Hi Everyone!

Me and my girlfriend just got our Working/holiday visas granted and will be moving to Australia. We have less then 3 months to finish up any planning but basically I wanted to share what our plans are so far. (It's not much)

When you live in New York the first thing that comes to mind about Australia is "Sydney" (probably because of the Olympics and no offense to people living anywhere else in OZ) We have heard great things about both cities but to start somewhere, we are thinking Sydney.

Is it crazy that we don't have a place to stay initially? We're going to find a hostel to stay until we find a place to Rent. We heard finding a place can be quite difficult . Someone suggested Bondi beach as an awesome place to live. We're looking for a 1 bedroom/studio for $350 a week max. Is that impossible for that area? Should we seek a real estate agent because in the U.S. sometimes they charge a commission. Where do we even start, what would you guys do? Keep in mind we won't have a car so a place close to transportation will be great. That leads me to my next question.

We don't have any jobs lined up but we have savings to keep us alive for some time. I heard that gumtree is a good place to start sending our resumes out. She is in the Marketing Field and I'm in finance/accounting field. Are jobs difficult to find? Since our visas allows us to stay for 1 year, our idea was to find an employer to sponsor us if we were to stay longer after that.

Does anyone want to lend us their guest room to rent as we seek a place? hehe, just kidding but we won't have any friends so how about just out for a drink. Any advice will help tremendously, thanks in advance!

Well congratulations but with , I gather you could mean Sydney and Melbourne and/or the rest of Australia! which though rather flat in places you will not be able to see too much of from Sydney Tower.

But back in Sydney, Bondi does not do it for me as much as Manly and for either you could be up against it getting somewhere seeing as you'll be coming on the cusp of summery weather, and any landlords having a vacancy could well jack the rent up or even look to cash in on more expensive rates for holiday bookings but all you can do is hope! and check sites like gumtree, craigslist and www.domain.com.au

Sydney gets packed to the rafters from around Xmas to NY when you can think Times Square and hostels at that time have minimum booking periods, some of seven days Xmas-NY week and there will not be too much available even now I suspect.

Maybe something like Backpacker accommodation Sydney, Sydney Terraces, budget, cheap, hostel could offer hope (but nowhere near the beach) or Sleeping With The Enemy and if you want to register with agents, a google ought to find you plenty and you ought to make early contact so as you can send over references and any rental history you have, but seeing as people allegedly queue in Sydney for viewing rentals and then get into a bidding war I'd not hold out too much hope on what they may be able to do.

All that hastle eh!, enough to drive some to sandier places with fresher sea breezes for a bit and see a bit more of the country you are coming halfway around the globe, melting more artic sea ice to see before we go further downunder.

Have fun and there are plenty of temp agencies in Sydney - pick up a copy of free mags The Word and TNT and they have heaps of ads for temps and advice on work and travelling generally.

Summer is a good time to spend in south east of Australia as going inland will be miserably hottter than hell and heading too far north and you run into wet season and tropical less than goodies in the water.

Update: I'll be arriving in Sydney on October 23rd. I'm thinking since it's not Christmas/New Years time it wouldn't be as bad to find housing. It looks like there are a lot of places on Gumtree. In New York, a lot of listings that are shown on the internet are "Fake" and posted by Real Estate agents to bait you in. I hope that isn't the case in Sydney

I want to try and establish my banking from here and was wondering what the Major Banks are and if there is one that people can recommend.

I am also reading that when i apply for a job that i have to supply a tax id #. How do I go about obtaining that? Is that something I do while I'm still here or is there some govt. agency, website to do that.

Lastly, are there job fairs that are coming up that I can attend? Thanks!

October will be better than right up close to Xmas from the holiday/backpacker loadings aspect but you will still have the natural tight Sydney market to contend with but just go with your thought of getting into a hostel and seeing what is about via Gumtree and even checking out hostel notice boards.
Some of the flasher hostels have dorm bed rates getting close to $40/n and for a twin/double you could be looking at about $100.
If you want to try something cheaper, less flash but clean and comfortable, have a look at Alfred Park in BUG - the Backpackers' Ultimate guide to budget travel in Australia for part of it is an old motel and stayed there one night in a 4 bed dorm @$25 but being one less frequented (it is located on opposite side of Central r/stn. from where there is a gaggle of the more expensive ones) I had room to myself and so essentially a motel room with fridge, tele and ensuite at $25 was easy to cop.
Being directly opposite a reasonable size park is another bonus as is a great local pub around corner and down block in Chalmers St. and then great pizzas at next corner past pub for $5 Mon. to Wed.

Yep, there's all sorts of shades of RE people and no doubt they will join other shady types with shady practices on the web.
Oz has what is called the big 4 banks and of those ANZ and I think it is also Westpac have overseas services re opening an account before travel.
Moving to Australia have a user friendly site and for the TFN, you have to wait until you are here - Australian Taxation Office Homepage and it does not take long, and it does not stop you applying for and even starting a job - employers know the system allows you a month to provide the TFN.

If you're looking to keep more than just a few bob in your pocket rather than the Gov.'s coffers check out the "residential for taxation purposes bit on the site" for you could be several thousand dollars better off.

Don't know of any employment fairs but google and see, and as for finance/accounting, always plenty of jobs it seems and marketing? - also plenty in sales and only blockers you might run into are that some employers are loather to take WHV people because they know it is a shorter term gig - but let them know that the gig can now be six months rather than three and that you intend to get six for taxation sacings and it could help the sell yourselves as smarter than the average grizzly.


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