Genre: Forum

advice needed please Hello everyone. So, my visa has been granted & I am itching to get my flight booked so I can look forward to it but do not want to rush into anything in case I make a bad decision. My plan is to book a flight to Perth for the end of February & visit some relatives & maybe stay for a month or so depending on work etc. Then I would head North up to Broome and Darwin in about May time, stay here for a month or so & then move on to Cairns in About August & stay here for a few months until summer kicks in & then head back down the East coast & finishing up in Sydney for Xmas & New Year & then to Melbourne for my last month or so & then maybe stay another year. Does this sound like a good plan, firstly for the weather? When is rainy season up North? I've heard Cairns is party town , would I be there at the right time? Secondly to fit in 3 months of seasonal work. I am a carpenter & after reading the sticky about seasonal work it sounds like I could work in construction wherever I go which would qualify, is this correct? Where is the mining work? Where are most of the fruit picking/farming jobs? I do not want to have to squeeze this in at the end if it is mostly over on the East Coast. So if I do it as I plan then would there be enough opportunities for me to do my seasonal work? Is it Easy Enough to travel up the west coast & is there any cheap ways of doing this? Another problem I have is that I would like to go to NZ to do some Skiing but I am presuming the skiing weather for NZ is May - September, when I will be in North Australia. How hard is it to get from north Oz to NZ, is it just as easy as going from south Oz? Sorry I have so many questions I just do not want to be going to all the wrong places at the wrong times. It is the official book for seasonal work and tells you what is in season when and where. At the beginning of each chapter about a state there is a chart giving you a summary of what is being harvest when. It is quite handy, but you also have to keep in mind that at the very beginning and towards the end of each season there could be nothing to do. Also, there might just be bad crops this year. When I was traveling in 2011, I could not find any jobs from Brisbane to Darwin to Broome because it was a ridiculously bad harvest season. That being said, it is normally easy to pick up harvest work all over Australia, so it is not at all limited to the East coast. Also you are right that you can easily find jobs as a carpenter. Mining work is mostly in Western Australia und Queensland, but I don't really know anything about that. Regarding your travel plans: Wet Season up North is roughly til May. That means if you are driving yourself you might run into trouble between Broome and the Northern Territory Border because early in the dry season just means the rain has stopped but the water has not subsided yet. Also keep in mind that it can still be rainy, very humid and super hot. If you can handle that, you shouldn't have a problem, if not try to come up here about June/July. The rest of your travel plan sounds just fine. Traveling up the west coast is not a problem, just a long way to drive at times (but then again, that's true for most of Australia ). Staying around Port Hedland is quite difficult because of the overpriced hotels/caravan parks/everything, but there are free roadside places you can sleep at if you don't mind that. And one last thing to keep in mind if you should be traveling by car: 1st Kangaroos really go crazy up north after dusk. Unless you have a roobar on your car and don't mind hitting a few of them, just don't drive in the dark. 2nd petrol prices can be a lot higher in the north of Western Australia and the Northern Territory (apart from Darwin). As you can see, I don't really know anything about the East Coast or flying to NZ, so maybe someone else can help out with this? Ok thanks for the good advice, that link to the harvest jobs was really helpful. Mainly by showing that there are opportunities for work pretty much everywhere at every time of year which is a big relief. I do not really want to do carpentry as I can do this at home so I will be glad to take on any available jobs if the money is right. I don't know how I will be getting about, probably by public transport unless I can find somebody who wants to car share. Is it cheap enough to get up the west coast by public transport? Thanks for your help And here is the official website where you can find out about the different tickets (They've got tickets for from A to B, or you can by a ticket with a certain amount of kilometres on etc): Welcome to Greyhound Australia Just one more tip for the West coast: Between Broome and the Northern Territory, try to squeeze the Gibb River Road in. Greyhound doesn't do it as it is a 4WD track, but there are other companys that offer trips. Yes that looks like a good way to travel up but I guess I'll meet people in hostels who are travelling the same route & I could tag along with them. Just have to see how things pan out when I get there & go with the flow. Cheers By using this Website, you agree to abide by our Terms and Conditions (the "Terms"). This notice does not replace our Terms , which you must read in full as they contain important information. You must not post any defamatory, unlawful or undesirable content, or any content copied from a third party, on the Website. You must not copy material from the Website except in accordance with the Terms. This Website gives users an opportunity to share information only and is not intended to contain any advice which you should rely upon. It does not replace the need to take professional or other advice. We have no liability to you or any other person in respect of any content on this Website.