Australia - 1 year work visa

Loobz

Hi all.

Myself and my girlfriend were thinking of going to Sydney, Australia in September for 1 year to work. We are in our 20's. We dont know anybody that is living there at the moment. We are a little worried about two things:

1) Work.
What type of work will be available to us? (I presume bar, restaurant work is in abundance.) We are worried that we wont get work and wont have money. We dont want to be stuck in a bar all weekend.

2) Accomodation
We think it will be difficult to get accomodation. I presume the price for accomodation is high in Sydney.

My brother was there for 6 months. He worked on sites as he does here in Ireland. He could barely work in the heat. I dont think I would last either!

I would like information on this. Has anybody been in the same situation?

We really want to go because now is the time to do something like this.

Cheers ; )

silverside

when i was there

decent work was hard to get as there are a lot of backpackers there and locals got first preference for longer-term jobs.

there was some unskilled work in:
labouring
call centre work
picking&packing
cafe/restaurant

but the cafe/restaurant jobs took time to find. the others were fairly easy to find through hostel noticeboards etc.

the wages arent nearly as high as here. but then again your savings will go a lot further as well.

if you/your gf has skills as e.g. nurse, programmer, accountant, etc use them as you should be able to get contract work but may take longer to find.

accomodation is fairly easy to find, if you stay in a hostel for a week or two you should hear something on the grapevine. And cheap - you should be able to find something decent within 2km of the city centre for less than 100 bucks a week each, in areas like Glebe, Ultimo, Potts Point, Redfern (nicer parts of - avoid the ghetto near the Block!). They are OK areas, nothing fancy, something the equivalent of Phibsboro in Dublin. Hostel noticeboards or the free papers are the way to find these.

There aresome nice high-rise apartments in Potts Point near the top of the Kings Cross road which are decent and not too expensive, but might need 3 or 4 of you to make it cheap.

Everyone goes to sydney, but there is also work in Melbourne, & the competition from other backpackers is less intense, some would say its a nicer city to live in also. Theres not much work in the other cities though (Perth,Brisbane) but then again less competition.

If you can manage to save up a few grand before you go, it will go a long way over there, and you can tour around that bit more.

Loobz

Thanks for info - very helpful. My brother said a few grand would help at the start while looking for jobs. September is a long way off and we may get a few mates to go - dont think we will though.

I work in an AOL call centre so that might help. Wouldnt mind Internet Cafe work.

Loobz

We really wanted to get out of Ireland and see something different.

Our man in Havana

Originally posted by Loobz

I work in an AOL call centre so that might help. Wouldnt mind Internet Cafe work.

As do I. There is an aol call centre in Australia. You could set up the job before you leave.

Loobz

Good idea. Thats worth a look.

briano

I was over there 4 years ago (straight after the leaving cert) and found it quite difficult to find work in bars, despite the fact that I'd been working in them since I was 15. In fact, I found it difficult to get any type of work ( I was in Brisbane/Gold Coast area )

The rules then, and I don't think that they've changed, were that you can only stay in a job for 3 months if you are on a working visa. This means that some places are reluctant to hire you if you will require a lot of training.

BUT, its not all grim. Register with a temping agency ( like Kelly, who also have an office on Grafton Street ). I was able to get some really cool work through them at the Gold Coast Indy and V8 supercars. They tend to have short term work that pays pretty well, but tends to be sporadic. And involves heavy lifting. Always with the heavy lifting

Also, some of the Irish bars belong to franchises (like pj o'briens where I ended up working) that have set rules as to how the pubs are to be run. The best one of these rules, as far as you're concerned, is that they need to have a certain percentage of Irish/UK staff working there at all times. So you might just get lucky and either be interviewed by someone who knows someone you know (it happens more than you'd think) or get taken on just so they can fill their 'irish' quota.

Finally, It mightn't hurt to apply online to as many places as you can before you leave. Someday when its quite in AOL or something.

Good Luck

ebowdia

Hi all,
Myself and the girlfriend are hoping to head to Australia in September for a year also. We're planning probably spending 2 months or so in Thailand on the way, arriving in Melbourne towards the end of November. We plan to settle in Melbourne then for a minimum of three months and then depending on cash move on, perhaps to Sydney for a while.

Can anyone advise what the job situation could be like when we arrive over in late November - could we have missed the boat with a lot of the seasonal jobs by then? Would it be advisable to arrive earlier?

silverside

most jobs arent seasonal - except fruit/vegetable picking, which is back breaking work anyway. Oz doesnt shut down for christmas either. Don't worry about it - November is a good a time as any other.

ebowdia

Thanks silverside. Both of us will be in our late twenties when we travel - would this disadvantage us job wise in any way do you think? Also, how strict are they with the 3 month max in any one job thing?

silverside

no its more likely to be an advantage as you will presumably have experince of some sort.

there were ways around the 3 month thing - agencies could sign you on under a different company name, and if you are good at what you do, they will suggest this - but unless the job is really special I personally wouldnt want to spend more than 3 months in one place anyway. The immigration people are strict but I dont think they put too much effort into policing the 3 month rule, however if they did find out, you could be out on the next plane.

ebowdia

Like you say, everyone goes to Sydney, assuming that you've been to Melbourne, could you tell me a little about it? Is there much of an Irish population there? Is it cheaper to live there compared to Sydney? I've heard that the weather there can be a bit mad - very windy - is this a big deal?

silverside

there are some irish but not as many as sydney. I found there wasnt the same backpacker scene there, everyone does their own thing. Its not quite as lively as sydney, more european. Doesnt have the spectacular harbour and landmarks that sydney has, city centre is a bit dead, but some lovely restaurants, nice parkland, loads of comedy clubs, good local bars, etc. The casino is huge and has a few ok clubs in it. Its cleaner as well.

St Kilda is a nice area, very mediterannean, loads of pizza restaurants, beside the beach. I lived in Middle Park (where the melbourne F1 was), right beside a lake and the harbour, pretty enough.

it gets windy and quite cool and dark in the evenings in oz winter (from around april), but in the autumn its nice.

with a year you could try both and see which you like, they are 18 hour bus ride apart which is not too bad.

ebowdia

Cheers silverside, that info is perfect. Like you say, we do have a year, so we probably will do both for 3 months each, and get in some traveling over there for the remaining months of the trip. We hope to have 4-5 grand each heading over, so hopefully we should be able to afford some traveling for a month or two after working.

What kind of work did you get over? Did you travel much?

silverside

got contract computer work, well paid but boring (for me).

travelled lots, sydney, blue mountains, surfing trip along coast, canberra (worth a day or two), melbourne, tasmania (beautiful bushwalking, friendly people), ocean road, adelaide (boring city, winery tour was deadly), perth/fremantle (fremantle great great place), road trip from adelaide to alice (saw ayers rock kings canyon and loads of other stuff along way), alice is a kip - mcdonnell ranges are pretty - hire a car and spend a day out there - , darwin is hot and lazy, not much goes on there but drinking, cairns - another tourist town but great for diving the barrier reef, go to cape trip and see crocodiles, brisbane/sunshine coast - more really cool people, underrated city for chilling out in, go to the koala farm/zoo.

aah (takes deep breath)

yeah, great country. you should have a great time.

ebowdia

Yes indeed, you did travel a lot! We hope to do something similar travel wise hopefully - there is no point going over there for a year and just working - you can do that here! I would hope to get some computer contract work also if I'm lucky - can be boring like you say, but sure if it pays well, then it will do! Failing that I don't mind working anywhere really for a few months - bars, construction, whatever....

Did you get one of those Backpacker bus package tickets then for the traveling? We were thinking about maybe buying an old car for it, but since the gf doesn't drive, then there could be a bit too much for me to do! What do you think?

silverside

nah, oz experience is full of english 19 y.o.s on the p!ss, they dont go anywhere the regular coaches dont. I did a tour for the great ocean road and for the adelaide - ayers rock - part. heres the trip i did and id recommend it
http://www.headingbush.com/

if your gf doesnt drive, then teach her, or get the bus. distances are too long unless you have 2 or 3 people to share the driving - long straight roads, easy to fall asleep. Heard some horror stories about old cars falling apart as well but you can be lucky/unlucky.

ebowdia

Thanks again silverside - had a look at that site, sounds great! Will definitely check them out when we're over....