hello everyone, Maybe a little advice, please. I am coming to Australia in may 2008. On a budget of course. Can anyone recommend a good starting point. Looking to camp till I can find a place I like, then I ll rent a flat. I dont really like city life, but American city life is probably different. Was thinking, maybee I could buy a van or truck, camp in it, tour around, like that. I have six months, but will have to look at the visa thing, maybe now only 3 months. May is the start of your winter, yeah, I love the cold. Do I have the wrong idea here, is Australia not a place for backpackers, all city, nowhere to freely pitch a tent. The police will be called if someone spots a backpacker, children will cry, people will stare? I have this impression of Ausrtalia being like America in the 1980's. Willing to take a chance, but not if everything is very expensive. I dont worry about bad neiborhoods a such, I dont attart those sort of problems. oh one last thing, are the police generally helpful, they wont go to beating me up if they find me camping...
A van is probably much safer than a tent. If you are going for a tent you are probably ok pitching it near a river in rural areas but definitely not in a park in an urban area. Old Toyota Hiaces seem to be the preferred vehicle hippies these days although I quite like old Nissan Urvans and the old Mazda E2200 vans ( also re-badged as Ford Spectrons).Rural areas are usually the better place to buy a van and capital cities are the place to resell. Australian E-bay is a good place to look. You might have to go to US E-bay to log in. You can also look at www.tradingpost.com.au If you are looking for seasonal work you could try the government job search site https://jobsearch.gov.au/Login/Login.aspx?WHCode=0&TextOnly=0 If you want to work as a bartender for some states like Victoria an NSW you have to do the RSA course and in some cases the RSG course.Both one day courses.
Hi Yellowcat, Australia is very welcoming towards backpackers as a rule, there are backpacker hostels all over the place. Also you might want to have a look at the WOOFER program. Willing Workers On Organic Farms. It's on the net somewhere. I live in a small town (pop 20) on the border of South Australia and Victoria. You would be welcome to drop in if you're in the vicinity, I'm sure we could put you up for a while. Send me a PM if you think you would like to check out my part of Oz, cheers Hippymuso.
here is a email you can reachme at, unable to pm I m to new here. nexus197055 @gmail.com Its not my personal email, I please no one delete this address. There are no spaces, put those there to confuses the bots wandering around chat rooms, spaming people. look forward to hearing from you. yellowcat
