Me and a friend are hoping to go to Australia in a few months. We plan to travel around a bit, and stay in the country for at least six months. The planning is still in its very early stages, but we are quite adamant about this now.

Due to our limited funds, we will have to settle in certain places and work.

Any recommendations?

Hehe my mate went for his gap year, heard he stayed in some pretty rough hostels...and a couple of bus shelters.

It's his darkest secret that his mum will never know, apparently.

What work would you prefer to do to pay your way when out there ??

Anything really - we'll both be twenty-two-year-old lads, and we're willing to do most jobs in order to fund our trip.

Just looking for ideas for the best city/area to start in. I think we'll be sticking to the East Coast, we just don't know where the best place to stay and work is.

If you have a trade you a laughing, ( brickie, elec, plumb especially ) the only down side is that a lot of co's don't like to take on short term workers but pay is good.

Bar/ restaurant pay ok - but hours usually pretty long and inconvenient ( you are working the same time that everyone else is having fun )

The easier option is warehouse work ( packing / stacking sort of stuff or handing out "Flyers" . pay naff but if you are staying in hostels with the odd 3 star hotel along the way it should pay enough.

Obviously the major cities offer the best opportunity for work, but as you move down/up the coast the majority of available work is bar/ restaurant stuff.

Hostels are a great source of info, you should find info at most ( Good ) hostels on “working” your way round oz just take enough money with you so you can party for a month or so before you have to start working. ( after all this is why you are going ) and it should also buy you plenty time to find work.

I’m not envious at all. You lucky B*!#*’!’s

hi there - few years since i did it, but heres my two penneth worth!


cheapest-ish time to fly is mid april to end of june, just make sure you dont book your return flight around the christmas period cos a) it'll be booked up and b)it'll cost a fortune!
now is a good time to start looking for return flights, cos airlines such as singapore and other major ones will be advertising flights with a few freebies thrown in - such as free stopovers (good if you suffer badly with jetlag), or free internal flights.
stay in any of the major cities, and when you get to your destination, find the accomodation board in the arrivals area - loads of hostels advertise there, and most run a pick-up from the airport.
make sure you have some sort of address to give in the arrivals at the airport - if you can book a hostel for a couple of nights via the net before you leave the uk then do that so you can tell the customs officer you have somewhere to stay - you sometimes have to give an address when you go through customs, but tell them you are on holiday and staying at such and such hostel and you will be ok.
if you get yourselfs into a big hostel, look round the hostel for a notice board and you are bound to pick up casual jobs from there. you may be lucky enough to pick up jobs on boats if thats what you fancy. if no luck there, just do what you'd do here and check out local papers and shop windows, agencies etc.
if you get a flight with a stopover in somewhere like bangkok or singapore, its worth getting visas (before you go) for surrounding countries (eg for thailand/malaysia if you still need them!) cos you never know what opportunity will crop up - I got a job from a hostel board in singapore on a boat going up the west coast , but i didnt have a thai visa so couldnt go...the embassies didnt do on the spot visas back then, so its worth looking into it.
if you want a bit of job security, a lot of the main agencies have international branches in places like sydney etc - duttons, drake are just 2 that spring to mind. If you can do manual building work such as labouring, just go onto the building site and ask to speak to the bloke in charge...be honest and upfront about how long you want to work - even if its just for a week - just beware that they start REALLY early....you are looking at a 6am start on some sites.

its worth getting as much money up front as you can before you go, cos beleive me you wont want to disrupt your fun by having to work!
make sure you have a kind reli at home (mum! dad!) who will bail you out if you run out of money too.....cos if you roll into the british embassy and say you are broke with no chance of work they will get you home, but it will cost you a fortune cos you have to pay em back, with interest!!!

be careful - there really are some dodgy folks out there - and make sure you are careful where you keep your money/cards etc - hostels are rich pickings for clever criminals.

most of all have fun.
:D

Some really useful information here! Thanks everyone!

You will need to do an OH & S ( occupation. health & safety ) course .One day approx $ 150, before you will be allowed to work on a building site. In N S W I don't know about other states.

Hope you enjoy your stay, Pete.

I was in Oz last summer but just on a short trip with no working visa, but my mates were there for the full year and settled in Sydney for a few months. They ended up getting a job doing construction on a new Tunnel they are building there. They didnt do much apart from wave trucks in and out of the tunnel, they did work nights but they got paid £700per week after tax, yep £700 - i was shocked. They had no construction experience but did have to do a day course/test. But other than that sydney is full of work, u wont find it hard to find something - but contruction pays the best by far!

gud Luck

but they got paid £700per week after tax, yep £700 - i was shocked. They had no construction experience but did have to do a day course/test.

gud Luck [/B]

That sounds about average for construction work in the UK as well. I know a couple of builders on at least that per week......

Obviously, after paying for flights, we shall be taking money we've saved with us, but, as novice travellers, what kind of a minimum budget are we talking for say, six months, with five of those (hopefully) in some form of employment?

They ended up getting a job doing construction on a new Tunnel they are building there. They didnt do much apart from wave trucks in and out of the tunnel, they did work nights but they got paid £700per week after tax, yep £700 - i was shocked. They had no construction experience but did have to do a day course/test.


If its the same tunnel - it collapsed at an area called Lane Cove, and took the bottom flats of a 3? storey block with it! They had to pump quite a few tons of cement into the hole before they could decide what else to do. All hushed up and forgotten now cos Layba runs this state! No one that I,ve spoken too knew that they were chucking away such big bucks on unskilled temp labour! No wonder theyve had to sell off the hospitals and stick up speed(cash)camera's to fill the slush funds!

NSW dweller