Graduating from University, what an anti climax to 3 glorious years that was, finding myself working on a checkout beep beep beep, not the place i anticipated to be, the constant day dream of adventure in a far a way place forever on my mind. The foundations are there, I want to work and travel in Australia, venturing out on my lonesome come February 2014. However, there are some fairly niggling queries that aren't getting solved. Maybe someone can help me? Firstly, is it wise to sign up to an organisation like the global work and travel company, or should I just brave it and go with little plans, saving myself roughly £1000? It seems quite legit, i.e. they find you a job before you go, a few nights accommodation, meeting fellow lone warriors. I'm very undecided, planning really isn't my strongest point. Secondly, where's the best place to live, I do love city living and all that follows it, then again I want to see the real Australia, drinking beer watching the sunsets, surfing the waves, meeting new people etc. Melbourne or Brisbane are the stand out two for me after some reading, but I'm sure there's more out there. It's vital I find a job asap so that's another headache, how hard is it to get a job out in OZ?
Pilgrims please help me!
There are no right answers to these questions. You can go with a company taking care of hand-holding the entire way, or you can go and figure it all out by yourself, and either way, you'll almost certainly have a very good time indeed.
Similarly, any city you decide upon will be a worthwhile place to experience living in for a while, and if you travel around, you'll almost certainly stumble upon a place you like better.
Me, I'm in favour of doing it all on your own. That's how I did it, and tackling the easy things like setting up a bank account and tax file number helped grow my confidence. Nowadays, I know that pretty much whatever life throws my way, I can handle it - and that started with my time in Australia and New Zealand. Every couple of days I'd arrive in a completely new and unknown town or city, and would start the process of exploring it from scratch. I'd build up a routine, learn to be comfortable - and then move on. I dealt with whatever needed dealing with, waited too long to find work and had to go super-frugal for a bit, found work, learned to be successful. Just me. Big confidence boost. (And objectively it's really not very hard to be a backpacker on your own in these countries. They have superb infrastructure for backpackers, and a ton of people around who can help if you do end up actually needing outside input somewhere along the way. And really, there's a ton of people all on their own out there, and you'll have no trouble at all getting to swap tales with them just by hanging out in your hostel's lounge.)
As for cities: I personally found Brisbane to be rather boring. Melbourne I lived in for far too long, but liked a lot better (great live music scene). Sydney always has a ton going on, and is more obviously attractive from a tourist point of view, but probably is similar to Melbourne when living there long-term. Maybe a bit more hit-or-miss with regard to its neighbourhoods.
Obviously these big cities have the most work available, but if you aren't in a field which requires this (I'm in IT, and then it's way easier to find projects in a big city), I'd rather look at small to mid-sized towns to do some working. Much easier to get to know people and get a taste of the real life. Obviously not nearly as much going on, though.
[ 07-Oct-2013, at 09:56 by Sander ]
Thanks for the reply!! I'm definitely contemplating starting in Melbourne and going from there, finding a job the only slight concern, but I'm sure it'll work out.
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