Adrianne Piper
14/01/2019
I worked here briefly Oct 2018 and I would give this place 0 stars if I could. My experience backpacking a foreign country the other side of the world was scary enough without having to experience what Diane Lindberg, the woman who runs this place, put me through. I was sent here by the Global Work and Travel Co. and I'm absolutely disgusted by the poor treatment of staff at this place and just the place in general.
Di typically hires 3/4 female backpackers who live in her garden and has been having backpackers work for her for 9 years. This woman is the most disgusting human I have ever met. She is verbally abusive, very manipulative and I felt scared for my safety around her.
She would try to make us self conscious about our weight by telling us we put on weight/are fat so that we would eat smaller portions of her food.
She had a very personal grudge against me because I didn't want to work at the hotel over Christmas- she wanted to take all of her family to Newcastle and leave 4 backpackers to run her hotel over Christmas for her.
She would say very unprofessional things to and about me and at one point she physically pushed me from behind the bar. She would also intimidate me by getting very close to my personal space, shouting and smashing her fist down on the surfaces beside me. She would also come into our shack without knocking and would smoke in there even though we were told not to.
We lived in a shack in the garden which had basic amenities. The front door was hanging off its hinges and the bathroom had a thick, black mould that covered every inch of the ceiling which made me very sick, there was also mould in between the tiles of the bathtub/shower.
Before I started I was told by Diane Lindberg herself that I would be working 35-40 hours a week. In fact I was working 6 days a week, and a lot more than 40 hours. Sometimes we wouldn't finish work until 5am, and we would be doing hotel jobs all day before our shifts in the bar/kitchen. I felt physically and mentally drained working here, due to the unprofessional manner of the owner and it feeling like no matter how hard I tried it was never good enough. Eventually I could not deal with this any longer and I left.
For anyone thinking about working here I am not the first to not have a good experience at this place and I won't be the last. Put your well-being first before you think about working for Diane Lindberg.
For anyone thinking of staying here, sleeping on the side of the road would be cheaper and a better nights sleep than this place. And for anyone thinking of eating here, I cannot count how many times I cleaned rat/mice feaces out of the crockery and shelves in the kitchen.