In the past three weeks, I was traveling through Australia, passing from Sydney, Alice Springs, in the center, and Cairns, to the east coast. As I was traveling alone, I prefered to stay in hostels, where is easier to meet people and enjoy more my stay. I met people from several nationalities, Germans, lots of them, French, Dutch, etc. What surprised me the most is that they are not ordinary backpackers, as those that we see in Europe and travel around for maybe 1-2 months. They were the so called Holiday-Workers, people that obtain a special visa and that are allowed to work, usually in blue collar jobs, and stay in Australia for longer periods, visiting the country. Though the idea seems interesting, I still did not understand why is this a good option, compared to the alternative of working in Europe and only then coming to Australia for a shorter period.
Each time I met one of these working-holiday students, I would ask why they do not just come for a short period, only for vacations. I obtained different answers: some would say that they come for the culture experience, what is not very convincing, since the Australian culture is not that different from the European and, moreover, with the jobs they do and the places they stay, they meet more Europeans than Australians; others said that they came here to save money for passing their universities later. What is also not very satisfying, since the living cost in Australia, specially the hostel rates, are very high, and I really doubt that the get some money out of this trip, when considering that they have to pay an expensive flight ticket.
I think the real reason for them to come here in hoards is a more basic one: independence. These holiday-workers are students that just finished their high school and are eager for "freedom" from their parents. They are constantly partying and getting wasted. What brings me to my point. Why work in Australia? Isn't it better to work in Europe and make short holidays there itself?
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4 comments:
wow! How amazing! This might have been one awesome trip! I definitely would like to go to Australia someday. It is funny, when i have been traveling through the Philippines i met some canadian and british guys that did the same blue collar jobs in australia and then used the saved money to cheap travel through southeast Asia. The explanation i got from a British guy that works in Australia is that in Australia he earns much more money with blue collar jobs than in UK. He said: - In UK, its shitty money!They work on Australia until they have saved enough money and then they started traveling through cheap countries through months in a roll. Some of them have been doing this for years. ...What I've seen from this group of travelers is that they don't have much long term plans and ideals about their lives, they think only about living the present moment to the fullest (drugs, alcohool and rock and roll). The British guy has dropped high school. I don't want judge anybody, and although i love traveling i wouldn't like to have their lifestyle for myself.
I really enjoyed my stay in Australia, specially because I saw so many different things, from different birds and landscapes to different people, like the aborigines.
I think you got the right answer, most of the people that do these working-holidays are people that just want to have fun, and since in Europe the weather is not as great and also the jobs do not pay all that, they come to Australia. I also agree with you, that this type of life would be to exhausting for me, and I would soon get bored... or even miss my comfortable bed :).
A logical reason to do this would be that it costs a lot in terms of the plane tickets to come to Australia, so you would probably want to spend several months here to see everything properly. So rather than working in Europe and coming here a few times for short periods, they combine work and travel, and hence stay here longer.
But yeah, I'm with you... I prefer short holidays and returning to my own bed :)
Hi Linda. Nice to have you here :). I also believe one could spend months and months to see everything of Australia, or of any other country. But, usually, people go to a country to see only its highlights, like I did :).
There must be something more in Australia -- perhaps its fun people :) -- that attracts so many people.
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