How We Completed Our Regional Work Within The First 3 Months In Australia
For many people traveling to Australia on a working holiday visa just the thought of doing regional work makes them sick. They are completely overwhelmed with the daunting task of finding a decent or reputable company, farm or hostel that offers them a job, accommodation, fair pay and working conditions.
If you’re not 100% familiar as to what I am talking about or what is required to get your second year working holiday visa, here it is… If you choose to stay in Australia for more than 1 year you are REQUIRED to complete a total of 88 days or 3 months of regional work. This can range from any agricultural work, construction, landscaping for visa 417 holders. If you have a 467 visa you are able to work in hospitality as well as Au Pair work on top of the previous options (lucky you!). You can get more information on the specifics by going to the Australian Home Affairs web page here.
Chace turned the big 3-1 in March of this year, which, if we wanted to get our second year approved, we would need to make sure we did before he turned 31 or we wouldn’t be able to get our second year because of the age restrictions. Just a side note, since then the Australian government has increased the age limit to 35 for Canadian and Irish citizens (Woohoo!).
We were located in Chiang Mai at the time so there was no way we would be able to physically go into any agencies or hostels (thank god for technology!). I started my research on Google, Facebook, blogs, etc. on second year visa jobs in Australia. I found the best source for valuable and up to date information was joining Facebook groups. I joined roughly 5 groups who had the highest number of members and began looking on each page constantly for new posts. If you aren’t sure what to look for just type in “Working holiday visa Australia”, “Backpacker jobs Australia” or “WHV 2nd year jobs” in Facebook’s search bar and loads should pop up. It took some time, but I was able to get in contact with a gentleman from Victoria who had posted in one of the groups. I was able to call him right away as he had left his number on the post. Turns out we were the first to reach out and he was happy to give us the job. We ended up booking our flights the next day and flew into Australia the next week.
The dairy farm we had the pleasure of working on is an absolute gem. It is a family farm and the family were extremely welcoming and showed us the real Australian farm life that we were looking for. That being said, we were extremely lucky. We have heard HORROR stories from numerous people about their regional work. You must do your research on these farms, hostels or companies before committing to anything. Make sure they have worked with backpackers before and if there is any way to get in touch with those individuals. Make a list of things you want to ask them. Find out what your accommodation situation will be, your pay rate/schedule (hourly, by bin for fruit pickers, fortnightly, weekly, etc.), if they have consistent work for the full 3 months, and what the job entails. I have run into too many people on my travels here who hadn’t been paid for almost a month, who were living in completely terrible conditions, verbally abused on the job, and some who were only getting paid $20 a day! Some hostels have been known to say they have consistent work for the 3 months when in actual fact you end up staying there for almost 5 months just to complete your regional work. The hostel in turn gets your business for that full time as well. DO NOT let these people take advantage of you!
After our 3 months at the farm we were asked to find our “replacements”. We ended up posting an ad in numerous Facebook groups that we used when we were looking. The response was overwhelming! We had over 20 responses by day two and counting. When choosing, we focused on finding someone with a bit of experience, a friendly and well put together message, someone who described their journey and why they would like the job. We ended up going with one of the first couples who reached out to us. There were some other great people who had messaged us but ultimately these people reached out first and seemed great. First come, first serve! If you need to get your regional work done ASAP keep your eyes glued to these Facebook groups. If we hadn’t stayed on it, and stayed diligent it would have taken us much longer to find our regional work.
Lastly, I recommend looking into doing your regional work as soon as you make the decision to stay for your second year. You don’t want to end up only having 3 months to complete your regional work before your first year is up and not be able to find a job. Or worse yet, get a job and have them not have the full consecutive 3 months of work for you. The sooner the better. Get it done and out of the way so you have the rest of your time here to explore The Land Down Undaaa.
Are you currently doing your regional work or have done it in the past and would like to share your experience? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
