BillyWears Posted December 20, 2012 Share Posted December 20, 2012 Hey Guys, Been looking at this forum for ages now and finally decided to join as I am going to Australia on 3rd March. Been researching like hell last couple of weeks. Just a bit of background on me... I am a 24 year old Male, IT Field Engineer from England. I am travelling to Australia on 3rd March(Well, that's the date I have set) on a WHV on my own. My goal is to see as much of Australia as possible taking everything into account. I want to do 3 months farm work / fruit picking / WWOOF, hopefully this will give me a good taste of outback Australia and the bonus of counting towards my 2nd Visa! However I am unsure what side of Australia to start on as I am hearing mixed reviews of the work there. Ideally I would like to do the farm work first so then I can travel and have some fun. I have heard from 2-3 places that I may be better off starting in WA for the farm working as not only is the pay better, but so are the working conditions, I have heard mixed reviews of the east coast, people have said a lot of hostels scam backpackers saying they have work, making them pay, and then having nothing for them. Also working conditions are worse, longer, harder hours for less pay. Can anyone on here enlighten me on this as to what their impression / opinion is? I need to decide which side to book my flight too! Once I have done this I would like to spend a bit of time in the cities Cairns, Brisbane, Gold Coast/ Melbourne Sydney and Perth - The whole shabang! Hopefully working in my industry (IT) If the work is available for a month or two. I have looked on the relevant agency websites seek, gumtree etc and seems there are always some positions going. My end goal is ( If I am happy and like where I am) is to stay and get sponsored and stay there for a while. and then if anything goes wrong and I lose my job or run out of time I have my 2nd Year visa to fall back on! I would really appreciate any help and advice you guys can offer! P.S. I have money saved up so I will be able to sustain myself for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest51810 Posted December 20, 2012 Share Posted December 20, 2012 Hello! Welcome to pio. Your plans sound exciting. Just have a good look at the whv threads. Britchick is a good person to ask questions but theres plenty others who should be able to help. Wont be long till your off! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bazinga Posted December 20, 2012 Share Posted December 20, 2012 Have a look at Tasmania, 88 days there would get you your second year but organise it now. Then spend the winter 'June-September' West or North before choosing a city and doing casual/temp work Oct-Jan. Just some ideas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyWears Posted December 20, 2012 Author Share Posted December 20, 2012 Thank you Bazinga! I will look into this! :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bazinga Posted December 20, 2012 Share Posted December 20, 2012 There is a govt page that tells you which areas count as rural and which don't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyWears Posted December 21, 2012 Author Share Posted December 21, 2012 Thanks for your Help Bazinga... I have looked into all the necessary places for information. What I am after is advice and opinion off someone who has done farm work in Australia on either the East or West. As the from my research I have noticed that certain people are saying that it may be better to do the farm work on the West coast as conditions, quality and pay may be better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest51810 Posted December 21, 2012 Share Posted December 21, 2012 As i already said - britchick and pommypaul are the best people to ask. I think paul did a lot of farm work, not sure if hes online as much but britchick is and shes his gf so she can pass on the message. Positivepixie is travelling around aus - im not sure if shes done farmwork though Sent from my BlackBerry 9800 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyWears Posted December 21, 2012 Author Share Posted December 21, 2012 Thanks Stacey :-) I did read that in the first message however I was hoping they would post! Is there a direct way I can get in contact with them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest51810 Posted December 21, 2012 Share Posted December 21, 2012 No problem! do you know how to pm people? If not then give me, or one of the mods a shout. You can either find the member and then click on their name and it should come up saying "pm" or you can start a new pm and then just type their name in that way. You should see a part on the top of the screen saying private messages. Ive probably made that way more complicated sounding than it is lol sorry! Sent from my BlackBerry 9800 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bazinga Posted December 21, 2012 Share Posted December 21, 2012 The .... makes your reply to me seem sarcastic. No need for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyWears Posted December 21, 2012 Author Share Posted December 21, 2012 Sorry Bazinga, I wasn't being sarcastic nor did I intend the ... to come across that way :-( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bazinga Posted December 21, 2012 Share Posted December 21, 2012 Fair enough. Good luck with it all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest51810 Posted December 21, 2012 Share Posted December 21, 2012 I didnt read it as being sarcastic either Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bazinga Posted December 21, 2012 Share Posted December 21, 2012 Doesn't matter how you read it SS because it wasn't aimed at you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blossom Posted December 21, 2012 Share Posted December 21, 2012 It doesn't look sarcastic to me either. And of course it matters to other people. If it does mean sarcasm on the Internet and a load of us don't realise then we can LEARN not to do that. I had never heard anyone say that before though (and spend far too long on forums). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bazinga Posted December 22, 2012 Share Posted December 22, 2012 It's not just the .... It was the whole thing. Like I said before, I dont care how other people took it because it wasn't aimed at them. The person who wrote it said it wasn't meant sarcastically, so that's fair enough. What the rest of you think is irrelevant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 22, 2012 Share Posted December 22, 2012 Check on the immigration website for WHV requirements. If you do still have to do farm work for the visa extension make sure you have a reputable employer and have documentary evidence i.e. pay slip for tax return when you go to immigration to extend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyWears Posted December 22, 2012 Author Share Posted December 22, 2012 Thanks Guys! Have been trawling these forums for ages now! I may do WWOOFing! Is there anything other than documenting, taking pictures and making sure you have the guestbook signed to prove you have done the work? when you dont have payslips to prove it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bazinga Posted December 22, 2012 Share Posted December 22, 2012 If you look on the govt page re WHV I'm pretty sure there's a satutory declaration form that looks pretty official and is considered evidence. Let me have a look for a link because I did recently just send it to someone else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bazinga Posted December 22, 2012 Share Posted December 22, 2012 (edited) http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/backpacking-whv/144767-working-holiday-visa-australia-qualifying-2nd-year.html scroll down and the link to the form is there if you've not seen this before. http://jobsearch.gov.au/harvesttrail/default.aspx is also useful if you've not seen this Edited December 22, 2012 by Bazinga Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darren141 Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 I finished my regional work about 2 months ago now, wwoofed on an avo farm and worked on a kiwi farm. I'd recommend WWOOFing as opposed to looking for farms. The place I found done a mixture of both you could wwoof on their property but they also ran a business supplying labour to a local kiwi farm so was the best of both worlds. If you don't need cash I'd go down the wwoofing route as every day counts, even if you're rained off/sick most places will sign each and every day off you spend there as long as you do a decent shift unlike a lot of the farm work. One word of advice I would give is avoid Lockyer Valley/Gatton in Queensland like the plague! I spent 3 days out there in a 3 bedroom house with 15 people doing 10 hour shifts on farms to find out it was cash in hand and none of it would count towards the 2nd visa, you can spend up to 4 weeks out there working everyday before you get a "legit" days work that's taxed. I'm an IT engineer myself and on that front you shouldn't have any trouble in finding work, easy way I've found is go on seek.com.au filter down to 3 month temp helpdesk jobs and you should get lucky. Otherwise, just note down all the main recruitment places and get in touch with them and they can usually sort you out quite quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyWears Posted December 24, 2012 Author Share Posted December 24, 2012 Thank you Bazinga for your continued Help :-) and Thank you Darren141! that is a great bit of advice! What did you do to prove your work for the 2nd Working Visa? Also do you mind PMing me where you worked? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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