Working Holiday Visa and Job Hunting in Australia

Being a British citizen I was automatically entitled to apply for a 12-month working-holiday visa to work in Australia. I sent my passport and forms off to their embassy (and showed I had £2k in the bank) and waited. My passport was soon returned with my visa - all other visas have been much more work.

Britain has a reciprocal agreement with Australia giving work visas to Aussies wanting to work in the UK. However, it is not as equal as it may first appear as Australians are given visas for two years and can work in one job for a 12 month period.

Pommies (Australians affectionate term for Brits - something to do with Prisoner of Mother England.) can only work for three months at a job and thus the outcome is that Australians can find well-paying jobs in London whilst Brits are relegated to call-centres, fruit-picking and other temporary jobs (NOTE: this is constantly changing - I read recently that the Australian government is allowing extensions of Working Holiday Visas as they have lots of unfilled jobs).

I arrived into Perth, WA and found it full of Brits looking for work. Because it was early in the season the hoped-for fruit-picking was slow to materialize.

I decided to make an epic journey to Darwin, NT (more about that another time) as work was thin on the ground and I thought, well if my money runs out at least I would see some of Australia. Whilst I was there work was scarce, though for experienced prawn fishermen the work can be very lucrative (thousands of Oz dollars per week - they make you work for it though).

There seemed to be plenty of work if you were a busty girl willing to work in a remote bar in the outback. Darwin had quite a few job agencies and there was some work washing dishes. I heard from an Australian traveler recently that the job situation has completely changed in Darwin since I was there and there are now lots of opportunities.

I made it to Sydney where the situation was radically different, the hostel I stayed at had a good jobs board and I worked refurbishing a hotel for a month before getting a job with a Kiwi in an enema factory - a very interesting experience, I was very good at putting caps on enemas by the time I left.

Later on, through another traveler I learnt about a state fair in Brisbane and worked on a bouncy castle for 73.5 hours in seven days (At $10AUS per hour it helped pay for my Whitsunday's sailing trip).

I found that one of the best ways of finding out about work is via other travelers. Backpackers by nature are extremely nomadic so somebody is always leaving a job that you can get if you're quick enough.

If you are anything like me, not working is not an option. I was backpacking for 12 months and was relying on working in Australia to help pay for later sections of the journey - if you find it difficult getting a job keep trying or move on - just don't give up!

For those keen to work at more unusual jobs away from the major urban centres Work Your Way Around the World by Susan Griffith is a must.

BY: Scott

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z GENERAL

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