Winery Cellar Hand
A Winery Cellar Hand performs manual and semi-skilled tasks in the cellar or production area of a winery, supporting the winemaking process from grape intake through bottling. They operate cellar equipment, maintain cleanliness and sanitation standards, and assist senior winemaking staff with fermentation management, blending, and barrel operations under guidance.
What this job is
A Winery Cellar Hand performs manual and semi-skilled tasks in the cellar or production area of a winery, supporting the winemaking process from grape intake through bottling. They operate cellar equipment, maintain cleanliness and sanitation standards, and assist senior winemaking staff with fermentation management, blending, and barrel operations under guidance.
Are employers advertising this role?
Falling, down 28.9% over 5 years
Counted across a group of similar roles. These are three-month rolling averages of online job advertisements, not filled positions.
Source: Jobs and Skills Australia, Internet Vacancy Index.
Day-to-day
Receive and sort incoming grapes, assessing quality and recording weight and variety data in winery management systems. Operate crushing and destemming equipment, adjusting settings for different grape varieties and managing grape flow through the production line. Monitor and record fermentation parameters including temperature, pH, and sugar levels in fermentation vessels using hydrometers, refractometers, and temperature probes. Perform pump-overs and punch-downs on fermenting red wine to extract colour and tannins, following winemaker instructions and hygiene protocols. Clean, sanitise, and maintain cellar equipment, tanks, barrels, and production surfaces using approved cleaning agents and following food safety and winery-specific protocols. Transfer wine between tanks and barrels using hoses and pumps, recording volumes and ensuring proper sealing to prevent oxidation. Assist with barrel coopering tasks including topping up barrels to replace evaporative losses and rotating or repositioning barrels as directed. Prepare and manage bottling line operations, including filling, corking, labelling, and casing finished wine bottles under supervision.
Who does this now
About 1,800 people worked in this occupation across Australia at the 2021 Census.
What this role asks for
Certificate I or compulsory secondary education (ABS skill level 5)
Source: Jobs and Skills Australia, Training Occupation Pathways dataset, March 2026, version 1.0
Jobs and Skills Australia defines an occupation-ready qualification as:
Completing this qualification will provide the skills and knowledge to undertake this occupation. Further training and experience may be required to meet specific industry requirements including licensing and registration.
Jobs and Skills Australia, Training Occupation Pathways dataset, March 2026, version 1.0
Requirements
The standard entry pathway requires a Certificate I or compulsory secondary education (ABS skill level 5). Specific qualification requirements vary by employer and state. Some employers may accept equivalent experience. Check yourcareer.gov.au for available courses and dewr.gov.au/skills-reform/free-tafe for subsidised training options.
The honest hard part
The pay stays low even after years in the role. Most cellar hands earn award wages with limited advancement unless you move into winemaking (which needs qualifications) or supervisory work. Harvest season means intense 12 to 14 hour days for weeks straight, then quieter periods with fewer hours. The work is physically demanding on your back, knees and shoulders.
Where the jobs are
Work is seasonal (busiest March-May), so many wineries hire casual or contract staff. Regional towns are where most jobs sit, not metro areas.
Pay
Published for ANZSCO unit group 8311, the wider group this job sits in, not for this job on its own.
This is the median for full-time employees who are not managers and are paid at the adult rate, before tax and salary sacrifice. It is a guide to what the work pays, not a wage rate.
Source: ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.
Skills
- Adaptability and Flexibilitycore
- Administer ingredients in food productioncore
- Attention to Detailcore
- Basic Arithmetic and Numerical Accuracycore
- Clean food and beverage machinerycore
- Incident Reportingcore
- Inventory Trackingcore
- Policy and Procedure Adherencecore
- Problem Solvingcore
- Quality Assurance and Checkingcore
- Record Managementcore
- Risk Identificationcore
- Stock Counting and Stocktakecore
- Team Collaborationcore
- Time Managementcore
- Act reliably
- Adhere to organisational guidelines
- Carry out checks of production plant equipment
- Continuous Learning and Upskilling
- Data Entry and Accuracy
- Goods Receipt Processing
- Regulatory and Legislative Awareness
- Stock Reconciliation
- Verbal Communication
- Workload Self-Management
Which of these do you have?
Tick the ones you haveCommon questions
Sources
- ABS OSCA 2024, occupation definition and task statements
- ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.
- ABS, 2021 Census of Population and Housing based on usual place of residence (Custom Report). OSCA Experimental Estimates.
Role data is drawn from official Australian Government sources, and each figure names where it comes from. Where a role is not in the ABS classification, the page shows no government figures for it. Data may not reflect every local variation.
What Winery Cellar Hand workers move into, from ten years of tax records.
Last updated: 30 October 2026
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