Touch Down Australia!

After finishing university last year, I wondered where my next step could take me. Like many other twenty-something-year olds, I asked myself, 'should I try to climb the career ladder or travel?' I chose the latter. More specifically, I chose Australia! I saved up my pennies and embarked on the trip of a lifetime as a working holiday maker!

Fremantle Beach

October 4th, I touched down in Perth, Western Australia and began my WHV. A working holiday visa (WHV) is an initially yearlong visa that allows travellers to work and live anywhere in Australia. To extend it however, you must complete 3 months rural/farm work for your second year, and 6 months for your third. There’s lots of parameters that you must meet for your visa to be signed off, you can read about that here. With the new Australia-United Kingdom free trade agreement, these requirements may be scrapped, but there's no set date for this to be implemented yet, so I’m travelling with the mindset that I will have to complete this work to extend my visa.

The first challenge of travelling to Australia is the long-haul flight. My particular flight path, left London Gatwick at 9am, laid over in Doha and finally arrived in Perth 6pm local time. After a full day or travelling I was inevitably tired, but luckily managed to sleep a lot on the planes, so stayed up until a reasonable bedtime (10pm..) to avoid jet lag. After a few days in Perth, I travelled to Sydney. While only a mere 3-hour flight difference, this was the trip gave me jet lag. Sydney is 3 hours ahead of Perth, so when I arrived at 10pm, I was wide awake. I was exhausted the next day, and it took a good week to adjust properly. While sometimes it is hard to time your flights with your established sleep schedule, I would recommend doing your research about flight lengths and time zones. This way you can manipulate them to help you before just booking, in my case, the cheapest flight!

Sydney Opera House

On the topic of time, one thing I struggled with was calling home. For me, home is England. We are blessed to have excellent technology today, but when you’re on the other side of the world, it’s not as simple as picking up the phone. My evening is home’s morning, and my morning is their evening. While having to plan when to catch up with people isn’t exactly a hardship, it really triggered my homesickness.

When you’re coming to the end of the flight you have to fill out a customs form declaring anything you may be bringing into Australia which is prohibited. This was something I was unnecessarily worried about, as they just ask what you have at customs wave you straight through. Australia is very strict with what comes into their country though, so make sure you do your research on what you’re allowed to bring in. As for the average backpacker, nothing you’re bringing is anything to worry about.

I had airport transfer booked for when I landed in Sydney, but was unable to tell them I'd arrived due to only having an English sim. Top tip: Australian pay phones allow you to make free calls to anyone in Australia! Note down any transfer, hotel or important numbers you may need and utilise the pay phones before you get your Aussie sim sorted!

My reason for travelling to Sydney was to join a backpacker 'Intro to Australia' tour. This is something I would definitely recommend to any backpackers planning to stay an extended amount of time here, especially if you're not meeting friends/relatives who already live here.

While you do embark on some fun activities and touristy sight seeing, the main aim of these tours is to help you build foundations. They help you set up your phone, bank account, TFN (tax file number), Super (legally required pension) and even help you apply for jobs. You can absolutely do all of this by yourself, and save money while doing so, these groups simply offer support. Practicalities aside, tours are a great way to make friends. They eliviate the pressure of walking up to a stranger and saying 'Hi, I'm Phoebe!' Everyone is new, everyone wants to make friends, everyone is in the same awkward boat. I've met people I cannot imagine living without now through tours.

As my life in Australia, I will continue to write and share my experiences, I hope you enjoy reading about them as much as I enjoy writing about them! Good'ay!