ANNA
Every year, around 35,000 Brits make the trip down under for a working holiday. That's according to Tourism Australia. Jessica Ollerenshaw is one of the many young travellers from the UK who's taken full advantage of the opportunity to work and travel here.
JESS
So my name is Jess, I'm 23 and I'm from the West Midlands, a little town called Rugeley by Litchfield.
I'm on a working holiday visa in Australia and I would really, really like to be a Brit Australian.
ANNA
Despite only being halfway through her 12 month visa, she's already made a decision to extend her stay.
JESS
I do want to stay here. Because I've literally been here like six months and it's gone so quick. I just love it so much.
ANNA
And Jess puts it down to being away from the expectations she feels back home and her new sense of freedom.
JESS
I can't even explain the feeling, like you know when you just feel free? Yes. When I'm back in the UK I feel like there's so much pressure to be like in a career, have a house. // My aim was to like, go around the whole of Australia and then see where I like the most and then perhaps settle down and work there.
ANNA
Why did you decide to go travelling around Australia?
JESS
Pretty much, it's always sort of been on my to do list. But with COVID and stuff and finishing university and having no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I just thought, you know what, I'm going to do it because I was living in Manchester after I finished uni and I actually decided to stay there because I got like a management role in my job and I thought it was really good because I was 19 and I was like, Oh my God, this is so good.
Like I'm doing so well. To be honest, in the end, it was the worst thing I possibly did. I hated it. Like, I was seeing everyone else traveling, enjoying their lives, and I was like 19. My rent was £650 a month to even live in Manchester. So, when I was getting paid, I was just, it was all on bills, and I couldn't even afford to, like, have fun. So, I just pretty much had a meltdown; quit my job. Left Manchester. My mom was like, just come home and save your money and go. So I was like, right, let's just do it. Forget about the ego, save my money and go to Australia and just be free.
ANNA
And has it lived up to your expectations so far?
JESS
Yeah, even more. I just, you know, when like you first get here and you see like The Sydney Opera House and you, you have to like keep pinching yourself, but I am actually here.
It's just crazy.
ANNA
Yeah. It's just, it's quite spectacular, isn't it?
JESS
Oh my God. It's just amazing.
ANNA
And how did you plan your trip? Because obviously you were doing this from the other side of the world. You'd never been here before. How did you Organize what you were going to do. Did you come out on your own as well?
JESS
Yeah. So I came out on my own. I was always going to do it on my own because I never wanted like ties of other people saying, I want to do this, I want to do that. I just wanted it to be my travel. I pretty much was just watched loads of YouTube videos and TikTok videos and sort of just. worked out how to do it from watching all that and I also knew someone who did work in holiday visa out here as well So I was able to speak to my friend about a lot of the things and ask them a lot of questions Which was really helpful.
ANNA
And where have you been so far?
What have you seen so far?
JESS
Okay, so I started in Sydney and then we went up to Byron Bay. We went to Surfers Paradise And then we went to Brisbane, and then to Bundaberg, which is where I did my farm work. And then from Bundaberg, I flew to Melbourne, and then from Melbourne I went to Adelaide, and then to Alice Springs.
ANNA
Wow, that's, you've done a lot in, in just six months.
JESS
I know, do you know what, now I've said it out loud, I'm like, yeah, I have. Yeah. It's just been insane, like, seeing every single place, most of the places in Australia, and how different all the places are as well.
ANNA
Yeah? You noticing that?
JESS
Yeah, especially going from the cities to coming to the outback, it's just a massive culture change, it's crazy.
ANNA
In what way? What have you noticed?
JESS
Well, say Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney is very, very busy. Everyone's rushed going to work, lots of big shops. Whereas the outback, it's... It's just so quiet. It's really peaceful.
ANNA
Is it like, almost like being in a different country when you go from one place to another?
JESS
Yeah, and do you know what? It's crazy getting a flight in Australia because when you get flights, you're normally going to a new country, whereas I'm just going to another place in Australia. I've got a flight from. // Darwin to Cairns because if I was to get the Greyhound coach, it was two days, whereas a flight is two hours.
ANNA
I was just about to ask you, how are you getting around?
JESS
So there's this thing called Greyhound Coach, so you basically pay for a pass, and you can either have 30 days, or 3 months, or whenever, and you can travel like the whole of Australia just hopping on and off each stop, and it's so cheap as well, so you can literally hop on and off wherever you want to go.
ANNA
Okay, so, you're on a working holiday visa. Can you tell me, how did a girl from the West Midlands end up working on a farm picking tomatoes in Queensland? Oh, God. How did you end up on a farm, like, on your trip to Australia?
JESS
Okay. So basically, to get your second year visa, you have to do 88 days of regional work.
So you can do hospitality now, they changed the rules. If you want to do hospitality, you have to do it either in the outback or Cairns or further than that. Or otherwise, it has to be like on a farm or packing shed.
ANNA
Yeah, there's a huge reliance on backpackers in the farms, isn't there?
JESS
Yeah, 100%. So, obviously, I wanted to get my second year visa.
So, I was like, do you know what? Let's try something new and let's work on a farm. Because I've seen so many people do it and it didn't look too bad. And I was like, it's all about trying new things being in Australia. So, Yeah, so we basically did a month on the East Coast and I was like, right, let's just get it over and done with so then I can enjoy my travels.
So we basically went, applied for a town and it's called Bundaberg and that's in Queensland. We got there and do you know what, facing brown snakes on a tomato field and being rained off and like the sweatiness and just, it wasn't too bad. We had our hard days and we had our cries and our meltdowns, but We got through it.
ANNA
And regional means basically not in a city, doesn't it? And out, basically in the sticks really.
JESS
Pretty much, yeah, pretty much. So I was quite naive when I first started, like, doing all my research for Australia and stuff. I thought I was going to be able to do my, like, farm work in Sydney.
I was like, yeah, I'll do my eight days in Sydney. So yeah, so definitely do your research, but it has to be regional. So if you go onto the Australian Government website, you're actually, it actually gives you a list of postcodes which are valid within the sector of the 88 days, then you can just Google the postcode and it will tell you if that's eligible for the 88 days to be valid.
ANNA
So what, what work were you doing? What were you actually doing up there?
JESS
So our first job was tomato picking. So we were literally from nine till half three in the afternoon, we'd... Just pick tomatoes, cherry tomatoes. We'd just pick buckets after buckets after buckets, and that is all we would do. Let me tell you, it was challenging on the mind.
ANNA
Oh, I bet. Yeah, of course.
JESS
It was good though, because you could put your earphones in and you could have a little chat to your friend in the next line. But there's only so many podcasts and so many playlists you can listen to. I was thinking of things I've never thought about in my whole life. I was like, what is going on?
ANNA
So you were picking tomatoes all day, do you get a break?
ANNA
Yeah, so you, you get a, they call it smoko. You get a smoko for 15 minutes at like 10 you have a half an hour lunch break at half 12. But literally, your lunch break is in the middle of the field. There's one portaloo. You have to sit on the ground with all the bugs. There's no, there's no like, room or anything you go to you just sit in the like the 30 degree heat
ANNA
oh no way so it was hot?
JESS
So hot. Like, there was some days where I was, I was literally like, I can't do this.
ANNA
oh gosh. When you say that there was one portalo how many people were there working with you?
JESS
oh god there must have been about 25 people on this
ANNA
No way.
JESS
Yeah. But you know what? It was okay for guys, because they could just go in the bush, where it was chills. And let me tell you, them portaloos were not clean.
ANNA
Oh, you poor thing. That's awful.
JESS
I've been in better festivals, portaloos.
ANNA
Brown snakes are really dangerous. Did you come across them?
JESS
Oh my God, they're so dangerous.
So my friend was next to me in the vine, and all I hear is, Jess, Jess, and I'm like, what? And this snake, this... Like, it must have been like a meter long or even bigger, slithered past her foot, into my vine and past my vine. I stayed so still and literally it just kept slithering past us and we told the farmer about it and her reaction was she gave us a shovel and said hit it if it comes near you.
I said, I was like, are you joking?!
ANNA
Oh my god, I can't believe that. A brown snake?
JESS
Yeah, a brown snake. It was absolutely huge and... I'm glad I've seen one, because I feel like I've really experienced Australia now, now I've seen a snake.
ANNA
Was it moving quite fast?
JESS
Oh yeah, and it was so like, it was so, it just kept coming back and forth, it was like it was playing games with us.
It just would not leave the vine and leave us alone.
ANNA
Were you not nervous?
JESS
Yeah, I was nervous to come back into work the next day, because I was like, where is it?
ANNA
So how many days in total did you work on the tomato farm?
JESS
I must have done 17 weeks. So we actually got sacked from tomatoes a week before my visa was, like, completed. We all, we all got sacked. So basically it was a random Wednesday afternoon.
ANNA
Why?
JESS
Yeah, I don't, I literally don't know. I literally have no idea. She didn't give us a reason.
ANNA
Oh my gosh.
And you only had one week to go to complete your visa requirements?
JESS
Uh, yeah, literally. So like, I went into full panic mode because I only had seven days left.
She was like, well, we just don't need you anymore. And I was like, right, but I need you. Yeah!
ANNA
Where do you stay when you're doing this kind of work? Do they provide accommodation for you?
JESS
Basically, so we worked for a contractor who sorted us all out the work and the accommodation, transport and everything.
The first place we stayed in was in a motel. Basically, we went a whole week without hot water at this motel, but then the place actually got shut down. So then we got put in a shared house, but many people go in hostels and the hostels usually like provide the transport and stuff for them. But to be honest, I'm quite grateful that we got put in a house because it made it feel more homely.
ANNA
And who were you there with? Who were you up in Bundaberg with?
JESS
So basically in Sydney, I did a welcome tour and I met two girls on there and we traveled the east coast together and then that resulted in us doing our farm work together. And then we met people on the farm. Yes, it was nice to know people and share that experience with them.
ANNA
Yeah, were they all Brits or your friends?
JESS
Yeah, they're all British.
ANNA
And all the people working on the farm with you, were they British as well? Or were they all British backpackers?
JESS
The majority of them were, but then there was quite a lot of Australians as well. So there was about 10 Australians working on the farm.
ANNA
What? Aussies, like, young people -or do you mean, like farmers?
JESS
Yeah, like young Aussie people. There was like these lads and there were only about 17. Yeah, there was quite a lot of Australians that do work on the farm.
ANNA
So what is, what's Bundaberg like? Can you describe what is it like there?
JESS
So Bundaberg is like a little town.
It's got a lot of farms and a lot of backpackers go there. It's got two nightclubs, which are not the nightclubs you want to be going in. Which is alright. Yeah, all part of the-
ANNA
Because you've only- you had one week outstanding, are you going to do some more farm work before the end of your first year?
JESS
So I finished it off in the end.
Our landlady was so nice and she actually, she actually found us another job on a chilli farm. On a chili farm? Yeah, so half four in the morning till half twelve in the afternoon, and we would just pick chilies all day.
ANNA
Oh my god, that is so random.
JESS
I know, literally. And you had to wear like long sleeves, long leggings, otherwise like the chilies can like burn you.
ANNA
And that's obviously in 30 odd degree heat.
JESS
Yeah, so that's the reason we start like half four in the morning, because it gets too hot.
ANNA
Wow.
How much do you get paid for farm work in Australia?
JESS
So, it depends what farm you're on really. So, when we were on tomatoes, we were getting $26 an hour.
ANNA
Oh.
JESS
Yeah, it was pretty decent to be fair.
But then on the chilli farm, it was piece rate. So, if you like pick more than piece rate, you could earn up to like $300 a day. But if you were obviously earning under piece rate, it was $21 an hour.
ANNA
So, sorry, what's piece rate? What does that mean?
JESS
Piece rate is like how much you get paid by bucket, so depending on the weight, you will earn that much money.
ANNA
And is that, is that decent? $21 an hour, or is that quite low, would you say?
JESS
It's minimum wage, they call it minimum wage in Australia, that is literally like minimum, $21. Yeah.
ANNA
Yeah. And because it's expensive in Australia as well, like that's not why I get you very
far earning that.
JESS
No, not really. So I'm glad I only had to do it for like a week.
ANNA
And how did you organize accommodation and your working rights? Because you need to get a tax file number, don't you, when you get to Australia and you need a bank account and you need a mobile phone, sorry, a SIM card. How did you organize all that?
JESS
So basically I did a work in. holiday travel tour in Sydney for a week, which they do it all for you.
So they sort out your tax file number, your SIM card, like they help you with onward travel afterwards, which I highly recommend to anyone who wants to do Australia on their own, because without that I would have felt so lost
ANNA
and probably would have felt overwhelming.
JESS
Yeah, overwhelming. So I did that and it just.
Secured everything and obviously you meet people, which I did and traveled the East coast with them. So I was never felt lonely.
ANNA
Yeah, it's a great idea to have some help when you get there. 'cause I remember when I came out as a backpacker and I really found it quite overwhelming seeing. You get there and you need a phone to be able to do anything.
So you go and get a SIM card, but you don't know who to go with. And then once you've got a SIM card, then it's like, okay, I need a bank account. You can't get a bank account without an address. So then you need to get an address. And it was just, I remember, Oh, cause you need, and then you need a bank account to get a job and then also to get a job, you need a tax file number, but everything, everything was linked.
So it was quite, I found that quite stressful as a backpacker coming out to Australia. So it's great that you had some help.
JESS
Yeah, definitely. I would have got so overwhelmed if I didn't have all that because it, you just got to a new country, you don't know anyone and then you've got all that to sort out.
It was, yeah, I was so grateful that I was able to do that.
ANNA
Good.
You want to stay in Australia, obviously. How can you do that?
JESS
So, this is what I'm trying to figure out myself. I'm thinking maybe work for a company and hopefully get sponsored, maybe. Yeah.
ANNA
What was your degree?
JESS
My degree was in sport management.
Do you know when you just don't know what you want to do with your life? This was the whole reason I came to Australia because I just didn't know.
ANNA
Yeah, of course.
JESS
If I had to leave Australia, I'd go do a working holiday visa somewhere else like New Zealand or Canada.
ANNA
Have you got any tips or advice for anyone who is considering coming to Australia on a working holiday visa?
JESS
Definitely travel a bit for a month or two, then do your farm work because don't put your farm work off. Definitely. For anyone that's wanting to do these 88 days, I'm telling you it's not 88 days, it's always longer. It's always longer because you can't predict the weather conditions and you can't predict the farmers.
Just get it over and done with so you don't have to worry about it. Yeah. I'd just say come out with an open mind and just go with the flow. Don't plan anything because every single one of my plans have changed. Just take each day as it comes and just, like, live in the present moment because... is, is a once in a lifetime opportunity to be out here.
ANNA
For now at least, if you want to extend your time in Australia on a working holiday visa, it's still a requirement for backpackers from the UK to do regional work, a bit like Jess's tomato picking. But the government here have brought in brand new rules, which mean that from 2024 onwards. anyone on a working holiday from the UK can extend their visa without having to work on a farm.
They've also changed the rules on the age limit, which means that Brits can apply for a working holidaymaker visa up to the age of 35.