How did I get a job in Australia?! – # 7 Work and Travel Australia 2018

After our first week in Sydney, we moved to a cheaper hostel in the CBD. Because the money was running low, it was time to look for jobs.

 

Which jobs are in Australia?

In general, it makes sense to look for jobs, which one has perhaps already practiced in Germany. For example, jobs like Cook, Craftsman, and Garden / Landscape Builders are great at making money in Sydney.

Basically, there are the same jobs that exist in Germany. For jobs in business administration and management, it will be harder to find a job than as a craftsman. These Jobs are usually for at least 6 months.

As many have probably heard, you can do also farm work. You work on a farm and have to pick bananas, peppers, apples or some other fruit or plant, for example. The positive of that job is, that you can apply to stay a second year in Australia if you have worked for at least 3 months on a farm!

 

What do you earn in Australia?!

In Australia you earn about twice as much as in Germany for most thing although that is not always true.

The normal average wage is around $ 22- $ 25 and the minimum wage is $ 17. As a normal labourer, a temporary worker on a construction site, you usually earn $ 25. It’s also a good idea to go to a Labour Agency, which gives you a job every day on a different construction site.

If you have already worked in Germany as a craftsman, you can also quickly earn up to $ 50 an hour.

In Farm Work you earn an average of $ 22 per hour. But you always have to be careful that you do not pay per collected basket of fruit!

 

How do I get a job in Australia?!

There are several ways to get a job in Australia. First of all, you should look around the Internet / job boards. There are different ones in Australia. The largest online exchange is Gumtree next to LinkedIn. This site is actually like eBay. Everyone puts their offers in, and you can contact them. For temporary workers, this is great. You can search for places in the search box and also add your specialty and functionality.

The second great way to look for jobs in Australia is through verbal propaganda. In hostels you just have to ask if someone has heard about jobs or if someone knows where to get jobs. You can do that at the reception but also at other backpackers, who may already have a job or have.

In addition to the hostel you can also just walk around the city and ask companies. Just go to construction workers on construction sites and ask them or you can just go to the bakery or other shops where you would like to work.

It is recommended that you take printed application documents with you, so you can submit them directly. This includes a formal cover letter and a CV.

Often, however, a verbal conversation is sufficient, and you will be invited to try it out. If you are doing well, you usually get a job offered for the next day. It’s all a bit easier in Australia than in Germany.

 

Do I have to do any licenses to work?!

The whole issue of licenses in Australia is much more complicated than in Germany. To work behind the bar, you need a so-called RSA and to work on a construction site, for example, you need to have a white card. There are many licenses in Australia. You need to have a license for every dangerous job. You can do these licenses in online workshops or in real workshops in companies. Those licenses cost between $ 50 and $ 200. Once you have them, you can work in the area.

Otherwise, you should apply for the international driver’s license. So, you have the normal driver license for Australia. There are no other licenses.

For some jobs you need work clothes.

 

What are the taxes in Australia?

The tax in Australia is 15% for backpackers. In addition, you have to pay 10-15% of your salary in your pension. But you get that at the end of your stay abroad again. But you have to apply for it.

Another possibility would be to get self-employed and apply for a so-called ABN number. Then you have to pay the taxes only at the end of the year and not us as an employer directly with each transfer. In addition, you earn as a self-employed usually more money!

 

What did I work in Australia?

I found my first job in a Labour Agency as a temporary worker on a construction site. It was a really exhausting but exciting work! Every day I came to a new construction site and was able to learn new things. Just to speak better English helps working in general very much further. In Germany, I already worked on a construction site and quickly gained a foothold in Australia. However, it was even more exhausting, because the sun shines so strong. Sometimes you have fucked up days digging holes. But sometimes you have good days when you should just clean the construction site. I did this job for a month until I had enough money and no motivation to work on the site!

From June 2018 I concentrated full time on modelling and social media. I signed a contract with the agency The.MGMT and was still under contract with them until the end of January 2019.

 

But more on that later! In the next blog post, I’ll tell you more about how my life in Sydney has evolved. Away from backpackers and more to emigrants. You can also check my Instagram account @fabianxarnold or if you have questions you can email me. I look forward to you!!

Sydney – What’s my first impression ?! – # 6 Work and Travel Australia 2018

Tasmania was choppy. Now it was back to Melbourne, but only for a few days. Because the next road trip was already waiting for us, Melbourne to Sydney. Actually, the plan was only a few months to work in Sydney. But a few months lead to half a year to now 8-9 months and still continuing. My experience and to learn about the road trip from Melbourne to Sydney and my first impressions of Sydney you will learn in this blog post.

Goodbye Melbourne !!!

Now was the time to turn my back on Melbourne till indefinitely. In the past months (February and March 2018) I had experienced so much, I had ups and downs and can say that these two months have brought me a lot further in my life. As a person I have already changed a lot, I could just spend time with myself and my thoughts.
Nevertheless, I was also very excited about what I would expect in the next few months! As I mentioned before, I first wanted to come to Sydney to earn some money there. I did not have a job yet. After that it was planned to travel the east coast of Australia. How, where, what and when was still open!

Roadtrip Melbourne to Sydney


For the road trip to Sydney we had borrowed a camper van again. This time not only Mirko and I were on the road, but also two Englishmen whom we had met at the hostel in St Kilda (Melbourne).
Our goal was to be in Sydney in 10 days. By driving through one on the highway it would take about 15 hours of driving time. However, our plan was to drive along the coast, taking with us the beautiful beaches and attractions.

Our camper van

As you can see in the picture above, our camper van was in flower pattern, two people could sleep in the camper van and two people had space in the roof tent, In the trunk a small kitchen was installed with a sink and a small gas cooker, we also had room to store our food.
At first I thought it would take too long to set up the roof tent, but when we first set up the roof tent I noticed that it was really easy!
For the future, I will definitely get a camper van with a roof tent again, because it is very easy to assemble, disassemble and also super comfortable. The only downside to the roof tent is that you can not sleep in private, everyone can see you sleeping, because the tent is set up, If you would just sleep in the car, you could just park on the road and then leave from the car, that was a lot easier in Tasmania. You did not have to worry about a parking space, In Tasmania you can camp anywhere and on the mainland of Australia you can rest only on camper places.

First stop Wilson’s Promontory National Park

Our first stop on the way to Sydney was Wilson’s Promontory National Park, from Melbourne we needed about 5 hours, we had planned two days for the National Park. On the first day we visited different beaches and looked at the landscape. We stayed at Camper van Resort at Wilsons Promontory National Park, cooked and had dinner together,  after we cooked we went to the beach and watched the sunset, It was really beautiful.
The next day we hiked the mountain Mount Oberon which took about 2 hours. The view was just indescribably beautiful, after we were back down we drove on with our camper van and hiked the Wildernis way. There we also saw kangaroos and could even pat them.
Unfortunately, the weather did not play in our favour, well on these two days. Therefore, we could not look at the full beauty of the national park, It was definitely worth a visit, but wasn’t that magical.

No real highlights between Melbourne and Sydney

After Wilson’s Promontory National Park, there were no other amazing highlights on the way to Sydney, their were normal cool beaches and cool places to have a campfire, but nothing about which I would continue to write longer. The next highlights were just outside Sydney, namely Pebbly Beach and Jervis Bay / Hyam’s Beach.

Where can I find kangaroos on the beach?

Where I find kangaroos on the beach is a really good question. That’s what I thought, at least when someone asked me if I knew this place but then we came to Pebbly Beach. On this beach were really kangaroos and you could even feed, pat and take pictures with them, the beach was not the nicest, but not the ugliest. This was definitely a highlight on my road trip from Melbourne to Sydney! I would definitely go back to take pictures with the kangaroos.

Whiter Can not Be The Sand (Hyam’s Beach)

The beach in Tasmania was in my opinion  the whitest beach I have ever seen, but Hyam’s Beach is about 2 hours south of Sydney, Jervis Bay has topped it all off but that was partly because the weather was just perfect, we had a completely blue sky and the sea was turquoise green, so for anyone in Sydney, drive to Jervis Bay for a beach day.
At Jervis Bay there is not only Hyam’s Beach to see, but it is a huge bay in which an incredible number of different places have their uniqueness.

These were actually the highlights of the road trip, next time, I might think about visiting the Wilsons Promontory National Park from Melbourne, then taking the plane or train to Sydney and borrowing a car for a two-day trip to Jervis Bay and Pebbly Beach , The road trip was actually quite boring and apart from these three highlights, there was nothing great to see.

My expectations for Sydney

Sydney. Now I finally arrived in the city that everyone in the world knows, I talked to a lot of backpackers and Australians in Melbourne, the question always came up, which city was better: Melbourne or Sydney. Most have answered that Melbourne is the prettier city. Of course Sydney has beaches, better weather and you can surf, Melbourne on the other hand is more of a European city with a beautiful but normal beach in St Kilda, the temperate weather, no major harbour and landmarks. Sydney has the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, which is known all over the world.
Melbourne should also have more of the more chilled atmosphere, In Sydney on the other hand people live to work and one can notice the tense working atmosphere on the street. All people in suits run the streets and look very stressed out because of these many benefits, I had no good expectations of Sydney and thought I would not like it and I would move away anyway, but in the end everything was different than I expected.

My arrival in Sydney – Indescribably big

We arrived in Sydney in the afternoon with our camper van, It was rush hour and we really took forever until we arrived at our hostel, which was right on the Central station, we just threw our things from the van to the hostel and drove them immediately to the car wash and then brought to the delivery station.
From the delivery station we had to take the bus to Central station, we noticed that Sydney is much bigger than the centre of Melbourne, Outside the skyscrapers the streets are huge and there are so many shops and large houses, which actually belong to the city centre.

The best hostel in Sydney


The hostel we booked for our first nights in Sydney was a very expensive hostel at $ 42 but we figured it would take the first few days whether or not we liked Sydney, we would treat ourselves to a better impression of Sydney. The hostel was really nice, we slept in a share room, but it felt like a hotel, the rooms were really clean, everyone had electrical outlets in his locker, the lockers were so big that you could put your whole suitcase in there, the kitchen was really big and clean and there was a rooftop area from where you could see the skyline. All in all, the hostel was the best I have ever been to, the name was Bounce Hostel at Central station.

Since it was already evening, we have only just bought something to cook and eat, In the evening we sat down in the roof top area and looked at the skyline, Sydney’s skyline is much nicer than Melbourne’s, as there are many more skyscrapers, creating a wall of skyscrapers, we then went to bed to be fit the following day.
The next day we went on a tourist tour, we started at our hostel at Central Station, walked through the city along Hyde Park, through the Botanical Gardens and to Mrs Macquarie’s Chair, From there you have a very nice view of the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, we went further, closer towards Opera House. I’ve heard from many that the Opera House is very ugly by day, as I stood in front of it, I could understand why so many had said that to me. It has a light beige grey tone and the facade are ugly with big panels.

Tip: Go and see the Opera House at night when it is illuminated, because then it is really nice!

The next stop was the Harbour Bridge, we walked past the Rocks and went under the bridge, the sight was really indescribable, I had never seen such a big bridge.
To get on the bridge on it we would first have to walk a large detour. Because the bridge is so high that it protrudes 100 meters into the city.
On the bridge, unfortunately, you could not see so much, because everything is blocked off with fences, so you can not jump down and nothing can fall. Another option would have been to do a bridge climb, but this costs several hundred dollars and that was too much for us.

After the Harbour Bridge we arrived at the Darling Harbour, this is the harbour where there is a boardwalk with plenty of bars, restaurants, shops and sea life attractions. During the day the harbour looks very nice, but at night, it’s even better. Everything lights up and the skyline is reflected by the water. When it’s still warm, it’s the perfect atmosphere to go out with friends!

Never trust an Irish gipsy


We were in the morning in the kitchen and wanted to make breakfast, the receptionist came to the kitchen and asked if anyone was looking for a job, my friend Mirko and I were on fire immediately because we were looking for work anyway. The receptionist said downstairs at the front desk would be a gentleman who looks for workers for a day at the construction, We came down immediately and talked to the bloke, he said that it is not about construction, but only distribute flyers, we figured $ 28 an hour, that’s easy money, we grabbed our backpack without breakfast and went with him into the car to distribute the flyers, he said we have to download an app so that he can track how many miles and which roads we have walked He wanted to pay after km. Everyone has been allocated an area and should rappel this alone, of course, there was a certain competitive situation, because everyone wanted to do more miles than the other, In the end, I ran 23 km in 5 hours and was completely drenched with sweat. I called Mirko and an Englishman Luke with whom I had worked that day, Luke is a very good friend of ours.
I then met with the two of them and then went back to the hostel. We called our employer and asked how we looking for the payment, he said, “I’ll pay you tomorrow.” The next day we called again and he said, “Yes, I pay on Friday.” Then we called again on Friday He said, “Yes, I pay on Sunday” This went on and on, eventually he told us that he had already paid us.. we than realised this guy has just screwed us!
It was an Irish Gipsy who had just taken advantage of us to distribute his flyers, however, we could not undo our work, we learned a large lesson from this mistake.

Tip: Never trust an Irish Gipsy

Conclusion

My first impressions wasn’t as bad as I had thought, although Melbourne has me wanting to come back, I was by no means disappointed with Sydney, let’s see what else happens! Now it’s time to find a job and earn money.

In the next blog post, I’ll tell you more about job hunting in Australia. How do you find a job? Which jobs are eligible? How much do you earn in Australia?
I’ll tell you more in my next blog post, you can also check my Instagram account @fabianxarnold or if you have questions you can email me. I look forward to your feedback and wish you a nice time.

best regards

 

Fabian

Next Roadtrip Tasmania – A landscape like in a picture book – # 5 Work and Travel Australia 2018

After our road trip to the Great Ocean Road I arrived back in Melbourne, I had no idea what I should get up to while being here. I went back to the hostel and reunited back with my mates and thought what I should do with them while I’m here, also because the hostel mates would fly back home to Germany next week, which was unfortunate, we couldn’t plan a new road trip. The following road trip came around the corner much quicker than I thought!

 

Road to Ultra 2018 Melbourne – I was there!

The next big event in Melbourne was Road to Ultra 2018. I got tickets for myself and two of my mates from a good friend I had met whilst in Melbourne. I was so excited, because it was my second time at a festival. In the past I have visited a color festival in Germany, which was great, unfortunately that was my last appearance at a festival.

More than 50,000 people were expected to come to the Road to Ultra Festival in Melbourne. The DJs Axwell and Afrojack were there as well.

Being sneaky and coming up with a lie, I snuck backstage and managed to have a small conversation with Axwell. I also witnessed the grand finale of Axwell live on stage. I stood about 5 meters from the DJ desk and had more than 50,000 people in front of me! I could not believe it, It was awesome and I recommend everyone to go to this festival. Somehow festivals have never really touched me but after this experience now I’m looking forward to the next one, festival fever has seduced me.

 

My worst time in Australia

2 days later I was alone in Melbourne, because my two mates left Melbourne and flew to Germany. First, I thought, “Okay, I’ll work on Instagram, edit some pictures and take a look at the city.” After two days I still haven’t found a new Travel mate, I was a bit queasy, I wouldn’t normally say I was having a minor melt down, but within two days I didn’t speak a single word and therefore needed someone to talk to and let my emotions out. I picked up the phone and called my parents, calling best mates from Germany Hagen Richter and Patryk Stawinoga.

This helped me a fair bit and started to calm down a little.Since I had found no new travel Mate in this hostel within three days, I decided to change the hostel and try elsewhere to find a travel mate. The new hostel was the best decision I had made in the last couple days, within 24 hours I met 3 new friends, with whom I am in very good contact still to this day. One of them is Mirko, whom you already know from my Instagram Stories, I got along with him right away and started planning our next trip to Melbourne and around Australia.

New destination Tasmania?!

One morning we came up with the idea to fly to Tasmania, before we are going to travel the east coast. We looked for flights, an accommodation for the first night and a campervan to travel through Tasmania.It was March, during the day temperatures were fine probably around 22-24 degrees, on the first day we bought only a blanket for the Camper Van and thought that would be plenty, but we were wrong. By nightfall it had cooled to 5 degrees and it was so cold that we had to turn on the engine to use the heater. In addition, we were forced to be closer to each other to try create some heat. The next day we bought two new blankets directly, so that situation would not happen again.

What is to see in Tasmania?!

Since I hadn’t seen much in Australia yet, it was my plan to see all the beautiful nature of Tasmania. Yes, of course we were clever enough prior to plan to see everything in Tasmania, as described in my last blog post, we made a plan on how to do our road trip. We considered first to travel the east coast, where many beautiful beaches are. In the second week we wanted to see the west in which the mountains and lakes sat. We read earlier that Tasmania has the clearest air and

the clearest water in the world, so we were very curious about what we would encountered there. You can see our itinerary in the screenshots, we literally drove a large circle counterclockwise.

In addition to many other beautiful places I had two highlights in Tasmania: “Bay of Fires” and “Wineglas Bay”.

Bay of Fires

Bay of Fires has a white beach, as I had previously only seen in pictures, I thought something so amazing like that doesn’t exist, that these pictures would be edited only with Photoshop. As we walked along the beach, the sand creaked under our feet, it was unbelievable, the water was crystal blue, the air temperature was only 15 degrees despite blue sky and sun. Mirko was not willing to go in the water, but I decided to put on my swimming trunks, and jump into the water whilst filming with my GoPro.Tip: For those who want to go to Tasmania: Definitely plan a day for Bay of Fires to enjoy the beach!

Wineglass Bay

The Wineglas Bay is as the name suggests, a bay shaped like a wine glass, to get there you have to hike for about an hour. However, if you decide to just watch Wineglass Bay from the mountain, it’s about a 30 minute walk. Unfortunately we did not have much time and therefore could not really enjoy the panorama, but in when there is great weather it’s definitely one of Tasmania’s highlights.

Of course, there were many other beautiful places on the east coast but I would be writing for hours and hours this was just a short ride on the East Coast, let your thoughts wonder and stop where you want. In the north of Tasmania, there was not that much to see! Lots of beaches, a few cities, a few sightseeing points, but nothing that amazed me with excitement

The next thing I remember is the mountain “The Nut”. It is the most northern point in Tasmania. The mountain is at the last corner of the land mass and looks like a nut. It is surrounded by cliffs and is completely smooth on top, with a air lift you can be transported to the top and start your walk, the trip takes about 45 minutes, during the walk you have a beautiful view that looks over the ocean and the coast of Tasmania, this is definitely a “must do” in Tasmania. As the trip started we were sighted with many national parks, First we approached the “Tarkine Wildernis”. We drove for over 100 km on a gravel road, the road felt like never ending, you can picture it a long road with trees that filled either side. We also experienced a beautiful sunset, we sang songs and also told each other funny stories from Germany.

Please visit Tasmania in the australian summer!

The next day were the worse, we experienced bad weather, It was only about 8 to 15 degrees throughout the day and it rained consistently. Therefore, we could not really enjoy the whole beautiful panorama, do not hike and do not go swimming.The whole beautiful highlights such, we visited Lake St. Clair and Cradle Mountain, but we could not go hiking and enjoy nature, we literally just drove around all the time, virtually viewing all of the sightseeing points in western Tasmania, which we then drove back to Hobert, the largest city in Tasmania two days earlier than originally planned. The last two days we went to the south again, visited a cave and planned a beach day, altogether we drove about 3200 km and literally saw everything you can see in Tasmania.

Stranded in nowhere in Tasmania without reception …

Alas, I almost forgot to tell you that, we borrowed our Camper Van from Wicked Campers the car was a 20-year-old Toyota that had almost fallen apart. In the second week of our road trip we got stuck with our car, (Ok I admit we were not always careful with the car) often we were stupid but had loads of fun. We drove with 80 km / h on the gravel road and felt like rally drivers, until the worse thing happened! We got stuck somewhere in the middle of Tasmania, Ironically, the ass of the world, where we had no reception and no Internet with our phones.

What happened?!

We started up a mountain with our Camper Van and suddenly it started to smell funny, like  burnt rubber or something, then it started to smoke, the engine had switched off and wasn’t turning back on. My Travel Mate Mirko was starting to panic but I took it easy and made fun of the situation, luckily we had enough to drink and eat for the next few days.After about 20 minutes, a pensioner couple drove past, which we could stop the pensioners, however, were afraid of us, the male driver pulled up wound down the window just enough to see his forehead, they were both so afraid he even locked the doors. The couple unfortunately couldn’t help us, we only asked them if we could ride to a point where we have internet, but that was probably too much to ask …After another hour had passed, approached a large 4WD, thankfully it stopped, out stepped a male who was a mechatronics engineer which he was with his family. He briefly looked at the engine and said that the air conditioning had blown … We tried again to start the engine and it worked! Was magic, thankfully we could finally continue.

Conclusion

If you are in Australia from November to January or in Melbourne, you should definitely drive to Tasmania for one to two weeks. Tasmania has beautiful beaches to the east and beautiful nature (mountains and lakes) to the west. At this time you should actually have luck with the weather and you can fully enjoy the panorama. However, if you have been there before, it is not a “must to do” for once again. I still want to go to New Zealand anyway and many have told me that Tasmania is similar to New Zealand.

For us it went first back to Melbourne and from there with a camper van to Sydney. But I’ll tell you more in my next blog post. You can also check my Instagram account @fabianxarnold or if you have questions you can email me. I look forward to your feedback and wish you a nice time. 

Greetings from Australia your Fabian!

The flight and the arrival at the other end of the world (Australia) – # 2 Work and Travel Australia 2018

The day finally had come. I was leaving my usual environment, my home, my family and my friends behind me for a year. Was I excited? NO! I still had not realized that in a few hours I would be on a plane to Australia. At lunchtime, I ate with my family in our usual restaurant and then everything went incredibly fast …

The day of departure to Australia

Usually I’m always well organized, but that day everything was so messy. I had to say goodbye to so many people, that I messed up the time schedule and my bag was not packed until half an hour before I was leaving for the airport. Of course I had everything layed out, but hadn’t checked yet to see if it would fit in my backpack … and of course it was too much to fit. I had to decide within a few minutes what I would leave at home and what I would take with me on my trip! With much stress and effort I repacked my bag, but there was no time to look over what I had packed again.
I had to get to the airport immediately, otherwise I would miss the flight. When one thing goes wrong, everything does, so of course there was a traffic jam on the highway. My navigation system told me that I would not make it in time to the airport for my flight. But as if by magic, the traffic jam resolved and I arrived at the airport on time. Luckily my parents were already at the airport to welcome me; because they were on their way home from Austria and they wanted to say goodbye to me at the airport, as there was only very little time!

The flight to Australia

The time I spent at the gate, on the plane and in the first few hours in Australia was where I have been most afraid in my life. Alone and on my own with the thought that I will go home in a year! Luckily I had a travel mate from the time I arrived at the airport, so those of you who would like to have a travel mate for the flight and the first days of your trip, definitely stop by www.urlaubspartner.de and have a look!
My flight to Australia took about 23 hours with a stopover in Delhi, India. The first 7 hours on the plane I had survived without problems. No little kids screaming or anything else that could bother me (well, except for the 7 hours). The second half of the flight was not as good as the first. I had a mother right next to me with her baby, which cried throughout the whole flight. But I survived! In order to not get jetlag at all, I arranged for my first flight to depart in the evening (Australian day time) and to travel through the night forcing myself to stay awake. Then, only in the second flight (Australia night time) I let myself sleep. So once I landed, I managed to get straight into the Australian rhythm.

The arrival and first days in Down Under

When I arrived in Melbourne, Australia, it was only 7 a.m. The sky was overcast and it was around 20 degrees. I was overjoyed to have arrived in Australia and could hardly believe that I was at the other end of the world, so far away from home.
I then took the bus, which was heading towards the city center, to the first hostel. When I arrived in the city, it felt more like being in London or in another city, but not Australia. The sky had turned blue in the meantime and it was 25 degrees, but it somehow didn’t feel like Australia. That was not what I had imagined.
Arriving at the hostel, I had already met the first backpacker within a few minutes. I was really happy with the hygiene of the place. Of course you can not expect it to be 100% clean, but basic hygiene was definitely there, no cockroaches or anything like that! The only thing that bothered me in the first few days was the kitchen. I could not believe that people could cook properly in a hostel kitchen! Everything was filthy and really disgusting, but after several days you got used to it and learned to handle it.
I was in a 6 dorm bedroom and luckily had roommates who went to work, meaning it was always nice and quiet and I could sleep well. Since it does not bother me to sleep with strangers in my room, the “Hostel Life” was not a problem for me. The only thing I missed next to a clean kitchen more than anything else, was a toilet that only I or my family uses, luckily I was not born a girl, guys definitely have a much easier job to survive on such toilets.

What else did I had to organize? In the first days I had a lot to do and organize, such as get me an australian sim card, apply for my tax code, etc …

 

Step 1: Which SIM Card?  and how did I get one in Australia?

Getting the australian SIM card was the first thing I did because you need them for everything in Australia! For that you have to research which provider is best. There are three major providers offering all prepaid SIM cards. That means you have a contract for a month, then you have to extend it yourself. That’s what every backpacker I’ve met has done.
The largest provider is Telstra, Telstra has by far the largest network coverage in Australia and even `down under` you have reception. Optus is the second largest supplier and obviously a bit cheaper than Telstra. Vodafone is really great for the price. Unfortunately, with Vodafone, you only have reception in cities and if you are on a road trip, the majority of the time you have no signal. I would recommend you use Vodafone for cities and as soon as you are on a road trip just use your Telstra SIM card for this month. Since the cards are free, I would just pick a SIM card from Vodafone and one from Telstra! So you are on the safe side and can still save your money! Of course, the offers can always change, I paid 40 AUS $ per month. For that, I got 18GB at Vodafone in the first three months and then 9GB. At Telstra you get about 5GB. Voice and SMS Flat in the Australian network was in both rates included! Just make yourself aware which offers are available by looking on the internet beforehand, then you can simply buy the SIM cards in the nearest kiosk (7Eleven).

Step 2: How to apply for my tax number in Australia

The next step is to apply for the tax number (TFN). For this you need your Australian phone number and a local address. Just use the address of your hostel. The TFN will be sent to you within 7 to 28 days. If it does not arrive, which is often the case, or you’ve changed the hostel you can also call the authority and they will give the TFN to you. It takes a few minutes to apply and you can easily do that online on the following page: https://iar.ato.gov.au/IARWeb/default.aspx?pid=4&sid=1&outcome=1

Step 3: Complete bank account and pick up bank card

To complete your bank account and pick up your card, you simply go to the nearest branch and follow the instructions: Mostly, a bank employee sits down with you and explains it to you. While you’re at it, be sure to ask for a superannuation account! It’s like a retirement account you need to work in Australia. The employer is required to pay X% of your salary into this account. Just before you leave Australia you can apply for the payout, since I do not want to live in Australia until you can get the pension: DWestpac Bank will apply for this account directly with you. The Commonwealth Bank can help you with this, but you have to open it online yourself.

 

The next blog post is about my experiences and recommendations in Melbourne. Check it out!!!