If Frank Sinatra would have gone to Mooroopna instead of New York he would have sung about the city that never wakes up. You see, not a lot goes on in Mooroopna. It has a supermarket, a pub, a few little shops and a pizza restaurant amongst some other insignificant places of non-interest. It has a population of 7203 topped up by backpackers. But I'm not here for the social life. I'm here to work and earn money at the local cannery, where I worked last year.

I left Melbourne on 2nd February and headed up to Mooroopna on the train. Mooroopna is only two and a half hours from Southern Cross station so only a short train ride. I didn't have a guaranteed job at the cannery, but I had worked there last year, had done this years induction and the Cannery had contacted me a couple of times about doing training so I decided to head up there, show my face and hopefully start work as soon as possible. When I got here it was apparent the tomato season hadn't started yet and it took me two weeks to start work.I finally started work in the third week of February and have been working here pretty much every day.

I say pretty much every day, but we did have a period of six days off work due to some very uncharacteristic and atrocious weather that ripped through Mooroopna & Shepparton destroying buildings, uprooting trees and leaving widespread flooding. It was described as 'Tornado-like' although they will never know how high the winds were as the weather centre in Shepparton was wiped out. The city that never wakes up certainly woke up that day.

The city also woke up a few weeks ago, or at least the authorities did, when around 76 fruit pickers of Indonesian and Malaysian descent were found to be working illegally in what was described by the local paper as the largest mass removal of illegal workers from Australia this decade! The Caravan Park they were staying in was just a kilometre down the road. Apparently they all got deported and got a free flight home. So if I ever get short of cash.....

I am staying in a caravan in a Trailer Park (yep, I'm officially Trailer trash). It is situated opposite the cannery which is ideal for me. It was quite scary for a couple of hours during the tornado with the caravan shaking and the power cut. After the tornado had passed everyone in the caravan park was walking around assessing the damage, taking pictures and videos and checking everyone was ok. There were trees uprooted everywhere and two large trees had split and fallen right next to my caravan. I got a lucky escape. The Trailer Park looked like a bomb had hit it and Shepparton had it even worse with roofs coming off of buildings in some areas and trees and water lining the main roads. Apparently people were surfing down some roads! Considering summer has only just finished and it is supposed to be Autumn here the weather here has been baffling. This time last year I was staying in a tent just up the road from here on a farm while doing fruit picking. Had I been in a tent this time, I'd have got a little bit wet I reckon!

The caravan itself is very basic, but does the job. I have a TV, Fridge and very basic cooking facilities. As I am working most days it really is just a place to sleep. Mosquitos have become enemy number one in recent weeks with the extra rain in the area increasing their presence. They have now overtaken pigeons as my 'Enemy number one'.

My job at the Cannery is pretty much identical to last season as are the people I work with who are all pretty cool. I am operating a Tomato Evaporator that evaporates tomato juice into tomato paste. Sometimes I am doing some manual labour just for variety. It's not that exciting but it is good money and will enable me to continue to travel after my Australian visa expires in July. As I write this I imagine I will have another three weeks of Tomato processing left and then I will be moving on probably up the east coast. And the excitement of a trip to South Africa to watch the World Cup is approaching as is a trip to New Zealand so there is plenty to look forward to while my social life lies dormant in Mooroopna!