Arriving in Australia is a strange experience. Coming from the other side of the world and travelling for nearly a day, you expect to land completely out of your comfort zone. This is exactly what you don't get. Immediately after disembarking the plane you are greeted with the English speaking foreigners, good English at that. (with a strong ozzy twang that you soon get used to)Passport control officers are still as depressing as ever but I guess some things never change
Lucky for us we already had some friends living in Oz before we arrived and they had kindly offered us free accommodation to get us settled in. Unlucky for us that accommodation was a 3 hour train journey away from Melbourne. I cant tell you how worth it it was. If you painted a picture of what you expected to see in Australia you wouldn't be far off this house. One afternoon me and jas were in the garden hanging out our washing and we ere joined by a group of kangaroos. It doesn't get more ozzy than that!
after a week of drinking and looking at the beautiful night skies it was time to face the reality and go get jobs in the city. 3 hours back to Melbourne.
Finding work in a city you don't know, in a country your not from is hard people. The biggest advice I can give you is to gain experience in hospitality/catering/call centre/care work/receptionist/retail etc before you arrive. These are the sorts of industries that are more likely to hire a traveller. One thing that most people overlook is that your Working holiday visa only permits you to work for one employer for up to 6 months. This seems like a long time to you, but to an employer its really not. The rules on employing travellers in Oz are rumoured to be changing soon so it could be about to get a whole lot tougher.
Saying all this it only took me a couple of weeks to find a good job. As long as you are willing to work hard and learn most employers can overlook your brief stay. Have a good CV ready before you arrive so you can hit the ground running and start searching right away.
Peterpans travel agents its an absolute life saver.We had one just around the corner from our hostel which was very convenient. All you have to do is sign up to a free card and you can use the computers and internet for as long as you like for FREE! This is perfect for streamlining your CV and looking for jobs on Gumtree. Ah Gumtree! If you are looking for anything youll find it on gumtree. We used it to find work,accomodation and I even got myself a nice pushbike . Deffinatly worth a visit.
finding a place to live, important stuff this. Best thing to do is start small and work up. Get a large dorm room in a hostel and start talking to people. You may even make friends and get a place together. You always get those strange people in hostels that have been there for months and never plan on leaving. Ive never understood those people. Hostels are a great starting point but once you have a job and a steady income grow up and find our own room. I will say that these people have some great stories and always know where the best bars are though.
Talking from my own experience a hostel is the best place to start. Theres information literally everywhere on where to find work, shared housing and even cars to buy.
After 8 days we had enough of paying for wifi and found a student house with a spare room. The house we found was actually two houses that had been joined by an extension that was built between them. The room was ok, but the house itself was falling apart and the students were not intent on keeping it clean. BUT, the wifi was free and we finally had our own room.
3 months of cleaning up other peoples dishes and trying to sleep under the fog of weed smoke was 2 and half months too much if you ask me. We packed our bags and upgraded to a beautiful apartment on the other side of the city. We had a view a pool, a gym, and a dog. perfect.
The only advice I can give is to stay persistent. Look around for jobs and housing and talk to people. Doesn't sound like profound advice but its really the only thing that works.
Good luck
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