Talk to me about Australia

Oxy said:
I can get a Working Holiday Visa, I'm only 27, 28 this month.

I'm trying to save £10,000 before Christmas, I have £3,000 and am going to sell my car in a coupl of months, which should boost it up to £7,000 - £7,500.

I'm just worried that I wont be able to get a proper job with the working holiday visa and will end up with no savings, a shattered dream and return back to my parents spare room broke and dejected lol.

I'm gonna apply to jobs from here until I can save the money to make the decision to go over and find work myself.

I got 5 years experience so maybe I will get lucky, maybe I will have to risk it all on a working holiday visa.
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I'm over in Australia currently and although i'm on a 457 visa I have four good friends over here on WH visas, inlcluding my cousin.

-- Consider doing your three months regional work as soon as you land. This way you will meet a lot of people straight away and wont have to split up your two years in the middle.

-- This will also allow you to save up a little money and get some information about the job markets, tips, tricks as likely the people you work with will have just come from somewhere like Sydney.

-- Unlilely you will get a job by applying from the UK but try sending some polite emails to HR at the kind of companies you want to work for letting them know your rough dates of arrival and your experience. They may need help and you may be what they are looking for.

-- It will be hard for you to get a proper job anyway, employers know that you can only be with them for six months on a WH visa....however many people have started off on a WH visa and eventually been sponsored - if a company likes you sponsorship isn't that much of a hardship for them.

What industry are you in? What have you got 5 years experience doing?
 
A lot of the advice has already been given but I'll add a few bits and pieces. When I did the whole west coast back in December there were a few places that really stood out...

Kalbarri - Make sure you get here if you can. It's not a long drive from Perth and is really a stunning place

Esperance - The beaches here were amazing, some of the best in the world.

Margaret River & surrounding - Do a wine tour here if you get a chance. It's a lovely part of the country to spend some time in and lots to do. We actually spent 2 weeks in Northcliffe as we broke down and it was a fantastic experience!

I'd avoid Monkey Mia if I were you. I was incredibly disappointed with it as it just felt overly commercialised. Maybe you'll think differently but it just didn't fit in with the feel of the rest of the west coast.

People say that Perth is isolated and that everything is on the east coast, but the West coast was a great experience and I'm delighted that we did it. We haven't done the east coast yet though as we're settling in regional Victoria for a while!
 
Vanilla said:
I'm over in Australia currently and although i'm on a 457 visa I have four good friends over here on WH visas, inlcluding my cousin.

-- Consider doing your three months regional work as soon as you land. This way you will meet a lot of people straight away and wont have to split up your two years in the middle.
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As already mentioned he may not need to do the regional work as geological jobs are usually included in the 3 months for an extra year thing. Just depends on the specifics of his job.
 
How did everyone take money?
All my bank accounts are 2-3% or £2min charge, also looked at a few pre paid credit cards but it doesn't say anything about going abroad.
Is there another way or just travellers cheques, for some reason I've never liked the idea of travellers cheques.

Edit - just found one but it's MasterCard, is that accepted everywhere over there? Visa seems to be the defacto these days

http://www.ezpayltd.co.uk/escape-travel/
 
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fly to the east coast, experience the barrier reef, rent a camper van, pull up to mission beach on your way down and imagine that life could be so simple and beautiful.

We went 2 years ago and have high hopes of emigration should there be a demand for hospital pharmacists in 2 years time :)
 
Jay.D said:
fly to the east coast, experience the barrier reef, rent a camper van, pull up to mission beach on your way down and imagine that life could be so simple and beautiful.

We went 2 years ago and have high hopes of emigration should there be a demand for hospital pharmacists in 2 years time :)
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does cairnes have an international airport and how far is it from mission beach, the reef , port douglas etc?
 
AcidHell2 said:
How did everyone take money?
All my bank accounts are 2-3% or £2min charge, also looked at a few pre paid credit cards but it doesn't say anything about going abroad.
Is there another way or just travellers cheques, for some reason I've never liked the idea of travellers cheques.

Edit - just found one but it's MasterCard, is that accepted everywhere over there? Visa seems to be the defacto these days

http://www.ezpayltd.co.uk/escape-travel/
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Mastercard is equally as valid as VISA, don't sweat it. EFTPOS takes all the credit card types.
 
not a fan of australia myself, yeh hot weather but then southern america has that.

2 of my exs were australian and my dad lives in stanthorpe and has his on winery there, which meant i used to go to brissy and the east coast a lot.

i dont rate it at all, its very sterile and quit often feels like a 3rd world country with a modern twist (lol dont ask), if your exploring some of the more traditional areas you might be in for a treat (Stanthorpe for instance is excellent) but the major cities are a massive drag / waste of time.
 
cm1179 said:
does cairnes have an international airport and how far is it from mission beach, the reef , port douglas etc?
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we flew domestically from sidney to cairns, I cant see why you cant fly from perth to cairns. port douglas isnt far from cairns, from memory it was a couple of hours....if it's the reef you want you can go from cairns, PD and further down....just so happens in PD you can jump on a 600HP speedboat to get to the reef which was a buzz in itself.

Mission beach was a fair few hours down, was a little town we discovered as we made our way down the east coast.

So id recommend based on my own experiences to fly to sidney or to cairns and make your way up/down the east coast, you'll soon find other travellers in hostels that will tell you about the must do things and the scenery either way is awe inspiring.
 
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[FnG]magnolia;19455867 said:
Mastercard is equally as valid as VISA, don't sweat it. EFTPOS takes all the credit card types.
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Thanks, applied for it. Cant see anything which comes close to them. Even the exchange rates are pretty good.
 
AcidHell2 said:
How did everyone take money?
All my bank accounts are 2-3% or £2min charge, also looked at a few pre paid credit cards but it doesn't say anything about going abroad.
Is there another way or just travellers cheques, for some reason I've never liked the idea of travellers cheques.

Edit - just found one but it's MasterCard, is that accepted everywhere over there? Visa seems to be the defacto these days

http://www.ezpayltd.co.uk/escape-travel/
Click to expand...

we opened a nationwide account, I think at the time they charged a flat 1% fee to withdraw.... since then things have changed I think.
 
Went there coming up to 2 years ago definately the best place i've ever been to. From what I've heard from my sister when she lived out there for a few years and went to Perth a lot as it was the closest city to her which was a 6 hour dive away!! said that its very average with very little do. I'd recommend that you go to the East and obviously do Sydney but cannot say this enough go to Melbourne as in my opinion its the one of the best cities I've visited, very relaxed and beautiful, whereas Sydney is similar in many ways to London in that its dirty, can be expensive, money oriented etc, however it's still a great place none the less and theres plenty to do and see and nice restaurants and good night life. I'd definately recommend going to the blue mountains if you're into that sort of thing beautiful place, with amazing views and some adrenaline fuelled activities to do there as well. it isn't to far from Sydney either. If you get a chance as well head down to Phillip island and go on the go karting track its a replica of the full size one and is damn good fun and head off to the penguin parade. it was a great experience http://www.penguins.org.au/ . If you fancy treating yourself and someone else go to icebergs at bondi beach some of the best food i've ever tried, the atmosphere is superb and the views are spectacular. I Also recommend just doing like a mini road trip stopping off at all the small towns and villages in oz as you get some very interesting people there to say the least..

Areas that i would say to avoid is palm beach a lot of people like to go there however when i visited i was quite underwhelmed nothing too spectacular to see or do here and with the time you have available there are far better places to visit plus anywhere to eat around there is well over priced. Another thing to avoid is climbing Sydney Harbour Bridge it's well over priced and you can't take a camera up there and take pictures as they have to take photos themselves which they charge about a tenner each steer clear. If you want to have an amazing view and rush do the sky diving near Sydney think its about an hour outside of it If you want details let me know and i'll post a link of the place when i get home as when you do from one side you can see sydney, from the other the ocean, the other the blue mountains and then the agricultural area its just amazing...

If your only going to be at Perth or just on the West i'll ask my sister as to what is good to see and do on that side of the island.

Edit: If you're just going to stay on the West Coast go to Esperance my sister said it was one of the most stunning beaches in oz
 
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Visa granted.
Right guys. This is a toughy, is there anyway to take a suit and keep it in reasonable shape, I'm a bit stumped on what to do. I won't have time to hire one between getting there and the wedding. As I'm doing a coach tour thingy the first week. So it's going to be in a rucksack for a week before I need it.

Also is there anything you would take for backpacking which you would say is a must, other than the usual Holliday stuff.

Also anyone know a cheaper version of the http://www.jackson-sports.com/Model...dium=shopping&utm_campaign=Google-Shopping-UK which has zip away shoulder straps, so don't have to muck around with odd bag rubbish at the airport.
 
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Don't forget the aerogard and have a bloody good weekend :) No seriously pack some bug repellent if your going near the coast as mozzie's and midgie's can get annoying.

I'm probably biased (I'm a QLDer) but Queensland has some great places to visit and the people are pretty friendly too. If you need any info give me a shout

More importantly though welcome to my country mate and have a great time.
 
cm1179 said:
are you stopping over in bali? i've heard one can get a great tailored suit at a very reasonable price over there
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Nope, no stop overs. Even if I was I would still have the same problem, the wedding isn't until a week into the trip. Well 9hr stop over In Bangkok each way.
 
Oh you could carefully roll it up and then get it dry cleaned a few days before if your not moving around.
 
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