Pictured (left to right): City of Adelaide Arboriculture team Brandon, Ben, Angus, and Sam with Trainee Georgia
Walk through Adelaide on any given morning and chances are you won’t give the trees and gardens a second thought. But behind the city’s green spaces there is a skilled workforce keeping it all alive – and many of them started out exactly where Georgia, Angus and Sam did: as Maxima trainees.
Georgia is currently a trainee horticulturist on an arborist assignment with the City of Adelaide, and she’ll be the first to tell you she was made for working outdoors.
“I was a super outdoorsy kid – climbing trees, playing in the dirt, lots of sport outside,” she says. “So, outdoors work was always going to be my thing.”
She found the role the way many young people do these days: scrolling Seek. She applied, and within the hour had a reply inviting her in for an interview. “It worked out perfectly for me,” she says.
Day to day, Georgia works with chainsaws, caring for Adelaide’s trees to keep them safe, strong and healthy. It’s physical, skilled work, and she loves it.
“I like the physical work, and I love seeing the improvement in the gardens and parklands. It’s a really rewarding job.”
Georgia is also aware she’s breaking the mould. There aren’t many women in arboriculture, but she’s not fazed. “I think everyone’s capable. Women are definitely strong enough to do the job.”
Her advice to anyone on the fence? Stop overthinking it. “Not everything’s easy at the start, but with practice and persistence, you get better.”
Her colleague Angus is now a full-time arborist with City of Adelaide. He completed his traineeship through Maxima and was taken on permanently – a path he never would have predicted.
“I had no idea what arboriculture was before I left school,” he says. “I was doing a bit of labouring, and a mate of mine had done his traineeship through Maxima at City of Burnside. He recommended it, said it was a good gig. So, I applied online and haven’t looked back since.”
The traineeship is a three-year programme that combines on-the-job learning with TAFE study. For Angus, the balance was clear: “About 90% of what you learn, you learn at work. The other 10% is in the classroom. We’ve got really good people here at Adelaide who teach you everything you need to know.”
One of the things that keeps the job interesting, he says, is the variety. “You go to different work sites every day, different jobs. It’s sort of the same work, but you have different outcomes and different ways to achieve what you set out to do – that’s what I love about it.”
He’s also a strong advocate for the earn-while-you-learn model. As an apprentice, he received a government learning support payment – around a thousand dollars every six months – that he didn’t have to pay back. “More people need to know what’s actually out there,” he says. “I had no idea – and I’m really glad I do now.”
His message to anyone considering a traineeship is simple: “Definitely do it. If you love working outdoors and you don’t want to be in the same office every day, it’s really good.”
If you want to know where a Maxima traineeship can take you, look at Sam. He started his career as a trainee arborist with Adelaide Hills Council. Today, he’s a Tree Protection Officer at the City of Adelaide – someone whose decisions help shape the future of the city’s tree canopy.
“The traineeship gave me the opportunity to learn from more experienced arborists,” he says. “That built the passion in me to help develop the young trainees I’ve worked with since.”
What Sam loves most about working outdoors in arboriculture is the constant movement. “You’re always on the go, never in the same location twice in a week. You’re just always on the move.”
And the number one thing he loves about his role today? “Just being able to help make a difference to the tree population throughout the city of Adelaide.”
Sam’s story demonstrates that a traineeship isn’t just a job, it’s a career in the making. The skills, the mentorship and the hands-on experience he gained as a trainee built the foundation for a career that now has real impact on the city every single day.
Horticulture and arboriculture may not be the first career pathways that come to mind for school leavers, but they offer something increasingly rare: practical skills, steady employment, work that genuinely matters, and a skill that is likely never to be replaced by AI.
If you love being outside, want to earn while you learn, and like the idea of leaving your mark on a city, a town, a park, or a landscape somewhere across Australia, consider a traineeship in horticulture or arboriculture through Maxima. Find out more here.