No, Australia is not the backpacker’s paradise.
I read this headline so many times while I was preparing this trip. I read so many bad stories about other French travellers who had to come back home because they could not find a job to finance their trip and got completely broke.
But as a real French girl, quite proud and arrogant, I thought I was going to have a different WHV. I can speak English pretty well, I know people who already are in Australia (and even Australians!), I will find a job or at least a work placement in my sector, I will avoid every French people, I will never speak French, I will travel all the time on my own… And with all these expectations, I actually arrived in Melbourne and everyone was waiting for me I had to face the reality.
Today, I can confirm it: Australia is quite a tough adventure. I came here to challenge myself. Well…. I found what I was looking for!
Easy to get a job, easy to lose it…
Australian and French laws are quite different I reckon. I did not know you could be on probation for three months whereas your contract actually lasts three months and then getting fired with one week notice (this one, even not respected). I was then confirmed that either you are backpacher or a business man who has been working for ten years within a company, the result is the same: you have five minutes to get your stuff ans say bye bye to your mates.
After the few jobs I have had in the city of Melbourne – either cash in hand or on contract, part time, casual, whatever – the backpacker is like a tissue: very easy to throw it away and to replace it by another one.
No time for rest
To all the people who told me before I left to Australia “Oh you’re so lucky! Such a nice life, you’re going on holidays AGAIN!!!” Nope. You are wrong mate. Travelling on a Working Holiday Visa represent much more than that. You are proud and you want to prove to everyone that you made the right choice. So the objective becomes not to ask your parents for money because, yes, you can do it!
But you are not the only backpacker with this objective, are you? WHV is a world of competition. I can tell now. With summer coming, the city is full of travellers, I can hear people speaking French on the street almost every day, and I could see dozens of backpackers handling resumes every week.
We all want the same thing: working for a few months and trying to save enough money to be able to travel the rest of the year. Yet, I do not think the phenomenon is only seen in the city. To get a farm job you have to face travellers from all other the world and to be faster and smarter than them.
Learn, be positive and keep smiling
“I never lose, I either win or learn” Nelson Mandela
Here we are. I have been here for three months.
I can tell you about my wins and about my failures, about the ups and downs, about wanting to stay here for my whole life and feeling homesick, about all the wonderful places and the ones where I should have not stopped, about the greatest night outs and the ones I should have stayed in my bed, about the best food ever and he one I could have cooked myself and about the great people I met and the ones who did not deserve the few moments we had.
All of these moments are part of this gap year. Every rough time will probably be forgotten in a few months when I will look back at it. Right now, all I need to do is to accept the obstacles I have to face. It would be boring if it was perfect, right? New opportunities will show up very soon as it happened a few weeks ago.
Keep in mind how lucky you are to be in this country, how good you are doing while being alone 17000 km away from home, the sweet words you received, the people who have been supporting you since the beginning, the things you have already accomplished, all the skills you have got in a few months and the most important…
THE BEST IS YET TO COME.
One more frenchie in oz 