‘I left Australia with $250 in my pocket and arrived in the UK $1,500 richer’

When I first started driving trucks, I committed to a seven-year plan. Having spent some time working in Western Australia and the Northern Territory as a road train driver, I moved on to driving buses for Deluxe Coachlines. As much as I enjoyed driving buses, I’d only wanted to do it for 12 months before moving on, and true to my word, when the year anniversary of my time with Deluxe rolled around, I was ready for the next challenge.

A friend had arranged a job for me in Saudi Arabia. I thought ‘This is going to be different’, but boy, I had no idea.

I was introduced to a guy who was involved in hiring people to plant wheat for a property in the desert country. I was one of only six people hired by the Saudi Arabian Development Company to operate tractors for a job planting wheat on 18,000 acres. The timing was perfect. I’d been preparing to travel to the United Kingdom to pursue the next stage of my seven-year plan. The contract included return airfares from Saudi Arabia to Perth, but I asked if the return ticket could be made for London.

On the flight to Singapore I happened to find myself sitting next to a lady who had connections in the Australian Embassy at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital. She gave me her details and we said our goodbyes in Singapore. By the time I’d landed in Riyadh, it was a relief to be taken to the hotel that would be my ‘home’ for the next couple of nights. It was here that I got to know other employees and representatives of the company I’d be working for.

I got in touch with my new Embassy acquaintance and she came to meet me at the hotel in a chauffeur-driven car. We returned to the Embassy and I was shown the accommodation section, which was pretty swanky for a country bloke like me. When she asked if I would like a beer to drink, I was taken aback by the fridge full of Australian beers, Bundaberg rum and an assortment of beverages. It was then explained to me that we were on ‘Australian soil’ and we could ‘do as we wish’. I have to admit it was a pretty fantastic experience.

Approximately 700km south of Riyadh was an empty quarter of desert. I found that the Saudi Arabians liked to drive fast in their flashy — expensive — cars. I also noticed a large amount of cars that had been involved in accidents by the side of the road. Apparently, if a car is involved in an accident it is simply pushed from the road and out of the way of other vehicles.

I arrived at the property and was shown around. This was the place that I would be settling into for the next month or so. I met other workers from Indonesia, Japan, Sudan and Australia. We got along well. It was a good set up, to be honest. Perhaps the only thing that I really struggled with was the amount of chicken on the menu. There were few nights where it wasn’t the main meal. I wondered if there was a cookbook ’50 Ways to Cook a Chook’ somewhere in the kitchen.

The work wasn’t too difficult. I found myself behind the wheel of a Versatile ‘Triple Nickel’ tractor towing a Nordsten combine to plant the wheat. They had 90 irrigated 210-acre (85ha) centre pivot plots and we used them to plant all of the 18,000 acres (7,284ha) of wheat. I was told that the year prior wheat was harvested at 2 tonne per acre. The growing conditions were pretty perfect. It never rained, it was always sunny, and when the crop needed water the pumps were turned on and an inch of rain was put on overnight. From time to time, fertiliser was mixed into the water. Water was about 450m down, so we had to use a 450hp (336kW) motor and pump to get it on the crop.

The whole operation was massive. I found out that the Saudi Arabian government was subsidising the company around $800 per tonne to grow wheat. At the same time, Australia could buy wheat for about $180 per tonne FOB (free on board).

I would have liked to have stayed for the harvest, but soon my time came to an end and I was on my way to Europe. I’d left Australia with $250 in my pocket and a one-way ticket, and after 40 days in the desert I would arrive in London with the equivalent of $4,000 Saudi Riyal (roughly AU$1,600/US$1,100). It was a great start.

You can also read part one and part two of Graham’s story.

Did you have a plan for your life, like Graham did?

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