The limited size of our tree care labor pool is well documented. Now it appears the land of milk and honey (Australia in case you don't know) is short of experienced aerial arborists as well.
There are a number of big tree care projects underway across the Tasman offering fly-in fly-out contracts to qualified tree climbers. The emphasis here is on 'qualified' - that is, brains are required and not just brawn (apparently the aussies have enough of that already).
The arb inspired gold rush in Australia is likely to be temporary aberration but is does highlight the opportunities available to highly-skilled staff.
On that front, Arb NZ headed by ex-Asplundh Dave Darbyshire is currently recruiting staff from the UK and Europe to help fill the void in the local labor market.
A couple of Arb Introductory Courses, run by Thoughtplanters, are also underway around the country in an effort to attract some of our own to the industry.