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ANZSCO 3622Skill level 4Primary industries

Gardener

Maintain residential, commercial and public gardens, parks and reserves.

Registration: ChemCert AQF Level 3 to apply restricted herbicides; White Card for commercial sites

Salary

Cited figures from Job Outlook and QILT. ExamExplained does not publish predictive earnings or projections.

FigureAUDSource
Full-time weekly earnings$1300Job Outlook (2025-06-01)

How far does this stretch in each city?

What a gardener actually does

A typical day starts in a depot or out of your own ute with a run list of properties. Mornings tend to focus on the noisy and dirty jobs - mowing, edging, hedge trimming and blowing down - so they are done before lunch and before neighbourhood noise limits bite. Afternoons swing to pruning, weeding, planting, mulching, fertilising and minor irrigation repairs. Council and contract gardeners rotate through parks, sportsgrounds, road verges and community gardens on a set roster. Private maintenance gardeners work a weekly or fortnightly round of homes and strata properties, with bigger one-off jobs squeezed in between. Weather drives a lot of the day: rain pushes jobs back, summer heat shifts start times to 6am, and storms or wind create extra clean-up work. Standard hours run 38 to 45 per week with most weekends off, though sole operators often work Saturdays during peak growing months.

Typical tasks

  • Mow, prune and weed.
  • Plan and plant new beds.
  • Operate small plant safely.

Skills you'll use

  • Identifying common Australian and exotic ornamental plants
  • Pruning shrubs, hedges and small trees safely
  • Operating mowers, line trimmers, blowers, chippers and hedgers
  • Soil preparation, mulching and basic plant nutrition
  • Reading and adjusting drip and pop-up irrigation
  • Safe handling of herbicides and fertilisers under ChemCert
  • Customer service and quoting recurring rounds
  • Manual handling without wrecking your back over a 20-year career

How to become one

  1. 1Finish Year 10 or Year 12 with a willingness to do outdoor physical work
  2. 2Get a White Card if you'll work on commercial sites and a manual driver licence
  3. 3Complete a Certificate II or Certificate III in Horticulture at TAFE (often around 12 months full-time or two years part-time)
  4. 4Pick up a ChemCert AQF Level 3 ticket so you can use restricted herbicides
  5. 5Build experience with a council parks team, a maintenance contractor or a private gardener
  6. 6Optionally add a Certificate IV in Horticulture if you want to step up to supervisor or run your own round

Where you can work

  • Local councils running parks, reserves and street trees
  • Body-corporate and strata maintenance contractors
  • Aged-care, school and hospital grounds teams
  • Botanic gardens and heritage estates
  • Private estates, hotels and resorts
  • Maintenance rounds for residential and commercial clients
  • Self-employed sole traders and small crews

Career progression

Typical stages and salary bands. Salary figures are sourced from Job Outlook, QILT or industry bodies; brackets are 25th-75th percentile not absolute floors or ceilings.

  1. Apprentice or trainee gardener
    0-2 years
    Typical roles: Trainee gardener, Parks trainee, Horticulture apprentice
    Salary band: $45,000 - $60,000 per year (source, sourced 2026-05-21)
  2. Qualified gardener
    2-6 years
    Typical roles: Maintenance gardener, Parks gardener, Strata gardener
    Salary band: $60,000 - $75,000 per year (source, sourced 2026-05-21)
  3. Leading hand or crew supervisor
    6-12 years
    Typical roles: Crew leader, Parks supervisor, Estate gardener
    Salary band: $75,000 - $95,000 per year (source, sourced 2026-05-21)
  4. Owner-operator or head gardener
    10+ years
    Typical roles: Sole-trader gardener, Head gardener for an estate, Curator of a heritage or botanic garden

Is this for you?

You might love this if

  • You'd rather be outside than sitting at a desk
  • You like seeing tidy beds and lawns at the end of a day
  • You're happy starting at 6am in summer to beat the heat
  • You're patient enough to learn plant names and seasonal rhythms
  • You're fine working alone for long stretches
  • You don't mind getting wet, muddy and covered in pollen

This might not suit you if

  • You hate hayfever, dust and pollen
  • You want air-conditioned indoor work
  • You can't be on your feet swinging tools all day
  • You want zero customer or strata-committee interaction
  • You need a fixed roster regardless of weather

Three ways in

Uni, TAFE and trade routes for gardener. Not every career has all three; we only list pathways that actually lead to this occupation.

University

Bachelor degrees that lead to this career.

No direct undergraduate pathway. Consider postgraduate study after a related bachelor degree.

TAFE / VET

Nationally accredited Certificate and Diploma qualifications.

Apprenticeship trade

Earn while you learn through an Australian Apprenticeship.

Not an apprenticeship trade.

Sources

ExamExplained does not publish predictive salary figures. For current Australian earnings data check Job Outlook directly. Career classifications follow the ABS ANZSCO 2022 release.