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Funky Bars to Fruit Picking: A Guide to Working in Australia

There’s no single reason why every year thousands of young people from around the world take themselves to Australia to live and work for anything from a few weeks to a couple of years. Among the many motives however one thing is clear – Australia is a super-popular and almost compulsory stop on gap years and round the world circuits and it isn’t hard to see why. This vast country, full of iconic and unique wildlife and a fascinating ancient culture, is crammed with the beautiful and packed with fun and adventure. Everything you might need in fact to create true once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

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Some decide to work here simply to fund their onward travelling playtime and stretch their budget; some are bent on learning new skills; some are looking to add spice and oomph to their future CV; some need to gain specific work experience which Australia can give them along with some exciting opportunities during their kick-back time such as diving, surfing, climbing, skiing, riding etc. Last of all, there are a great big chunk of those who don’t especially need the money or work experience but are doing it all purely for the fun of it. Working in a hip and happening bar in Sydney……playing at cowboys in the Outback at a ranch…..yep, we can see how that might come under the ‘fun’ umbrella.

And of course you can never really know a country in the way you come to see it when you have worked there. You become part of something – that doesn’t typically happen when you’re just cruising through.

What You Will Need – The Working Holiday Visa (WHV)

The WHV, which you must be in possession of if you intend to work in Australia, allows up to 1 year of work (with an opportunity for another year’s extension) if you are aged 18 to 30 inclusively.

The first WHV must be applied for before you arrive in the country so it will need some advance planning to allow for gathering all the information needed, the paperwork completion and the processing time.

The current requirements are:

  • must hold a passport from an eligible country, of which there are at present 27
  • must not be accompanied by any dependant children
  • must be of good character
  • must meet the set health criteria
  • must show they have sufficient funds for the initial part of the stay in the country and to cover the cost of a return airfare ticket if no return ticket pre-purchased
  • the work must be incidental and tourism must be the main purpose of the visit

The ‘sufficient funds’ criteria is currently set at AUS $5000 but if you have no onward ticket you must show a further AUS $1,000 to cover this bringing the total to AUS $6,000. If you are asked to prove these funds and you can’t you may be either a) refused a visa in the first instance or b) refused entry to the country on arrival.

Once you have obtained your WHV it is valid for anything up to 12 months and the start is activated as you arrive in Australia. If you don’t activate it within 12 months the visa is simply lost; applications for the WHV are allowed on a ‘once only’ basis so you can’t simply complete another application. Once the visa has been activated you are free to leave and re-enter Australia as many times as you want but the visa validity period isn’t paused during such times and periods outside of Australia are lost.

Potential applicants can undertake the whole process themselves – many do – with the opportunity of an online application at http://www.immi.gov.au/ possible in some cases. Some opt to pay for the services of an agency who deal with the process and all it involves for you. The current cost for a WHV is AUS $462 or this amount plus an agency fee if you decide to go down that route.

Should you opt to work in one of the specified eligible fields – which include fruit picking, farm work, fishing, mining and others – in specified country regions you will have the opportunity of extending your visa another year, bringing the total to two.

 

The One Way/Return Ticket Dilemma

Unlike a normal holiday, travelling – and particularly with a work/travel combo – tends to throw up a whole lot of unknowns such as ‘when will I have decided enough is enough?’, ‘what if I want to extend my visa?’, what if I want to take a break somewhere else?’, and at least another hundred possible factors. This means it can be a little tricky to book a return flight and although many airlines allow date changes they can be expensive and typically expire after a year.

No-one but you can decide which option best suits and without a crystal ball it is virtually impossible to know which route will end up costing the least. There are a few things which you might like to factor into your sums and thoughts though:

  • Almost all flights, unless otherwise stated, offer the option of changing return dates BUT the total costs of such changes can add up to as much or even more than the cost of a one way ticket home.
  • Be aware that a one-way ticket doesn’t mean half the cost – these can often be almost as much as a return ticket.
  • Some travel agencies such as STA (http://www.statravel.co.uk/multiflex-pass.htm) offer something known as a ‘multiflex pass’ which for a small fee allows you up to a certain number of fee-free flight changes. Be aware however you would still have to pay for any normal fare increases but in the best instances your changes would, as such, be free.
  • One-way tickets may allow you more flexibility and remove any pressure of having to actually consider a return date until you are truly ready to.
  • Remember that should you only have a one-way ticket you will have to prove you have extra funds to buy the return ticket when the time comes.

What’s On the Working Menu – Types of Jobs Available

Think of a job and it’s probably possible on a WHV but because the nature of the work is temporary and/or seasonal there are certain fields which offer the highest number of positions or are for obvious reasons the most popular. Jobs in hospitality and tourism, which include such things as hotels, resorts and cafés, are popular because they crop up by the bucket-load around the summer months of December to February and also hit high demand around Easter, Christmas and school holidays. Super-exciting opportunities such as a dive instructor on the Great Barrier Reef do exist but such posts, understandably, tend to get filled fast and could have been several times over.

If you’ve got your heart set on living and working in the city then your most likely options will be office, bar and restaurant work but there are also such things as labouring. If you want to get out in the sticks then you are most likely looking at farm work or fruit picking. Competition for the most fun jobs will be high in areas such as the Gold Coast for example but head towards beautiful Western Australia – somehow and unaccountably neglected by travellers – and pretty much take your pick.

Fruit picking and harvest work for many obvious reasons continue to be popular choices. Some of it is extremely arduous but you get to be outside in the sunshine, the work is highly casual so you have greater flexibility and you typically earn according to how hard you work which is always gratifying.

Other types of jobs on offer include office-based (admin, IT, accounting), nursing (in both cities and remote rural areas), teaching, shop work, ski work, chef, call-centre, labouring and skilled crafts such as plumber and carpenter. Rates of pay typically range from AUS $14 to $40 an hour with the lower rates applied to posts such as kitchen hand, admin and retail. The higher rates apply to skilled work such as IT, chef and carpenter.

 

Finding the Work

Just as is probably true in your own country there are a multitude of ways to go about finding work but Australia has some extras too. The phenomenon of arriving hordes looking for temporary Australian jobs has given rise to a whole new industry in itself – the job search assistance companies or work-and-play type packages aimed at gap year travellers. Each offers assistance with setting up bank accounts, sorting out your tax code, finding a job and ongoing support. The work-and-play type typically offer all this plus an itinerary of diverse activities, perhaps for your first week or two in the country, which act as an introduction and orientation. For many, with the cash to spare, this can seem like (and can indeed be) a good idea but be aware that some of these packages can cost the equivalent of a few month’s wages or more. Having said that there are some truly great deals out there and if you’re a little nervous about the whole process or worried about the ‘solo’ part of travel this could be the way to go. STA Travel offer several options as do BUNAC.

There are also some global sites such as www.anyworkanywhere.com which have some truly fun and unusual work positions advertised from all over the world, including Australia, or you can use a resource such as www.transitionsabroad.com which offers all kinds of helpful hints and tips, as well as a multitude of links to sites with job vacancies.

Another wonderful resource for Australian job seekers is www.pure-australia.co.uk which dishes up a wealth of all kinds of help from how to access recruitment agency listings to what working in each Australian city can be like.

If it is fruit picking or harvest work you are after things couldn’t be easier – skip along to the official government site where all the information you could need regarding working the country’s harvest trail can be found along with downloadable brochures. Another ultimate resource is www.fruitpickingjobs.com.au – crammed with goodies such as the latest jobs, what to expect, guides, pay rates, forums and much more.