Australia working visa

[MacDaddy77]

Originally Posted by Rutuu

A few points (my friend is staying with me on a holiday working visa he started in February this year)

1. Technically you have to prove funds, but they never asked...he did the temporary loan
2. They don't pay you to pick fruit anymore, it's just accomodation and food now...terrible.
3. Rent in Brisbane in a share house will be ~$150/week; lots of people rent the Juicy Vans and camp it or stay at the hostel the whole time.
4. Make a fake resume for serving...it will help unless you're a cute girl; they have their pick right now, so it's tough to land a job in Brisbane. Other cities I can't speak for, but my friend was turned down 200+ times before landing a temp 3week job with a big insurance company. It took him 4months to find that job.
5. You can work at the hostel on a room and food deal too

Hope the above doens't sound doom and gloom, but the reality of the finincial aspects will help you plan; with that said its a BIG country with lots and lots to explore.

Finally don't pull the rookie move and come here in June/July/August and expect it to be warm...it's winter here and anything south of Brisbane will be below 20C during the day and single digits overnight, with the humidity that can be quite chilly. North of Brisbane is quite comfortable this time of year though.

seriously? that sucks!!! My wife and I went in 2001 for a full year and I made a lot of money picking fruit, picking Grapes at a vineyard is what sucks. picking fruit like apples, pears, plums etc (large fruits) we started in Sydney, went to melbourne for 2 months then drove great ocean road and to Margaret river, perth, spent a lot of time on the west coast we friggin loved everything about the west coast, spent 2 months in Broom, drove straight across from Broom to townsville the on to Cape Tribulation, we spent the last of our money on a 10 day live aboard dive trip to Great Barrier Reef, managed to find a sail boat captain looking for people to help steam his boat from Hamilton Islands to Surfers Paradise, we sailed right down the East coast.

We had such an amazing time, i would ALWAYS recommend going to Australia, however spend as much time in the small towns and villages and parks as you can, the cities are cool to visit however there is so much happening elsewhere try not to get bogged down in one place for too long.

wish I could do it all over again!!!

[Kjesse]

Originally Posted by Robotic

.....Super easy!

... as long as you don't have a record.

Times sure change. That used to be a requirement.

[ballin]

Thanks for all the great advice, this was exactly what i was looking for. As for the thread tags, i dont really have a valid excuse for them, just really excited for the draft, love the pierogi pizza from boston pizza. and the other two speak for themselves.

A little more insight on my plans. I do plan on traveling while i am there and obviously nothing is set in stone as to destinations. I was thinking i could save money for a while, and then work for room and board i could use that money that i saved to travel, see as much as i can, beer funds that type of stuff. Again all this advice is really helpful. Keep it comin!

[Tron_fdc]

My best advice is spend all your money as fast as you can when you get there.

I spent $6500 in 45 days when I first landed back in '97. From that point on it was survival mode, and I learned pretty quickly how to stretch a dollar. Me and my pal (fellow poster Saltwater Cowboy) lasted 11 months living mainly in Byron Bay and Brisbane, sleeping on floors, drinking $4 box wine, and chasing easy women. We worked for accommodation, picked up odd jobs, and generally did a whole lot of nothing all day other than surf and nap.

Best time of my life.