Working Holiday in Australia

My travels so far have mainly been on the beaten tourist trail, except for some places in South America. But there are few places left in the world that are fully off those roads often trodden by travellers.

And none more so than here in Australia. So many people, at least British people, stop here halfway round the world with a working holiday visa and earn some money for the rest of their trip. And for a lot of people Australia is the main stop, where they spend most of their year travelling and then they'll just have a couple of other stops, maybe in South East Asia or the US. For me, Australia is a bit of a cash cow. I wasn't even that bothered about including it in this trip. But when I heard how good the wages are here and the apparent ease of finding work I thought it would be a good idea to hop on the wagon.

When I was first planning my trip I had a lot of questions about how to set up a life here in Oz. It was, and still is, the biggest question mark about my trip because the rest of my year all hinges on how much money I make here and how much longer I can afford to be on the road.

I have found casual work in a nearby French cafe, but it's only a couple of days a week cash in hand (so not even minimum wage) and I'm not sure how long it will last. So I'm still looking for something a bit more secure. I found that job within two weeks of arriving, but I have given my resume into over 50 places, and only had a few bites. So I'm not finding it overly easy to stumble into work. But it's still early days yet.

So, I had a lot of questions before I arrived, and when I arrived here, so I thought I'd make a bit of a checklist here on my blog and try to answer them as best I can, according to my experience of sorting everything out.

How do you apply for a working holiday visa for Australia?

How do you get proof of your working holiday visa?

How do you find long-term accommodation?

How do you set up an Australian bank account?

How do you get an Australian phone number?

How do you get an Australian tax file number (TFN)?

How do you register for Medicare?

How do you find work in Australia?

How do you get an RSA certificate?

I'll answer these questions in separate posts, and hopefully it will make it easier for anyone wanting to do the same things I've done.