Australia working holiday visa (417)

I decided to head back to Australia but this time on a working holiday visa rather than a tourist visa, So I thought I would put together a post of some tips and tricks of things that I picked up along the way of going through this process.

- Obviously the visa it's self is a must. This cost around £250 which is a bit steep but worth it in the long run. I was told this visa could take from a couple days to a few weeks to arrive. But mine was actually accepted the same evening I applied which was amazing (I am assuming its because I was already on the system from my tourist visa a few weeks before)

- Jabs: I struggled with this one as I didn't realise that previous jabs of mine would have be to renewed after a certain amount of years so best to have a look into it. Due to it being such short notice before I left for Australia I couldn't get in with my doctor so I booked in with MASTA Travel health centre who are fantastic! Can't recommend them enough.

- Selling items: I realised that being away for possibly 2 years lots of my things at home won't be used or needed. So I went on a massive cut down spree and sold my car, lots of furniture, clothes that haven't been worn in a while and other belongs. This helped massively with decluttering and gave me some money for my travels. I mostly used facebook market page and the Depop app.

- Having a rough plan: Most areas have facebook pages to meet locals or ideas on fun stuff to do. I found social media great when looking for fun things to do. I will also put together a list of all the fun stuff we did in and around certain areas in Australia.

- Tax number: You'll need an Australian tax number for when you are working in Aus so it's best to apply for this as soon as you land in Australia to give it time to arrive (mine took about a week to get to me) You are able to get these sent to a local postoffice if you don't have a current address.

- Australian ID: Lots of places don't take English drivers licenses (found this a lot in Perth but lots of places don't actually mind too much) and I wouldn't recommend taking your passport on nights out with you. It's not super expensive and you can get this sent to a local postoffice as well if you don't have an address.

-Australian bank account: This was super easy but is a must when it comes to working in Aus. I waited until I had set up my Sim and Tax number before I did this as you'll need to give this information for the account. But if your tax number hadn't arrived yet don't worry as you'll still be able to set it up and give the bank this number at a later date.

- Australia Sim: This is super important as while looking for work in Australia lots of the places will want to phone or text you so its good to get this sorted straight away. I went with a pay as you go contract which you can terminate at any point.

Work: In Australia to get your second year sorted you have to do 88 days of regional farm work. We (Me and my boyfriend Myles) decided we wanted to do our farm work in the winter (June-August) due to it being colder and not working in the scorching heat, as well as then having the summer to enjoy for ourselves. We struggled with this as it was out of season for lots of the fruits so it took us a lot longer to find something. But I thought I'd put together a list of what we found worked best.

- Facebook groups: This is a great way to find farm work, especially as you can hear from peoples experiences rather than just an employer looking for backpackers.

> 2nd year visa farm work Australia

> Backpackers 88 days and counting

> Farm jobs Australia

> Australia fruit picking/packing/farm jobs/88 days

There are also lots of groups specific to places such as farm work in Perth, Cairns, Sydney and many more it's worth having a look. We also found posting on these pages advertising who we are, what sort of work we are looking for and our previous experience. This was helpful as we received advice and recommendations because of this.

- Putting an add on Gumtree was also helpful, stating that you are looking for farm work.

- An app called 88days is also worth a look as it shows lots of regional work all over Australia. (When we actually found our farm work we used this app to calculate our days: disclaimer it does say it isn't 100% accurate but does help)

- Recommendations from friends/ people you meet on your travels, I was actually lucky enough to have a few people I met along my travels in Australia and a few friends from home who have done/were doing their farm work in Australia which I found very useful.

It's actually been a couple of months since I typed out this post and we have actually found farm work. We are currently working in Mildura, Victoria in a Garlic factory! We are now quarter of a way into our 88 days and it seems to have flown by. How we found this job was through a friend of mine from home who was also In Mildura at the time and basically said there was a few jobs available so we jumped at the chance. As my friend had recommended this place we trusted it and got in touch which worked out great for both of us. I will be doing another post at the end of our 88 days saying how we found it and where we stayed.