Why are young Canadians and Americans now travelling to Australia?
The things you know about Australia; it’s a long way, it’s hot and it has a few dangerous animals but you needn’t worry, Crocodile Dundee will look after that.
A question you may have is… Why are so many North Americans going there?
The chance to take a working holiday in a new land of opportunity.
Firstly let’s talk about the visa…
Canadians:
If you are a citizen and aged between 18-35, you’re eligible to a 12-month working holiday visa (417 visa) in Australia.
On this visa you can work for up to 6 months for one employer.
If you complete 88 days of rural work, you can actually extend that visa by another 12 months.See our 88 Days of Farmwork blog for extra info on this.
Americans:
If you’re a citizen and aged between 18-30, you’re eligible for a 12-month Work and Holiday visa (462) in Australia.
On this visa you can work for up to 6 months or one employer. If you complete 88 days of specified work you can actually extend that visa by another 12 months.
The best bit? While many have to complete rural work to do this, American citizens can work in hospitality or tourism to extend!
Secondly, lets talk about what a working holiday is
Just like starting school, your first job or university, a working holiday is an incredible opportunity to be thrown out of your comfort zone and into a journey where you will inevitably make friends, learn valuable lessons about yourself and create memories for a lifetime.
When you go on holiday or travelling, you often think ‘it would be great if I could stay a bit longer’ and that’s the opportunity a working holiday gives you.
A working holiday in Australia allows you to snorkel, swim and catch sunset after sunrise after sunset before settling down to work for a few months in the town you loved most.
Why are you working?
To replenish that travel fund before going off on your next adventure-the dream.
You can travel for a month, work for 3 months and repeat two more times if you please. The black and white surface material is basically a bit of work and a bit of travel but it’s so much more than that.
The best bit is, the work part doesn’t feel like the normal 9-5 slog of a job in a place you’re so familiar with. You’re in a new town with new people and there’s that constant buzz of discovering new things. Every weekend can be spent exploring a new suburb, national park, watering hole or if you’re feeling fancy, vineyard?!
You know that beautiful balmy evening feel that you encounter when you go on holiday? Well that’s every single night of the week when you finish work. It really is a working holiday in every sense!
The Experiences
Then there’s what you encounter on a working holiday. Firstly there’s the experiences during the travels. You could be watching the sunset at Uluru, checking out 500 penguins come in at Phillip Island or Scuba Diving the Great Barrier Reef.
Those are some of the countless things you could experience but there’s also something to be said about new and sometimes whacky experiences in the workplace too.
You could go from bartending at the local pub to serving drinks at the Opera House?
Or you could even be doing something way out of left field like driving a tractor, pruning a vineyard or working at a camel farm, who knows? These are all character building experiences that you’ll recount the stories of forever.
The world is a completely different landscape for our generation and the ones to come. Our professional lives and the way we live them has diversified and this change is a fantastic recognition of that.
So many of us have careers and life plans and paths that change, and 28 really isn’t that old anymore. This visa is a genuine opportunity and one that may not be there forever. Don’t take it for granted, there’s a door ajar to try something new.
One that you should kick open and walk straight through.
