Nursery Person

Our client Humphris Nursery Pty Ltd, based on Victoria is a growing nursery company seeking a highly motivated and experienced Nursery Person to join team. The successful candidate will have a passion for plants and a proven track record of managing a successful nursery operation.

The objectives of this position:

• ensure that Humphris Nursery continues as a leading-edge business within the scope of quality plant production and plant maintenance;
• provide a high standard of production support, efficiency and ensure effective communications at all times;
• provide leadership towards the achievement of maximum profitability and growth in line with the Humphris Nursery vision and values in the pursuit of excellence;
• Ensure that OHS is strictly adhered to, ensuring the health and wellbeing of yourself and all persons who enter your area of involvement.

The responsibilities of this position:

• Maintain all growing environments to accreditation standard; carry out review and be involved in preparation water and potting media paying specific attention to plant nutrition analysis of the potting environment.
• Ensure the directives in relation to pest, weed and disease management are followed to meet PGR (plant growth regulator) requirements and any issues escalated to your direct supervisor.
• Take key responsibility for ensuring that all crop husbandry processes are undertaken in a timely manner, as directed by management; This includes following guidance in terms of seeds/ bulbs/cuttings selection, grafting stock including root stock and other propagation related activities taking into consideration timing and scheduling as dictated by management plans.
• Support a regular monitoring program for all crop maintenance requirements throughout the nursery, reporting on a regular (monthly basis) to the Production Manager; This includes review and maintenance of watering operations to ensure optimum plant production results. Escalate issues if watering machinery is not operational or does not perform according to parameters (e.g. timing of when sprinklers come on and turn off)
• Support the establishment of a crop maintenance calendar/records of operations and develop strategies to implement the program and ensure that it remains updated;
• Ensure appropriate insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and ancillary support products are requested to order in a timely manner, whilst maintaining an understanding for inventory control levels;
• Keep accurate records of all crop maintenance activities, including all Government requirements for interstate plant movement;
• Ensure all crop maintenance activities are accurately recorded on header cards as per business requirements; This includes records of soil mixtures, yields, losses etc.
• Ensure that safe house-keeping practices for all chemicals, as per NIASA Accreditation and business recommendations, are adhered to;
• When appropriate, trial new production initiatives and regularly liaise with the Production Manager outlining concepts and outcomes;
• Be a good role model regarding Company policies and procedures, including safe work practices and extend dignity and respect to all persons in the workplace, irrespective of their position;
• Always ensure compliance to the Humphris Nursery Health and Safety policies and procedures and assist in the promotion of a healthy and safe working environment, wear and train employees in the correct use of PPE when tasks requiring PPE are being undertaken;
• Supervise nursery hands staff as required

The primary KPI’s (key performance indicators) of this position include, but are not limited to:

• weed incursions, throughout the business, are minimised through positive preventative practices;
• regularly liaise with the Production Manager, provide an overview of crop maintenance monitoring activities, trials and outcomes across the business;
• ensure time management is maximised; regularly reviewing all work practices to achieve this.

Qualifications Required: It is expected that the incumbent in this role will have a minimum qualification no lower than AQF certificate iv in a relevant discipline such as horticulture or similar. In addition, this role requires a minimum of 2 years’ experience at a responsibility level comparable to this role.

Demonstrated Abilities and skills:

• high level knowledge of propagation and planting techniques in seedlings and other plants
• High level knowledge of propagation and planting techniques as they relate to large scale production nurseries would be highly regarded
• good technical, analytical and problem-solving skills specific to your field of expertise;
• effective verbal and listening communication skills;
• attention to detail with a high level of accuracy;
• effective organisational, time management and stress management skills;

Salary: Annual salary ranges from $65,000-$75,000 plus superannuation per annum

Location: The role is primarily situated at 1790 Healesville-Koo Wee Rup Road, Yellingbo, VIC – 3139.

• Flexible hours available
• 2-3 years of relevant work experience required for this role
• Working rights required for this role
• Expected salary: $65,000 - $75,000 per month