By Stany

Hi, I am at the end of my working holiday in Australia and would like to share my experiences in this fantastic country. Before coming to Australia I had not planned anything and simply booked one way flight from Europe to Melbourne. I managed to find the right balance between working and travelling so that now when I leave the country I can proudly say that I visited all 8 states and territories of Australia and at the same time my bank account is fuller than ever.

In regard to travelling I visited the following places, all the way by bus only.

• Darwin- a nice small town, I did a lot of cycling around town, hostels are quite expensive there but massive breakfast is usually included, not many interesting buildings to see (the place has been twice destroyed by the Japanese and by a natural disaster) , also not many museums or galleries. Free internet at the Northern Territory Parliament building. Visit Tiwi Islands for an authentic touch with aboriginal culture.

• Katherine- boring small town on the way down to Alice Springs, mainly aboriginal population, not much to do, except going to the supermarket

• Tennant Creek- same like Katherine

• Alice Springs- nice town, you dont need more than 2-3 days to explore it, if you like walking get out of town and do the walk to the meteorological building, you will see plenty of wild kangoroos. Visit the cultural centre, where you have 2-3 museums. Excursion to Uluru is worth.

• Coober Peddy- good place to break the long overland journey from Alice to Adelaide. A lot of underground buildings, and a moon like atmosphere.

• Adelaide- I would not call it the nicest big city in Australia. The CBD was quite boring and the place is build so geometrically. The best thing about Adelaide is that it is the only place in OZ where you can hire a bicycle for free as well as the fantastic area arond the beach (near the last stop of the tram).

• Melbourne- big, less pretentious than Sydney, many good museums and galleries, nice graffiti everywhere, I did not like CBD- too busy and too many rushing office workers as well as a weird mixture of old and modern buildings. The nearby suburbs are nicer- Collingwood, Carlton, Fitzroy in the north or South Yarra, St Kilda in the south. Many backpackers here especially in summer when hostels cost more.
  Regional Victoria- there are more nice urban centres in this state than Melbourne, I visited Ballarat, Bendigo, Shepparton, Geelong and Ararat. A lot of pretty colonial architecture to be seen, and the best thing- complete lack of backpackers.

• Canberra- wow, I love it (and yes, nobody else does). So peaceful, relax place full with educated, sophisticated people who have the highest income per person in the country. Amazing museums and galleries, fantastic to visit the new parliament and the old parliament which is now the museum of democracy. Beautiful lake dominates the city center and the place is surrounded by hills. War memorial is a must! Not much cheap accommodation available, only YHA from 32$ a night. Not many backpackers here, most of them make the mistake to fly between Melbourne and Sydney and skip the capital.

• Sydney- nice, more scenic than Melbourne, very touristy, fantastic for long distance walking- I walked from opera house to north head via manly beach and from opera house to south head and Bondi beach.
  -Brisbane- it has nice river and free ferries, but no beach. City centre is small. There is a hill just about few km from CBD with incredible views of the city.

• Cairns- sooo touristy and commercialized, a walk in the city centre means seeing only souvenir shops, backpacker hostels and travel agencies. Not much to do in the city. See some Torres Straight Islanders around. The cheapest hostels in OZ are here, starting from 10-12$ a night often with dinner and breakfast included. I really hate mass tourism so was glad to leave this place.

• Townsville- nice town, it felt soo good after Carns. Amazing views from the hill above town and nice water front

• Magnetic Island- fantastic for walking, I did all possible walking tracks, amazing hostels right on the beach.
  -Mount Isa- boring town in the middle of nowhere, very hot and dusty but thats the real Australia. A truly mining town. The only thing you can do here is to drink beer and swim in the pool (unless you like to pay 50$ to enter a mine). One hostel available but I met only 1 backpacker there.

• Kunnunura- lovely place. Small aboriginal town in WAs outback, beautiful national park located within the town, great place to learn some aboriginal culture.

• Broome- its OK but not special, beach is big and wide, centre is small and with Asian influence. There are amazing rock formations around the coast. Plenty of hostels available.
  -Carnarvon- nice to break the long overland trip on the West coast, but not much to see and do. Hard to find cheap accommodation. Fantastic corals and opportunities for snorkeling (around the blue holes area). Like the East Coast but without the thousands drunk backpackers everywhere.

• Geraldton- just a average size WA town, nice buildings.

• Perth- I love it. Nice centre and the Queens park is wonderful. Not too big and not too small. Better wages than on the East coast too.

• Fremantile- a wonderful place, with nice atmosphere and some of the best architecture you will see in Australia.

• Rottnest Island- beautiful, definitely worth the money. A bicycle is a must, ferry tickets are half price on Tuesday.

• Hobart- amazing, I felt like I landed in Scandinavia. The views from mt Wellington are the best views you will see in Australia. Food is amazing, a lot of organic stuff and the saturday market is great. Trips to Port Arthur and some national parks are worth.

• Launceston- great, Cataract Gorge is stunning and a must. Fantastic buildings everywhere. Trips to Cradle Mountain are great.

So I visited Northern Territory, South Australia, Victoria, ACT, New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania. Thats way I think my working holiday was great. Not many backpackers visit all states of OZ which is a massive mistake because one year is more than enough to do it. Unfortunately many travelers seem obsessed with working and forget to travel. The biggest mistake of many is to do only the East coast and forget for the rest- if you want to experience OZ, dont do it and get out of the over touristy East coast.
- Transport- I traveled the entire country (16 000 km) with a bus pass from Greyhound which cost me only 715$ (it is called 21 day pass) which gives you the opportunity to travel 21 days within 2 months, so I did the entire East coast, West coast, crossed between Darwin and Adelaide and crossed the country from East to West in the middle for only 715$.
- Prices- its quite expensive country, food is expensive and especially alcohol. Buy all clothes, shoes and other stuff from Big W or K Mart. There you can buy jeans or shoes for 10$ or bicycle for 70$. Buy food in the evening in Coles and Woolworth when many products are discounted. Hostels are between 12$ (in Cairns) to 32-35$ per bed. If you want to travel cheaply (and weather is not the most important thing for you) go to the Southern cities (Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth) in the winter when is low season and hostels are cheap and go to Darwin, Broome and Cairns in the summer. So you will spend much less on accommodation, there will be not too many backpackers around and the competition for jobs is lower.
- Jobs- easy to find job. Most backpackers work in hospitality, washing cars, laundry, farms, fundraising. Most get between 15 and 22$ per hour. Personally i did only 2 jobs, firstly I started as a kitchen hand in a restaurant in Melbourne for 18$ per hour but I hated it so much that i quit after 5 days. My second job which I did for very long time ( around 6 months) was door to door installation of free energy saving products, The pay is only commission but I learned one thing about commission jobs- if you are lazy you make less than with per hour paid job, if you work hard you can make several times more than with hourly paid job. And of course- dont do fundraising, you dont make much money with it. With this job I managed to make about 2000$-2500$ a week, most of which I saved. Many backpackers are doing this job but most dont make that much, I worked in small countryside towns and worked 10 hours a day to make it. In the end I managed to save about 40 000$ which means that I dont need to worry about working during my working holiday in New Zealand which starts soon.

I recommend to everyone to find the right balance between working and travelling. I proved to myself that it is possible- to travel extensively and see all 8 states of Australia and to save a lot of money.
The best place in OZ was Tasmania- the food, beaches, hostels, scenery, national parks, wild life in Tassie are just amazing. The other thing that I found great was the outback- and especially the contact with the aboriginal people. I visited aboriginal people in their homes and went to house party with them. In general, the best experiences I had in OZ were far away from the East coast where most backpackers spend their working holiday- hiking in the mountains of Tasmania, experiencing aboriginal culture in the desert in WA and NT and snorkeling and swimming on empty beaches on the West coast.

Just forgot some things:

• The cheapest food you can find in OZ is in Aldi- you have them only in Victoria, NSW, ACT and Queensland. Also the cheapest alcohol is there- 2,49 for a bottle of wine and 25$ for 24 cans of beer.

• In regard to hostels- there are two types- hostels with a bar attached to it and hostels without a bar. I would recommend everyone to choose a hostel without a bar because of two reasons. Firstly, in hostels with a bar you are not allowed to buy your own alcohol in the shop and bring into the hostel due to license regulations. So you dont have choice but pay very high prices to drink in the bar and thats not what you want as a backpacker- you will end spending much more in such a hostel. In hostels without bar, you can just buy cheap wine and beer in some shop and drink it in the hostel. Secondly, hostels that have a bar are often extremely noisy at night so you will hardly be able to sleep because of the music.

• OZ is a great place to meet animals that we dont have in Europe, North America or Asia. I saw many wild kangoroos and quokkas. You can see wild koalas and I also saw emus in the desert in WA. There are camels in Broome and you can ride them on the beach and you can feed and touch wild dolphins in Monkey Mia on the West coast. You can also meet some crocodiles, sharks, deadly jellyfishes and snakes but you will be happy to avoid them, unless in a sanctuary. Its hard to see any Tasmanian Devil in the wild but possible in sanctuaries in Tasmania.

• When opening a bank account, be sure that is really free one and there are not monthly fees (NAB has such one). Withdraw money only from your own bank ATMs to avoid paying 2$ every time you withdraw.

• If you like pizza- Dominos on Tuesday is half price, and if you like ice cream- cheapest one is in McDonalds for 0,30$.

• If you like to avoid paying taxes- get an ABN (Australian Business Number) online at the internet site of the tax office. Then ask your employer if you can work as a contractor (possible especially in construction, door to door jobs and some others). In that case you will get all your money without tax deduction, but you are supposed to pay the taxes by yourself. I havent seen any backpacker to do so. Even if you work as an employee, you may get some tax back after you have left OZ, but with ABN its easier.

• Flights- domestic flights are not very expensive, but you wont see anything on the way while if travelling overland there is always something to explore. Cheapest flights to Asia are from Perth with Tiger Airways, cheapest way to get to Tasmania is also Tiger Airways from Melbourne- from 50$ one way (Spirit of Tasmania will cost you more).
  -Aboriginal people- when I came to OZ I had very romantic idea of the indigenous people of OZ. It’s easy to become disillusioned after seeing them. You cant experience real aboriginal culture in Sydney, Melbourne or any big city in OZ. You really need to go to the NT, WA outback or some parts of Queensland to see them. In fact, I believe that most of white Australians have little or totally no contact with these people. The reality is sad- aboriginal people have life expectancy about 12 years lower than white Australians, they drink really a lot, many of them are not educated, I saw many indigenous kids of 7-8 years old smoking tobacco and there is a lot of violence in aboriginal communities. I visited aboriginal slump in Kunnunura in WA and also went to aboriginal party in another slump in Broome. It remind me of my travels in Africa and India- extremely poor, dirty, with load music and violent clashes. The statistics I saw when I visited a prison in WA were shocking- the incarceration rate of Aboriginal people in WA is 5 times that of the black South Africans during the Apartheid. 39% of all prisoners in WA are aboriginal despite the fact that only 3,5% of the population in WA is aboriginal. 75% of all children in WA prisons are aboriginal. When travelling in the outback, you will see many sitting under the palm trees all day long and drinking beer. In general, they are really nice and extraordinary friendly people, having their own traditions and culture but obviously not able to adapt to the lifestyle of white Australians. Anyway, as a backpacker it’s a vital part of the OZ experience to meet and learn to know the first Australians, as it is vital to meet the Maori when on working holiday in NZ.

• Health Care- it is very expensive to go to the doctor in OZ, take a travel insurance before coming here. The lucky ones are the nationals of New Zealand, UK, Ireland, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Italy, Malta, Norway and Slovenia. These countries have reciprocal health care agreements with OZ. You need to go to Medicare office with your European Health Insurance Card and copy of your visa and they will give you OZ Medicare Card which will partly cover medical costs in OZ.

One more thing to make you go to Tasmania- MONA (Museum of Old and New Art). OMG- if there is anything in Australia that you can call controversial, shocking, disturbing and memorable its MONA. You may hate it or you may love it, but that's one museum you will never forget. The graphic images of sex, death and euthanasia are mind blowing and not for everyone. You love it or you hate it. i loved it! Its close to Hobart and you can get there by special boat or bus organised by the museum (more expensive) or local bus (cheaper). Entree is 20$ (its worth).

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