Country Guides: Australia - Guide to Working in Australia

So long as you stick to the conditions of your visa, you can do any job you like in Australia. One gapyear.com member worked as an extra on a film; another took people horse-riding on Cable Beach for a living. However, most backpackers work in one of the following areas:

When a fruit or vegetable crop is ready to be harvested, farmers need plenty of temporary workers that are willing to slog hard for a few weeks to get the harvest in. This is where backpackers come in handy. Most backpackers with working holiday visas spend some time picking bananas, grapes, beans, asparagus or other crops. It's hard, physical work, but there can be a great sense of community as you'll be working in a team with other backpackers and locals. If you want to extend your visa to two years, you'll need to do a minimum of three months harvest work.

Jobs are advertised through word of mouth, on backpacker notice boards or specialist websites. For an idea of what's ripe, where and when, see the map on the following page. Contracts are often casual, so make sure you confirm your working hours and wages in advance with your employer. You'll usually be paid by the weight of what you've picked, rather than by the hour.

"The best thing about working in Australia is the people you meet. I did a few agricultural jobs, fruit-picking in particular, and had an amazing time living and working with some brilliant gappers from all over the world including Canada, USA and Europe. Plus the social life was brilliant!"

Justin Hurn

Work For Bed and Board

If you plan to stay in one place for a bit, a great way to cut down on your costs is to do a few hours work a day in exchange for somewhere to sleep and something to eat. Tasks can involve anything from manning the front desk to making the beds, but it's nearly always a key to a pretty easy life. You won't make yourself rich this way, but it's a good way of extending your trip without doing anything silly, like working hard or getting stressed and stuff like that.

Not every hostel will be up for this of course, but chances are that in any given town there will be somewhere that offers its longer-term residents a deal of this nature. All you need to do is find yourself somewhere to stay, then ask around a bit; start at the front desk of your hostel.

"Working in hostels is great because you can get free lodging and food and meet the guests and locals. The people working there were really cool and I learnt a lot more than I thought I would. I think work is a must though. It gets you inside a place rather than floating over it as a tourist."

Tom Garrett

Bar Work and Working as a Waiter/ess

From hip bars in Sydney to tiny pubs in the Outback, there are plenty of jobs available for bar and waiting staff across Australia. Most will require you to have some experience - why not get a job in a UK pub before you go, to learn the tricks of the trade? You'll be much more employable if you know a Castlemaine from a Cosmopolitan.

You'll also need a Responsible Service of Alcohol (RSA) certificate, which you can only get once you've arrived in Oz. This involves taking a one-day course, which will teach you not to serve alcohol to toddlers or unconscious people, and sitting a written exam. The course will set you back around AU$100 (£40). Nobody ever fails.

Office Temping

In towns and cities, your best bet for finding work might be to sign up for a temping agency. Businesses approach these agencies looking for temporary staff, to work in call centres or offices, often in data entry positions. The agency then picks the most relevant people from its books and offers them the work. Make sure you ring your agency or pop in regularly - if you're fresh in their minds and seem keen, you're more likely to get work. You'll know whether work like this suits you or not: the pay isn't bad, and the hours are generally sociable (Monday to Friday, 9 to 5:30), but you might feel that you didn't go travelling to sit behind a desk!

A quick note about temping - if you know you'll be applying to agencies, it'd definitely make sense to either take over a few paper copies of your CV and references or to email digital copies to yourself for printing at a later date. It helps speed the whole application process up, and will give the agency a better idea of the types of work you'll be suited to.

Construction Work

If you're a dependable, hard worker with some construction experience, why not work on a building site? You'll need a health and safety 'Green Card', for which you'll need to do a one-day course costing around AU$100 (£40). Green Card holders can generally find well-paid work lasting anything from one day to several months - it'll help if you have your own work boots. Approach labour hire companies or enquire at building sites or Irish bars.

Factory Work

This is another popular choice for backpackers - it's not hard to find short-term, casual work on a production line or in a packing room. The work itself won't be very stimulating, but you don't need any experience or qualifications, and if you're working with a good bunch of people it can be a laugh. You'll find work through word of mouth, agencies, local newspapers or backpacker notice boards.

Ranch Work

Ranch work is a little bit niche and not all that easy to sort out for yourself. There is a demand for 'jackeroos and jillaroos' as they're known, but it's hard, skilled work and not for the absolute beginner. Companies such as Changing Worlds do offer supported work placements if you are not completely confident of finding a position by yourself. Otherwise, lots of cattle stations have diversified and offer backpackers the opportunity to get a taste of the real 'Outback' experience.