Flights Booked! Need your opinion and tips

[Alon]

Hi all,

Me and my friend (both 22 y old) just booked our flights to Australia, it's our first backpack trip and I would be glad to hear your opinions about our plan.

 

We're setting off Israel at the 5th of August, flying with Korean Airs and making a 5 nights stop at Seoul, from there we're landing at Brisbane.

 

Our plan is to settle at Queensland and find a job there, most likely fruit picking, for about a month(I know it can take time to find a job so probably more) or so and then start our trip by heading north to Cairns

 

Once we get there we will take a flight to either Melbourne or Sydney and look for a job at Coffee shops or w/e (I'm an experienced Barista and he's a waitress), how much time we stay there will be depended on how much money we will need.

 

After we're done with that, we will make our way back to Brisbane(not by flight obviously), probably head to New Zealand before we go back home.

 

From the research I've done, we will catch the most comfortable weather both at the North and the South of the country, could you confirm that?

 

We're both holding an American passport, we haven't settled our WHV yet but we will next week (shouldn't be a problem, right?)

 

What concerns me the most right now is that I have NO IDEA what to do once we land Bank account wise

I mean, how am I opening a bank account there ? Do I just enter a bank and tell them "Hey I'm on WHV, can I open an account?" or is it something I can already do from home ? if so, how ?

 

So what do you think ?

 

Any response and tip will be appreciated,

Cheers (:

 

P.S

We set our return date to Mid Jan, but we will extend if needed

[Petals]

Welcome to the forum, have a look in the money and finance section of the forum I think you will find most of your answers there.

 

You need to have a 100 points of identity to open a bank account here in Australia so have a look on the bank sites and see what they want. ANZ, NAB, Commonwealth, Bendigo, Westpac etc.

 

Also to work in the food and hospitality sector you will be required to have do a course in responsible handling of food and if you wanted to work in a hotel or pub you need a responsible handling of alcohol course as well and each State has a different one. The courses are usually conducted by TAFE colleges as a one or two day and cost a few hundred dollars or I think you can do them on line.

 

Good luck

[Guest scrumpy]

Whats 100points of identity??

Cheers in advance

[HayleyC]

I think you'd be missing out on the best parts of Australia

not going through the middle up to Darwin to see the real Australia!! The places you are going are fun but it's good to get a contrast rather than just beaches. I also think that you'll have a an in your head of a plan but it will all change when you start travelling and meeting other people, you'll pick up lots of new travel ideas. Have fun! This was one of the best times in my life backpacking!!

[nickachu]

Look on the NAB website for the bank account, they have a special Migrant Banking Branch, you basically set everything up, tell them when you are getting here and they set up a meeting with you to go through everything when you get here. They'll have a card and you'll have the account number so you can send over money before you get here if you so wish. Everything is free, easy, and they are very helpful. I'd recommend NAB over the other banks.

[Alon]

Thx for the responses so far

Nickachu that was very helpful I'll look into that