Moving to Australia for a year..help?

roro1990

Hi,

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. So i'm 24 years old, with a degree in accountancy. I've been working for a year in my first post-college job which I really dislike. I've decided that i'm handing in my notice in December and i'm gonna move to Australia on a 1 year working holiday visa with I suppose the main aim of enjoying myself and finding out more about what I really wanna do in my life.

Firstly, is it worth it? I'll be going to australia to obviously enjoy myself, but also I don't wanna deplete my savings completely. I'll have roughly 7 or 8 thousand euro going over (after 14 days stop-off in Thailand)

Secondly, do I have any options other than fruit picking? I will definitely do the fruit picking but i'm not sure what other jobs I could do as accountancy work i'm assuming would be difficult to find. I've no experience in retail or anything so i'm not sure how easy an other job would be to get?

Where is the best place to go to? I'll be heading in Feb or March and wanna start fruit picking within the first 2 weeks to limit the time i'm job-hunting.

Lastly, Is it ok to go solo? My friends at home do not share the same dream as me to travel the world so i'll have to do it alone. Will it be easy to meet people and do many do it alone? Thanks in advance for any help.

minzabud

You can do a lot of other things instead of picking fruit, have a look at the list of jobs you can hang blinds or lay carpet to get a second year visa! I worked in construction and did a stint on an oyster farm for a few weeks to get my visa, made good money and had a great time.

Picking fruit will be a great way to meet other people in the same boat as you but expect long days and not much money.

aido79

roro1990 wrote: »

Hi,

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. So i'm 24 years old, with a degree in accountancy. I've been working for a year in my first post-college job which I really dislike. I've decided that i'm handing in my notice in December and i'm gonna move to Australia on a 1 year working holiday visa with I suppose the main aim of enjoying myself and finding out more about what I really wanna do in my life.

Firstly, is it worth it? I'll be going to australia to obviously enjoy myself, but also I don't wanna deplete my savings completely. I'll have roughly 7 or 8 thousand euro going over (after 14 days stop-off in Thailand)

Secondly, do I have any options other than fruit picking? I will definitely do the fruit picking but i'm not sure what other jobs I could do as accountancy work i'm assuming would be difficult to find. I've no experience in retail or anything so i'm not sure how easy an other job would be to get?

Where is the best place to go to? I'll be heading in Feb or March and wanna start fruit picking within the first 2 weeks to limit the time i'm job-hunting.

Lastly, Is it ok to go solo? My friends at home do not share the same dream as me to travel the world so i'll have to do it alone. Will it be easy to meet people and do many do it alone? Thanks in advance for any help.

You haven't mentioned if you want to stay for a second year. If you don't intend to then why on earth would you want to do fruit picking??..or do you just think that's what backpackers do in Australia? I've been in Australia 6 years and I don't think I have met 20 Irish people that picked fruit. Why do you assume it would be difficult to get accountancy work? Even if it is your experience in an office environment might get you an admin job or something.

The best place to meet people at the start is through staying in hostels or a share house.
Best of luck with it.

Legend100

aido79 wrote: »

Why do you assume it would be difficult to get accountancy work? Even if it is your experience in an office environment might get you an admin job or something.


Best of luck with it.

Just a note on this - with only a degree in accounting, you would really struggle to find accountancy work on a WHV. I have many fully qualified friends who are finding it tough to find work. I think we have flooded the market! I can see now that accountant is also one of the three occupations that are being pro rated for EOIs for the 189 visa.

mighty magpie

If you're stopping over in SE asia, don't just do thailand, at least see vietnam if not siem reap in cambodia as well. you could easily live well on 1500 EUR for 4 weeks there including flights to and from thailand.

In terms of meeting people, you could stay in a hostel for the first couple of weeks when you land and meet people in the same situation as yourself.

I'm in sydney at the moment, got a job after 4 weeks in IT with 3 years experience. My gf is in a similar situation to yourself and she's done some temping work and just been offered a 6 month role doing admin work. roughly $25 an hour so plenty to live on. After looking through seek for a few weeks I have seen a good amount of accounts payable roles so your experience may get you a relevant role at better money.

Good luck

Empire o de Sun

aido79 wrote: »

You haven't mentioned if you want to stay for a second year. If you don't intend to then why on earth would you want to do fruit picking??..or do you just think that's what backpackers do in Australia? I've been in Australia 6 years and I don't think I have met 20 Irish people that picked fruit. Why do you assume it would be difficult to get accountancy work? Even if it is your experience in an office environment might get you an admin job or something.

The best place to meet people at the start is through staying in hostels or a share house.
Best of luck with it.

I did fruit picking. The best thing I ever did, met so many people from so many countries. Lived in rural Australia and saved allot of money. Living in a city is expensive. Working can be expensive. You'll need good clothes and maybe dry cleaning. My experience of Aus is office dress code is more formal that Ireland.
Living on a farm or small town is cheap.
My best memories of Australia is the people I met fruit picking, the craic I had in the sticks and the scenery.
Also you can get stuck in a city. end up staying there for 90% of you time trying to save money and then doing a small trip to Cairns at the end.
You really need to think of what you want. I know this can be hard. Do you want to get your career going or do you want to see a country and experience a lifestyle.
If it was me I'd do the fruit picking and travel around for the first year. And then for the second maybe try to get a job in or close to your qualification.
I wouldn't rule out fruit picking. While I was there you'd meet allot of Irish people who were snobbish about it. I was there (before the second year visa) fruit picking was for non native english speakers.

josealdo

Empire o de Sun wrote: »

I did fruit picking. The best thing I ever did, met so many people from so many countries. Lived in rural Australia and saved allot of money. Living in a city is expensive. Working can be expensive. You'll need good clothes and maybe dry cleaning. My experience of Aus is office dress code is more formal that Ireland.
Living on a farm or small town is cheap.
My best memories of Australia is the people I met fruit picking, the craic I had in the sticks and the scenery.
Also you can get stuck in a city. end up staying there for 90% of you time trying to save money and then doing a small trip to Cairns at the end.
You really need to think of what you want. I know this can be hard. Do you want to get your career going or do you want to see a country and experience a lifestyle.
If it was me I'd do the fruit picking and travel around for the first year. And then for the second maybe try to get a job in or close to your qualification.
I wouldn't rule out fruit picking. While I was there you'd meet allot of Irish people who were snobbish about it. I was there (before the second year visa) fruit picking was for non native english speakers.

i was there in 2010 and it was 20 bucks a hour for fruit picking .

also australia in.my view is like a cross between england and ameruca .

if i was you i would look at south america . that would be better experiences in my opinion .

roro1990

Where would be a good place to start? I'm thinking about Perth or Melbourne. I want to go pretty much straight into working on the farms. Will arrive in late February.

Misty Chaos

Perth is great if you want to make money but it's expensive and not really that lively. Melbourne is a great, lively city but the pay isn't as high as Perth.

As for farm work, I'm not really qualified to speak about areas around Perth or Melbourne as I did my farm work in Queensland. I will say this though - Stay clear of jobs where where you get paid by the bucket. I know people who did this and made NOTHING from it and even had to borrow money to make ends meet!

There are also a LOT of scams out there, I nearly got tricked myself when I was in Perth, so be prepared to do your research!

As for the type of farm work I did in Queensland - It was banana picking in a town about an hour south of Cairns called Innisfail. It felt like my home town really, right down to the fact Innisfail is one of the wettest places in Australia!
While I'm aware Banana picking is the main type of work around there - I also know of Fish farms and a few others types of fruit picking are done as well.

The type of jobs involved in banana farms are humping ( aka picking ) , hanging, sorting, stacking and leaf cutting to name a few. All farms I worked at paid 20 an hour which isn't too bad.

The working hostel I stayed at was called Walkabout Backpackers - while not the most modern hostel and a bit out from town - There was plenty of outside space, which came in handy on Friday night when everyone was getting smashed ( the owner would drive people into town for shopping twice a day - it was only a 20 minute walk regardless. ) All the other working hostels, which were in town, were a lot more cramped. Also, most people were friendly and I've quite a few memories from it.

If you do decide to go this route - I wouldn't recommend going straight to Queensland. Maybe a few days in Perth or Melbourne, THEN go to Queensland.

Regardless of what you decide to do, this site will be of use to you for finding farm work - jobsearch.gov.au/harvesttrail/

Hope that helps and if you do decide to go to Innisfail, let me know and I'll PM you the number for Walkabout Backpackers.

josealdo

roro1990 wrote: »

Where would be a good place to start? I'm thinking about Perth or Melbourne. I want to go pretty much straight into working on the farms. Will arrive in late February.

i know a painter in melbourne if you want work the minute you land off the plane

roro1990

Misty Chaos wrote: »

Perth is great if you want to make money but it's expensive and not really that lively. Melbourne is a great, lively city but the pay isn't as high as Perth.

As for farm work, I'm not really qualified to speak about areas around Perth or Melbourne as I did my farm work in Queensland. I will say this though - Stay clear of jobs where where you get paid by the bucket. I know people who did this and made NOTHING from it and even had to borrow money to make ends meet!

There are also a LOT of scams out there, I nearly got tricked myself when I was in Perth, so be prepared to do your research!

As for the type of farm work I did in Queensland - It was banana picking in a town about an hour south of Cairns called Innisfail. It felt like my home town really, right down to the fact Innisfail is one of the wettest places in Australia!
While I'm aware Banana picking is the main type of work around there - I also know of Fish farms and a few others types of fruit picking are done as well.

The type of jobs involved in banana farms are humping ( aka picking ) , hanging, sorting, stacking and leaf cutting to name a few. All farms I worked at paid 20 an hour which isn't too bad.

The working hostel I stayed at was called Walkabout Backpackers - while not the most modern hostel and a bit out from town - There was plenty of outside space, which came in handy on Friday night when everyone was getting smashed ( the owner would drive people into town for shopping twice a day - it was only a 20 minute walk regardless. ) All the other working hostels, which were in town, were a lot more cramped. Also, most people were friendly and I've quite a few memories from it.

If you do decide to go this route - I wouldn't recommend going straight to Queensland. Maybe a few days in Perth or Melbourne, THEN go to Queensland.

Regardless of what you decide to do, this site will be of use to you for finding farm work - jobsearch.gov.au/harvesttrail/

Hope that helps and if you do decide to go to Innisfail, let me know and I'll PM you the number for Walkabout Backpackers.

Cheers for the info, very kind of you to take the time to write all that out for me! Haven't quite decided yet what to do but will certainly PM you if I decide Innisfail. Will have to research if the fruit picking there is a year round thing though, would you know?

Your suggestion about not going straight to Queensland. If I was to do go to Innisfail would it not make sense to maybe head there first and make my way around Australia in a kind of U shape. So start in Queensland then all down along the east cost, along the south cost and finally in to Perth (after I've built up some funds on the farm)?

Also, in terms of meeting people. What's the best way to do it? Will I meet people at the working hostels or is it a better idea to go to a more kinda sociable/party hostel first to meet new people?

Misty Chaos

Bananas are all year round and is one of the main agricultural industries in Innisfail. That said, it does slow down a bit at certain times of the year ( ie, during the Australian winter months ) and the weather plays a part too.

If you want to know what time of year is best for picking fruit in Australia, download the Harvest Trail guide, it will tell you there; http://jobsearch.gov.au/documents/harvest%20guide%20-%20august%202014.pdf

I will also say that you may not get 5 days a week, it's usually 3 or 4 but it depends on the farm your sent to and how much fruit can be picked in a particular week ( I was on a smaller farm so it was usually 3 days a week, sometimes 4 though getting only 2 days can happen but it was rare and happened at the same time everyone else on other farms got only 2 days as well. )

The main reason I don't recommend going straight to Queensland is more to do with Cairns than anything else - While there are some great things to do there ( the great barrier reef for example ) there isn't a lot to do apart from drink imo but if you want to go straight to farm work then by all means do it.

Just a word of warning, though - It's going to be humid ( and probably wet - the wet season will be in full force by the time your there! ) It was a bit of shock to me even though I flew there for Perth!

And of course, you will not have a problem meeting people in the working hostels - Everyone is there for the same reason. I made friends there pretty easily, met people I otherwise wouldn't have met ( farm work brings an interesting mix of people together ) and the vibe in my dorm towards the end was really nice. And as I mentioned in my last post, Friday nights are when people go nuts on the booze!

Based on my experience, unless you're with people - I wouldn't recommend going to a party hostel. Gilligan's is the best known party hostel in Cairns but it's too big for it's own good to be honest but to be fair, I didn't have much money at the time so that might have had something to do with it.