You might just be a kid in college now, but someday soon you may find that you turned into an adult with a job, mortgage and a family.  “Settling down” actually involves a certain amount of settling down in one place, so why not see the world while you can?  If you just graduated, or just need a break, this could be the perfect time to travel halfway across the globe for a few months.  Too expensive you say?  First, you will be backpacking, which a completely different ballgame from the vacations with expensive hotels and fine dining that people with mortgages/families/careers take.  Second, have you ever thought about taking a working holiday?  Not only will you make money, but you will also get a different perspective of a place than when you are just passing through.  My own experiences working and traveling in Australia were so rewarding that I feel obligated to get other people thinking about working holiday opportunities.

Just months after I returned from a great semester studying in South Africa, I was already brainstorming ways to do some more traveling.  It did not take long for me to settle on Australia.  I knew it had interesting landscapes to explore and that I would get there in time to enjoy summer.  Wanting to minimize the expense while maximizing the duration of the trip, I decided my best option would be to get a job while I was there.

While most people would encounter many bureaucratic hurdles when trying to work abroad, governments have created worker exchange holidays that make the process much easier for young travelers.  You can get a temporary work visa in Western Europe if you have graduated within the last six months, and Australia and New Zealand just require that you be under thirty years of age.

There are two companies that arrange working holidays for Americans.  BUNAC and CIEE (Council on International Education Exchange) offer different destinations, but comparable prices and services.  I went with BUNAC, and they made the preparations quick and painless.  First, you fill out a short application.  After you are approved, the company sends you all the necessary paperwork and instructions on how to fill it out.  You return it with your program fee (which includes the cost of the visa) and your passport, and they process it for you.  Once you get your passport back, all you have to do is pack and get your ticket and you are set to go.  Remember to pack light--when you are lugging your bags around the country you will be happy that you only brought the essentials.

It is a long plane ride to Australia, but it was well worth it to escape the dull Midwestern winter.  Of course, it seemed like most of the Northern Hemisphere had the same idea: Sydney is crawling with backpackers in the summer.  But with its perfect weather and miles of beaches it is completely understandable.  After I arrived I got settled into my downtown hostel and walked to the BUNAC office where they hold the orientations for new participants.  They provide some important services such as handling your mail, and serving as contacts for information, or if you have an emergency.  They do not actually place people in jobs, but they offer advice and you can browse their job and apartment listings.  It was there that I learned about the jackaroo/jillaroo schools, which was how I got my job on a cattle station.

I didn’t go to Australia with the intention of working on a farm.  The original plan was to get a job in the city and travel afterwards, but I learned that if I really wanted to do that I should have come at the beginning of the summer before the schools got out.  One of the most popular jobs for travelers is packing fruit, but that did not appeal to me.  I had limited time in Australia, and I wanted to make the most of it by doing something totally different, something that brought me in closer contact with Australians.  Since I wanted to be outdoors, becoming a jackaroo (“cowboy”) seemed like the natural choice.

Despite the claims, jackaroo school does not really teach you to be a jackaroo.  After seeing some real jackaroos in action, it is clear that it requires skills that are only mastered after years of practice--beyond the scope of a week-long course.  The school does, however, provide a glimpse into farm life that enables you to decide if you would enjoy working on one.  It was run by a couple on their small farm, and there employee helped us became familiar with the farm equipment and animals.  I, along with the two other kids that were there that week, went on daily trail rides and practiced mustering cattle.  Jackaroo school is really an employment agency; once you have demonstrated that you are a hard worker, they set you up with a farmer that needs work.  And my farmer had plenty of work for me.

I worked for six weeks on a cattle station near Rockhampton, Queensland.  My boss, Simon, had taken over the property from his family and had put a lot of effort into developing it.  He lived on this property with his wife and two daughters.  There was one full-time employee, and there was another traveler whose tour of duty overlapped mine.

The work was often strenuous, but at least it varied.  The biggest project was fencing.  I have dug enough holes and set enough posts to last me a life time.  One day a week we woke up extra early so we could start the cattle work before dawn.  This involved all the branding, vaccinating, castrating, dehorning, and other treatments that needed to be done.  In our spare time we tackled the odd jobs, such as fixing gates and water pumps.  Work lasted from about 6:30 in the morning to 6:00 at night, and was only confined to these hours because of daylight.  I tried not to focus on the fact that I was earning the equivalent of US$3 an hour, instead thinking about how that A$5 an hour after taxes would add up over the course of six weeks.  I was also saving 100% of it-- my food and shelter was included, and there was absolutely no place to spend money.  It think I made out pretty well since workers in big cities have higher expenses and few fruit pickers last more than a few weeks.  And while I would not want to make a career out of it for financial and other reasons, it was rewarding to see what I was capable of doing.

Learning about how the business operates was another benefit.  Simon was constantly monitoring the news on tariffs and market conditions, and everyone was concerned about the drought.  They had received very little precipitation in the last two years, and had to drastically reduce the herd as a result.  They had finally gotten some rain before I came, but they needed the market to pick up to cover the expense of feeding the cattle.  It is two full-time jobs at once--manual laborer and business owner.

Growing up I used to think my hometown of twenty thousand people was so confining, but that would probably feel like a metropolis for the family I lived with.  The property was over ten thousand acres, and their nearest neighbors were a half-hour drive away.  Once a week the mother and children made the two-hour journey into the nearest city for music lessons and groceries.  They spent the rest of the week on the cattle station; the kids even attended the School of the Air, which were daily radio broadcasts that supplemented their home schooling.

The occasional dinners with the family provided a diversion from the isolation and even if we still mainly ate beef, at least I did not have to cook it.  In keeping with her English heritage, Nelly would usually prepare roast and vegetables.  Stopping for morning tea, or smoko, was also decidedly English.  It struck me how strongly they identified with England, despite having such a long history in Australia. Because until recently most people in Australia had English ancestry, it became part of the Australian identity.

The once restrictive immigration policies were changed in the 1960s, and now Australia has become one of the most diverse countries in the world.  Waves of Eastern European people came after World War II, and more recently many Asian immigrants have settled there.  As the face of Australia changes, there has been a lot of debate about whether it is still appropriate to keep Queen Elizabeth as their Head of State and whether they should adopt a new flag that does not incorporate the Union Jack.  Even the conservative family I stayed with was split on these issues, although they admitted that the culture was rapidly changing.  While it is traditional to have fish on Good Friday, the fact that Nelly cooked a Thai fish curry demonstrates that other cultures are having a big influence on Australian culture.

Of course, one group that never fit the English-Australian model was the Aboriginal people.  Most Australians showed reverence to the Aboriginal’s ability to survive in the harsh landscape, for instance, explaining how they used the native plants for food.  At the same time, issues over land ownership are always contentious.  It can be difficult to learn about the Aboriginal culture; they live in areas that are inaccessible, and their belief system which permeates their art is only shared during initiation.  Traveling to Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) and Kakadu National Park, which are both owned by Aboriginal groups, offers the opportunity to gain some insight into these cultures.

After my stay on the cattle station, I used the money I had earned to travel around the country.  I had the chance to do a lot of fun things, including surfing, scuba diving, sea kayaking and hiking.  The reefs, beaches, deserts, temperate and tropical rainforests are all waiting to be explored.  Australia is a vast, sparsely populated country, but there is plenty of transportation options and a whole sub-culture devoted to traveling.  At times it is even more economical to join a tour; a twenty-hour bus ride between Darwin and Alice Springs costs just under A$200, but for  A$60 more you can take a three day tour that includes meals. camping, and the chance to see a lot more of the scenery along the way.  Traveling alone also has huge advantages as it teaches you to rely on yourself and gives you time to think, especially important during the quarter-life graduation crisis.

In a perfect world we could all obey the golden rule of travel--take twice as much money and half as much stuff.  If you have the time and dedication to save for a trip before you go, then you might be able to forgo working abroad altogether.  You might also consider WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms), a program that exchanges a half-day of work for room and board.  I WWOOFed on a peppermint farm in Tasmania where I got first-hand experience constructing a house using straw-bales and composting with worms.  Still, working abroad is such a unique experience, and I know how much I value the time I spent on the cattle station.  If you are dying to go abroad there are many options available, and a working holiday just might be the perfect solution.

Links

BUNAC
http://www.bunac.org/usa/default.asp

CIEE
http://www.ciee.org/

Rocky Creek Jackaroo School
http://www.isisol.com.au/rockycrkfarmstay/

Wayward Bus
http://www.waywardbus.com.au/

Pro Dive
http://www.prodive.com.au/default.asp

WWOOF
http://www.wwoof.com.au/