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Please see Bowen for other available Bowen hostels and accommodations.
Please see Bowen for other available Bowen hostels and accommodations.
Description
Barnacles Backpackers Details
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Location/Contact| Address | 18 Gordon Street, Bowen, Queensland, Australia |
| Location | |
| Website | www.barnaclesbackpackers.com |
| Telephone | +61 (7) 4786-4400 |
| Fax | +61 (7) 4786-4890 |
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Hostelz.com Guest Reviews
Worst two days of my life I stayed in this hostel in July to sort and pack tomatoes on Eatough farms. When I first came there Christine was quite nice to me. However, when John found out that I hadn't washed and dried all my belongings before moving into the room because of bedbugs, he freaked out and yelled at me in front of the other guests. Christine and John are despicable people who take advantage of backpackers looking for work to get a 2nd year visa. The job on the tomato farm was horrible and we got yelled at and treated like slaves. The first day I was there we worked for 13 hours straight with half an hour break in between. When I decided to move out after two days of work Christine and John called me a selfish bitch. I payed 170 a week to share a room with 13 other backpackers only to be terrorized by Christine and John's concentration camp regime. — Ingeborg , Norwegian (2011-12-12) Not worth it! The hostel owners consider you an inconvenience and will go to any length to belittle and offend you. Overall the hostel has one 'good' contract with a large farm. The job in question has recently undergone a re-structure of their pay system. This means that shed work is now paid as a contract format. So I suppose mid-season you might receive a fair pay, but for those people who have to work at the start and tail-end of the season will be taken advantage of. On top of a terrible pay, you will be bullied, treated like absolute scum and spoken to like you have special needs on a regular basis in this job. Barnacles do have other contacts with alternative farms but the people placed in these jobs are the lucky few! I would like to add that John and Christine seem to be doing their best to lose respect from the more fair and reasonable farms. Their shameless lack of respect for anyone seems to spread further than just backpackers, so I suppose that's one thing to cheer you up! Aside from the horrible service provided from John and Christine you do have a very, very clean hostel. (Just try to avoid using the kitchen before the cleaners have been in the morning!) This year they have added cameras so you can be watched at all times. There is a problem with security in one of the buildings, laptops have been taken, the cameras have not been placed in this area though. (Apparently the communal areas are more of a risk, even though no theft has been reported there!) If you choose to leave Barnacles before you obtain your visa days, I would be careful ... These owners have an ingenious way to report you to immigration should you attempt to apply for a visa. They stalk you on Facebook. My advice is to increase your security settings so these bitter, bored and angry people can't see your activities, post-Bowen/Barnacles. John and Christine are the most unpleasant hostel owners I have ever come across. In my two years in Australia I worked on a lot of different farms. Unfortunately I obtained my visa days here as this place was my first job in Australia. Had I realised what a horrible place I was going to, I would NEVER have checked-in. There are other hostels available in Bowen that provide you with more than satisfactory work placements. You could even rent your own house and find a decent farmer down the local pubs! This is the worst working-hostel I have stayed at. I am even comparing it to a place where I got bedbugs. Barnacles is prison. — Anonymous (2011-10-29) If you want to be treated like a child and an inconvenience stay at barnacles! — Anonymous (2011-08-20) Barnical backpackers is a hostel that was like hell ! I found the owners of the Barnacles Backpackers to be absolutely horrible people. I found they are pig ignorant Neanderthal like people that think its ok to treat there customers like absolute trash. I personally feel its because we are tourists in there country, but regardless of the expenses we pay for our visa's to work in Australia, and the money we pump right back into there economy we are still viewed as people of lower class in the hostel. I mean when you being judged by a respectable person you can take it with a grain of salt and try and take some constructive criticism, but when your listening to a couple who are obviously up there own ass's and racist as well i believe dealing with them is a job in itself, with one that holds a beer in his hand constantly while at the same time cant learn to stop rambling about unrelated crap in a conversation. and a woman who is well known to be vicious and full of sarcasm i would strongly advise you to go somewhere else. even on the phone before i came down from Darwin i was told by john i would get work in the matter of a week or possibly two at most, i got one weeks work in two months (while paying rent and working those days for peanuts), things got so bad me and my mate had to live on pots of noodles because of the rent we were paying weekly because of no work. From one backpacker to another I'm telling you his place is just bad news. One star is to good for this place. Stay Away. — Tom , england (2011-07-14) Great working hostel I stayed at Barnacles last year and had a great time. The owners Christine and John found me a good job and I managed to save for my next leg. They didn't lie about the work like some of the other hostels. Some guys I met in town stayed at another hostel that lied about jobs and they ran out of money waiting for work. They show you the rules of the place before you stay, so if you get thrown out its your own fault. This is a working hostel and thats what I wanted because I had blown most of my money in Airlie. After working long hours I actually appreciated their strictness on noise and drunkenness because when I got back from work I just wanted to shower, eat and sleep. The place is cleaned everyday and the facilities are pretty good — Simon (2011-04-25) A piece of crap the reception man su*ks. he is rush in hanging up when i am trying to ask him questions. — vincent , hong kong (2009-07-11) Awful Experience The facilities are overpriced and unclean, and I would not recommend this hostel to my worst enemy. Please be careful about selecting this location, as the owners are "know-it-alls," extremely unprofessional, and rude. The supposed job lasted no longer than a week, and all of my belongings were stolen from my room. Upon leaving the hostel, I politely mentioned that this had not been the best experience, to which the owner "Christine" literally chased me out yelling and cursing. What business owner treats customers this way? Unbelievable.
I complained to the town council, the harvest hotline, and the exchange program to whom I advised never to send a client there again. I hope that this will help anyone trying to decide where to stay in Bowen. There are many other hostels that are much friendlier, cleaner, and more professional. Please remember that as a paying (overpaying) customer, you do have rights, and you do have the choice. — Mae , Canada (2009-02-22) Ten weeks This is the best hostel when I was in Oz. I have a great time over there. And the owners are very nice and responsible person. Just the second day, they gave me a good job, I am so happy for that! And they let me save the big money for the after traveling. And they have a good relationship with many farmers. This is very important for supplying us jobs. And the hostel is clean and tidy, they have cleaners keep clean up everyday. The owners (John and Christine) will welcome you come there! — Yoyo , Hong Kong (2008-02-03) The best working hostel I've stayed at! I stayed at another hostel before moving to Barnacles. The owners found me really great work within a couple of days and I stayed in that work for about fourteen weeks. I made a lot of money so that was good. The owners are really good people who go out of their way to help you.They don't tolerate idiots who spoil the fun for everyone else, if your serious about working and making lots of money this is the best Hostel in Bowen. The facilities are great and the hostel is about two hundred metres from the main street so everything is within a few minutes walking.They drive you to the beach on your days off as well. the owners John and Christine rock so does Barnacles. five stars for this hostel. — Richard , Canada (2007-11-21) Nice The owners are both legends and the dog legend was a legend also. They found me a good job and treated us well. They are not perfect but they are characters! miss them both. — Colin , Scotland (2007-09-15) Barnacles backpackers on the whole was good, it actually has some good facilities, and plenty of work offers if you arrive at the right time of the season. Although there are two problems with this backpackers and they are, firstly John (one of the owners) -- not only was he so self opinionated and rude, he was regularly heard raving that backpackers are as i quote "a subspecies" and not worthy of his help. more worrying than this though is the fact that he is almost permanently drunk even when driving backpackers to and from work. The second problem with this place is his wife Christine, probably one of the most vicious and angry women i have ever met in my life let alone backpacking. be warned don't go near the office or she'll fly off the handle at you about something or drag you into one of her and john's endless arguments. Not only this but i actually witnessed her frog marching someone to the bathroom to brush their teeth as she thought they were up too late! so be warned as they are also more than likely to create numerous problems between you and the farms you work at. — anonymous (2006-12-10) The owners of Barnacles were know-it-alls.We arrived at three-thirty p.m. to find reception was closed. As we were having supper we got a phone call from the owner at five-fifty saying if we wanted a place to stay we had to leave the restraunt and go check in before six p.m. We were told we had job the next day but we told them we didnt want them because we were just passing through to Airlie Beach. Well the guy lost his marbles on us and completely over reacted, telling us if we were smart we would take the job and work the next six months! He then went on to tell us this was the only place we would find work on the entire east coast and called us liars when we said that we worked other places! — Tim (2006-07-14) I would imagine that most backpacker places are the same, but I wasn't backpacking so I can't really judge. It was my first experience of a place like this, a working hostel. I found John and Christine both helpful. I didn't like being woken up at 5:30 a.m. but hey! That's the way it was. People were friendly and there was a great atmosphere. Our room was a twin with a wardrobe and fridge and small light, very comfortable by other standards of hostels we came to stay in. John took us to Horseshoe Bay one Saturday and picked us up, he's a genuine bloke. Christine's a bit more serious and sarcastic but a real person, so I have no complaints. It was good value and I would stay again, taking earplugs with me. It's located near everything central in Bowen. Even opposite a Freemason church (dodgy) but I enjoyed myself there and for workers I would recommend it. John and Christine really put themselves out to help everyone. Well done, Barnacle's of Bowen. — Marina (2005-10-30) Well, I was at this hostel last year and the owners were really, really bad (that's putting it mildly), but since I left new owners have arrived and I hear that they are great and they have updated all the amenities. I can't wait to go back and visit sometime, lots of wicked memories!!! — Claire Ellis (2005-06-16) Barnacles was the best hostel I have stayed at in Oz. The owners are very friendly and great fun and the place has a very homely feel. Plus they do their very best to get you work, even if there is very little around. — Jen (2005-05-08)