But bureaucracy and red-tape left them frustrated and out of pocket, with grants promised through a state government scheme to attract farm workers failing to materialise until The Courier raised the issue with the agriculture minister's office on Wednesday.

In February the state government offered cash incentives through the Seasonal Harvest Sign-On Bonus to encourage job seekers to take on seasonal work picking fruit and vegetables and helping on farms. With the lure of $810 each after two weeks of work, and a further payment of $1620 after an additional six weeks of work, the Coopers decided to take on the challenge, despite not having a farming background themselves.

"We saw the ad on tv. We gave up full time jobs to do what we thought was the right thing to help country out ... and we just thought it would be a good experience," Mrs Cooper said.

They lined up a job with a Bungaree potato farmer who was desperate for help.

After the couple both worked on the farm for two weeks they submitted their claim for the initial Seasonal Workers payment on May 10 but until this week had yet to receive any feedback on their claim, or receive the funds.

On Tuesday Mrs Cooper spent four frustrating hours trying to chase the payment, calling three government departments and the office of agriculture minister Mary-Anne Thomas who had launched the scheme in February.

"For six weeks (our claim) has been under assessment with no communication," she said. "You have to log on to Business Victoria to check where your claim is and because I had got no response I rang Business Victoria, but they said they weren't looking after the scheme and I had to contact the Department of Agriculture.

"They said they weren't looking after it either and I had to ring Jobs Victoria, who told me they could only see the information that I could see, that it was under assessment."

She then tried to ring the Agriculture Minister's office with no luck.

The final straw was when Mrs Cooper logged on to the agriculture minister's Facebook page and saw that overseas seasonal workers bought in to Victoria to help out had already received their payments.

"I don't object to the overseas workers getting their bonus, they're entitled to it, but why hadn't the Australian taxpayers not been paid and not able to get any answers?"

Mrs Cooper worked the first two weeks grading and sorting potatoes but after a death in the family decided to stop work. Mr Cooper is still working on the farm and after this week will become eligible for the second payment.

Less than two hours after The Courier made inquiries with the state government, Mr Cooper's $810 was approved and three hours later Mrs Cooper received a call that her claim would also be paid.

Mrs Cooper said her frustrating experience with the state government was in direct contrast to her dealings with the federal government who has offered relocation allowances for agriculture workers.

"With the federal relocation allowance we have a point of contact I can ring at any time and have my questions answered. If you are going to work on a farm they pay eight weeks of accommodation, pay petrol to get there and back, and a $40 a day travel allowance and if you have to buy equipment like workboots that is covered.

"We've got our own workboots, we're not taking advantage of anything," she said. "They offer to pay for our accommodation but we haven't gone and stayed in a hotel, we are staying in a caravan park which is the cheapest accommodation. we are not taking liberties, just doing what we believe is the right thing to do."

The Victorian Farmers Federation confirmed they had heard similar cases of farm workers struggling to get paid the promised state government subsidies.

An Agriculture Victoria spokesperson said the Seasonal Harvest Sign-On Bonus had been an extremely popular program with more than 2100 workers already receiving the first $810 instalment for 10 days' work.

More than 770 workers have also received the additional $1620 after working the extra 30 days' work.

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"We are working as quickly as possible to approve and pay those who are eligible to receive the grant," they said.

"The Sign-On Bonus program has been extended and we are continuing to assess applications, while workers can complete their work and apply for the bonus beyond 30 June 2021."

The experience with having to fight for the promised payments has soured the farm work adventure for the couple.

"It's so different to anything I've ever done and I can see why people don't stick at it as it's very hard manual work. we are in our 50s but will give it a go ... but we are looking at getting out of Victoria and going to work on a farm in Queensland or country NSW," she said.

"Queensland is offering a $1600 relocation allowance for farm workers, cafe, and hospitality workers so we are going to get out of Victoria, far away from Daniel Andrews," she said.

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