Dylan has been with Barkuma for six years. He works in the Olive Room with his supervisor Mark, packing table olives for Kangaroo Island Olives.
Over time, he learned how to work on every station in the room.
A Day in the Olive Room
“I do all different jobs in the room,” Dylan says. “Sorting, filling, weighing and sealing, checking the bags’ quality, then packing the bags.” Sorting is the first step. “We’re checking for reject olives, like pips, sticks, sometimes bugs, leaves, or anything else in the barrel,” he explains.
After sorting, the olives go down the line to be filled. The flavours can be salted brine, wine vinegar, or smoky barbecue, depending on the bag. A machine fills each bag with a set weight, and then the weight is checked to make sure it’s right, with adjustments made as needed.
Dylan enjoys the final stages of the process the most. “The packaging part, making sure that quality is there at the end of the line,” he says. Packing and weighing are the tasks he has become best at over the years.
Delivering to Standard
Dylan knows the bags he packs travel far beyond the factory. His work has reached retailers all over Australia with some other jobs even reaching the United States. “Making sure it goes out to customers to their standards,” he says, is something he takes pride in every day.
Variety and Teamwork
The Olive Room team makes sure work stays interesting. “It keeps things interesting because you’re not always working next to the same person,” Dylan says. Moving between different tasks adds variety, and each week he also spends a day in another part of the factory. “It’s good to build other skills, not just do the same thing all the time,” he says.
Mark, his supervisor, keeps the team organised. “He makes sure we know what’s coming in and what’s going on, so you know what you’re doing that day and the week after,” Dylan says. Work can change quickly, like when a small-bag order suddenly becomes a big-bag order, so staying flexible has become second nature.
Six Years of Growth
After six years, Dylan says the biggest change is his confidence. “Now I come into work and know exactly what I’m doing for the day,” he says. This is very different from how he felt when he first started.
For anyone thinking about a similar job, his advice is simple:
“Give it a go. And if it’s not for you, that’s okay, you can change it.”
Connecting with the Business Behind the Product
One part of the job Dylan values most is the connection he has built with Michael, the owner of Kangaroo Island Olives. “We always talk to him when he comes in,” Dylan says. Getting to know the person behind the product has become important to Dylan. It reminds him that the work in the Olive Room connects directly to real business and the person who started it.
Outside the Olive Room, Dylan says he looks forward to the drive in every day.
“I’d hate to be home all the time,” he says. “It would be so boring.”