Murray Now

David Cock Agricultural Mechanic and Detlef Hoeschler Senior Service Technician

When Chris Wiesner from CJ & LH Wiesner employed Detlef Hoeschler from Germany and he landed in Walla Walla on a 40degree day, Detlef ‘s perception of a welcome wave was somewhat distorted.

Chris and the staff had to quickly let him know that we don’t wave sideways in Walla Walla, as Chris said “It’s the Aussie way of keeping flies away from your face.”

Even with the climate shock coming from Germany, Detlef and his family loved the Murray region and the lifestyle Walla Walla offered.

Detlef originally backpacked around Australia in 1985, visiting the Murray region and worked for a time at Claas Agricultural Machinery in Albury. Detlef went back to Germany with the memories of Australia never far from his mind.

“My next step was to try and emigrate through the points system independently to get my permanent residency, however I was 44years old by that stage, and the points were lower because of this, even though I had plenty of experience in my field” explains Detlef. “So I started to look at the job websites and came across this position”, then Detlef contacted the company and Detlef and family came over in 2006 to meet the Wiesner’s and staff. “Interesting enough I also had another 14 companies that were after my skills in regional areas of Australia but we settled on Walla and the Wiesner’s have been wonderful to work for. The schooling for our children and other infrastructure was something that stood and out for us and certainly helped in our decision, and it’s not far from the larger regional cities”.

“My wife works at the local school three days a week as a food technologist assistant and my children 8 and 12 years attend Jindera public school, we have also brought a 5 acre property out the road, we rented when we first got here but I was keen to buy”, explains Detlef.

“We also love travelling and had a great time in Sydney for New Years Eve watching the fireworks”

The Wiesner agricultural machinery business started as a partnership in 1972 with Chris’s mum and dad Col and Lorraine Wiesner. Chris joining the business in 1978, taking on dealerships such as Deutz and Massey Ferguson, the Wiesner’s main dealership is with Fendt a worldwide brand of AGCO Corporation and one of the largest manufacturers, designers and distributors of agricultural equipment in the world.

Chris explains, “We service an area of up to a 200km radius, for example we have a customer in Tooma (approximately 150kms away) that we are heading up to tomorrow”

“In 2005 we were looking for further experienced fitters/ service technicians to support our business, Detlef had contacted us and decisions were made, so the next step was to find out about employer sponsorship, we made enquiry and then were assisted with the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme application by Regional Development Australia Murray (RDAM), previously Murray Regional Development Board (MRDB). Janice our admin girl at the time conferred with Nicole Doughty, we got the certification and the application went to the Department of Immigration and was approved”.

CJ & LH Wiesner has one apprentice at present and four other mechanics, as Chris points out “Detlef’s experience certainly helps to support not only our business but our staff also.” “Technology on this type of machinery moves fairly rapidly, so we make sure all our staff is kept up to date with these changes. Our aim has always been to develop the core people we have and grow from there”.

For information on employment sponsorship contact Nicole Doughty