Working Holiday Australia

Ich weiß nicht, wie es bei euch ist, aber ich will spä­ter mehr von der Welt sehen. Und falls ihr das auch wollt, lest euch ger­ne den Text durch. Die­ser Text – extra für den IGEL geschrie­ben – ist von mei­nem Bru­der Denis, der gera­de durch Aus­tra­li­en reist. Dann könnt ihr mal sehen, wie das Gan­ze so abläuft.

My name is Denis and I am 25 years old. After I finis­hed my stu­dies in 2019 I deci­ded to tra­vel the world and to gain expe­ri­ence living in ano­ther coun­try for a lon­ger period.
Aus­tra­lia offers a working holi­day visa for for­eign tra­vel­lers, which is easy to access online. If your appli­ca­ti­on gets appro­ved you are able to live in Aus­tra­lia for one year with full working rights. You are able to extend your visa if you have met the cri­te­ria (88 days of farm work). The cost for each visa is appro­xi­m­ate­ly 500 dol­lar for each application.

I have seen most of the coun­try which includes eight sta­tes and ter­ri­to­ries. Each sta­te has its own govern­ment. Espe­ci­al­ly during the pan­de­mic you could tell the dif­fe­rence. Various mea­su­re­ments and clo­sed bor­ders which means no tra­ve­ling bet­ween sta­tes and ter­ri­to­ries. Basi­cal­ly most peo­p­le were stuck for a cou­ple of months. Aus­tra­lia in gene­ral could mana­ge the pan­de­mic pret­ty well and inter­sta­te tra­vel was ope­ned up quick­ly. At the moment I am in Wes­tern Aus­tra­lia which is the most iso­la­ted sta­te com­pared to the rest of Aus­tra­lia. I am in Perth the most iso­la­ted City in the World.

I have seen the who­le East Coast (Cairns, Bris­bane, Syd­ney and Mel­bourne), the Nor­t­hern Ter­ri­to­ry (Dar­win), the South Coast (Ade­lai­de) and now I am tra­ve­ling the West Coast (Perth to Broo­me). One coun­try with four dif­fe­rent cli­ma­te zones.

Nor­t­hern Territory:
– Dar­win (Capi­tal NT). It’s a very quiet city and it can get pret­ty hot in the sum­mer with a high humidity.
East Coast Trip:
– Dain­tree Rain­fo­rest (green and beau­tiful, huge trees, ama­zing waterfalls)
– Cairns (Gre­at Bar­ri­er Rief whe­re I dived and snor­kel­led, it still looks beau­tiful but you can
defi­ni­te­ly tell that the cli­ma­te chan­ge and all the tou­rists left their mark on the rief)
– Whits­un­days (beau­tiful white sand, blue water and awe­so­me sea life)
– Air­lie Beach (love­ly holi­day spot with gre­at restau­rants and bars, ama­zing beaches)
– Fra­zer Island (well known for wild Din­gos, white sand, incre­di­ble cliffs and very nice Champaign
Pools)
– Noosa (holi­day spot, stun­ning city)
– Bris­bane (Capi­tal of Queensland)
– Syd­ney (one of my favou­ri­te cities with its popu­lar Bon­di beach whe­re I sur­fed for the first
time.)
South Coast:
– Mel­bourne (I lived in Mel­bourne for almost a year. Mel­bourne is ran­ked as the most liveable city in Aus­tra­lia and num­ber 2 in the world (2020). With its varie­ty in the hos­pi­ta­li­ty indus­try the­re are many oppor­tu­ni­ties to go out and to socia­li­se. You have many nice bea­ches. Mel­bourne has a bit of ever­y­thing (and the best cof­fee you can get!).
– Gre­at Oce­an Road (Mel­bourne to Port Camp­bell. It is an ama­zing Oce­an Dri­ve with many stun­ning views. Defi­ni­te­ly a place to go!)
– Ade­lai­de (I think Ade­lai­de is under­ra­ted. It is an ama­zing City with beau­tiful bea­ches and a real­ly good vibe. I have seen beau­tiful mar­kets with awe­so­me street food. It is more quiet com­pared to Mel­bourne or Perth but has ple­nty of opti­ons to go out on the weekend.)
Ade­lai­de to Perth :
– We have seen a lot of natio­nal parks bet­ween Ade­lai­de and Perth. Natio­nal parks in Aus­tra­lia are huge with love­ly natu­re. Bea­ches, Moun­ta­ins, rivers, forests and exo­tic ani­mals. You can spent a cou­ple of days in each park.
– To get to Perth, you have to cross the Null­ar­bour (a street which is 720 km long. Its Aus­tra­li­as lon­gest straight street with 146 km.) You dri­ve basi­cal­ly 720 km straight.
– Espe­rance (whites bea­ches I’ve ever seen. To be honest, the best bea­ches I’ve ever seen in my life. Beau­tiful natio­nal parks.
We spent 6 weeks dri­ving from Ade­lai­de to Perth (9000km in total with all parks and nice places we wan­ted to see). We tra­vel with a 4 wheel dri­ve and a Roof­top tent. Aus­tra­lia has many free camp sites whe­re we stay­ed overnight.

This is just a very short sum­ma­ry of most of the places I have been to. The­re is much more to explo­re and I am keen to share with you my expe­ri­ence tra­vel­ling from Perth to Darwin.

I can recom­mend living in a dif­fe­rent coun­try and tra­vel­ling for a lon­ger peri­od. See­ing beau­tiful places is just one small part of the expe­ri­ence. You grow as an indi­vi­du­al. You learn new skills, you inter­act with peo­p­le from dif­fe­rent cul­tures, you impro­ve your second or third lan­guage and you learn how to be inde­pen­dent. I would say you get the right tools to work on yours­elf. It helps to find your pas­si­on and your pur­po­se in Life. All this dif­fe­rent impres­si­ons can real­ly inspi­re you.

Ich hof­fe, der Text hat euch gefal­len. Das ist auf jeden Fall etwas, was ich in mei­nem Leben noch machen will – wie sieht es bei euch aus ?

Text: Melis­sa Belsch, 9a
Fotos: privat