Alex Robins - 2025 Austria Study Tour

Austrian Exchange 2025 Report

Wow what a trip! I’d like to start off by thanking Salters Hire for sponsoring my exchange and Rural Youth Tasmania for allowing me to have this opportunity. 

Arrival

After flying nearly 30 hours and 4 flights, I made it to Vienna where my trip began with some solo sightseeing. I then met up with six other exchangees from around the world to tour the city. 

1st Host family 

On July 1st I hopped on a train to my first host family at Steinhaus, where I met the Breitwieser family. They have a 120ha farm of mixed cropping and farm a large number of pigs. For the next two weeks I helped on the farm carting grain during harvest and cultivating paddocks ready for the next crop. I also attended a young farmer ploughing workshop/competition, where new members could learn the skill of ploughing for future competitions. In the next coming days we went on a hike, visited the Pottinger factory with fellow exchangee Alistair from Northern Ireland, attended a young farmer festival called Stonefire and visited the Steyr factory (Austrian brand of tractors). 

2nd host family 

On the 15th of July, I caught my next train from Wels to Feldkirchen where I was greeted by the Tschernitz family. They have a dairy farm with a herd of 80 cows, containing 35 milkers. Over the next two weeks I helped around the farm feeding out and halter training calves. Gregor took me along to check out a logging operation in the mountains. I also attended an ag demo day, where I got to see self-propelled woodchippers and silage equipment demonstrations. The same day I attended a Fäaschtbänkler concert, which is a popular Swiss band. We also went for a look around the Porsche Museum, where the first Porsche was made. 

3rd host family

The next stop was Wildenau and I met the Kaufmann family. For the next week I helped on their bull farm where I fed the bulls three times a day. I got to spend some time with the hunting chief touring around his hunting area and later on scoped out some deer. We attended a gardening expo with some friends and toured the Mauthausen concentration camp, which was a very eye-opening experience.

4th host family

On August 3rd I caught a train to my last host family, the Ostheimers, who are based in Neuhofen/Krems. They have a mixed cropping farm where they grow sugar beet and maize. I jumped straight into celebrating their nephews 22nd birthday. Over the next few days I helped Franz in the workshop working on repairing his woodchipper. We visited a farm that grew commercial seed corn, were shown through the volunteer fire station and also toured Voestalpine which is a big steel production factory, with over 12,000 employees spanning 6 square kilometres. For the last couple days I went to work with Franz on his woodchipper. 

Huge thank you to all the host families for looking after me, I hope to return the favour one day! 

After my exchange ended, I travelled to Switzerland to meet up with our 2024 exchange Andy and spent some time catching up with him and Matthew Wadley.