By now you should have a visa, a plan for your work essentials, set your spirit of adventure on the right track and started your life or death bucket list.
Now it is time to take the final leap and book your flights.
From the day your working holiday visa is approved you have one year to land in Australia and activate it.
But when and where should you land?
Australia’s a massive continent with six states and two territories. It is the sixth largest country in land mass and each state has its own rules and weather.
Spoiler alert! It gets cold in Australia, they even have a ski season.
You can go crazy with the Sydney or Melbourne or possibly Brisbane or maybe Perth question. Don’t spend too much time on this one.
Don’t waste time playing the ‘I don’t know’ game and know that wherever you land you will be fine as long as you know the following things.
Land near a big city or town. Don’t venture into the outback too soon
First and most importantly, your work essentials need to be set up in the first two weeks you are in Australia.
You need to book a minimum of two weeks of accommodation near a city that has the bank you signed up for and some good wifi.
You also need to be there in person for your bank ID check, to receive your TFN letter and bank cards. I advise you book between two and four weeks accommodation so that you can find your feet and not stress about your next move too soon.
If you are looking to buy a car it can get very hard in remote places like Darwin – not impossible – just more expensive and less choice. There are more opportunities in the bigger cities for work and it’s easier to set up your work essentials.
Work and opportunities can be seasonal
If you’re planning to do farm work first, to get your second-year visa straight away, make sure you know that it can be weather dependent. You can be waiting weeks for good weather to work on a farm.
Here is a great harvest calendar that points out where you should be:
Weather
Australia can get some extreme weather, so make sure you understand the climates and know where to look for warnings.
Make sure you sign up to the appropriate Facebook pages to help keep you up-to-date and always read or listen to the news.
Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), Australia’s official weather forecast website is the most useful site to have saved and subscribed too.
You just click the ‘warnings’ tab on the right of the yellow header to see up-to-date information in your area. Also, there is an option at the top of the page to call a number and hear the latest updates.
Tip: It’s good to keep an eye on BOM before you leave for Australia, because extreme weather could mean that your flight is cancelled or you may need to change your plans.
Next, keep an eye on the seasons and pack accordingly. The golden rule of thumb is the more north you go the warmer it gets.
That’s why it’s called the ‘tropical north’. Here is a season’s chart for your reference from Australia.com:
Tip: Make sure you have the right travel insurance to cover you if you are in a part of Australia that gets hit by extreme weather or your flight is delayed.
If you don’t want to stay in the city for too long. No worries. Wherever you land in Australia you can (depending on the time of year) get very cheap flights between cities. So if you land in Sydney, in winter you can probably get a cheap flight to the Gold Coast.
Booking your flights: peak seasons and saving money
Make sure you follow my travel hacking baby steps before booking your accommodation and flight so that you know you’re saving as much as you can.
One of the biggest factors that should influence your decision on when to travel to Australia is the price of flights.
The great thing about going travelling for a year is that you are not limited to when and where you fly so you can avoid peak seasons.
I like to use Skyscanner and Google Flights to work out what flight costs look like throughout each month, giving a good indication of when a good time to fly is and what airlines offer the best rates to your destination.
You could save a fortune by avoiding peak seasons. There is no point in blowing your budget on a flight in a peak season when you are planning to stay for the whole year.
This is where I decided to break up my flight. Which saved me some money and I got to see San Francisco and Hawaii for a couple of days. With the added perk of not having to sit on a plane for 24 hours from the UK and deal with the jetlag afterwards.
Tip: If you don’t have the money too book yet, set up flight alerts and save your searches, so you get weekly reminders. This is also a great way to see what a good deal is. Just a quick browse through that alert every Monday morning could point out a great deal for you in the future.
To summarise:
Don’t fuss too much on where to land. All the big cities you can fly into are great. Just pick a point to start from and go from there.
I wasted so much time agonising on where to start, in the end, I just went with the cheapest flight and if you’re super stuck, flip a coin. When I get too stuck in the ‘I don’t know’ game, the coin has always delivered.
Now, book your flight and a few weeks of accommodation. Add the details to your adventure book and share your biggest step in the comments below.
Now start counting down the days, because you have nearly completed your preflight checklist!
Next
The next step is to start working out some rough deadlines. Read my next step to find out the easiest way to structure your year properly and not waste time.
Here is a very annoying song to teach you about the states in Australia. Double points if you sit through the whole thing!
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