, 'hey, I want to come work for you, I need my 88 days'," she said.
"That works for us because most of it is for … the dry season. It's when we need people for those temporary periods."
Other cities, regions still struggling
Although the COVID worker shortage in Top End pubs has eased, it's still prominent in other capital cities and regional areas.
Australian Hotels Association chief executive Stephen Ferguson said regions below the Tropic of Capricorn were being impacted the most, with kitchen positions the hardest to fill.
"Business is still struggling, and that's for skilled and unskilled labour," he said.
"Chefs and cooks … are in critical supply through Australia and throughout the world.
"We're in a global contest for skills with countries such as New Zealand, Canada, the UK, the US for those types of skilled workers."
Despite the changes to visa extension requirements in northern Australia, Darwin isn't immune to the shortage of chefs and cooks.
Ms Sloane said it had been a challenge ever since her pub opened in 2014.
"We are still struggling to fill the skilled kitchen positions. That has been a problem," she said.
"The way we focus on combating that is recruiting apprentices locally."