Tim Leffel’s Cheapest Destinations

American Students Can Work in Australia

We Americans used to look enviously at all those Brits and Australians moving back and forth between those two countries. Not only do they get a gap year and have a culture more accepting of long breaks, but they had the ability to go work legally in another country as a guest worker.

Well, last fall a reciprocal visa agreement kicked in that allows Yanks and Ozzies to do the same thing. We too can go get glamorous jobs as bartenders and fruit pickers on the other side of the world, staying for up to a year if between the ages of 18 and 30. Here’s a good rundown from Transitions Abroad, Work in Australia’s Tropical North. That area is lots of fun, first of all, and you’re close to Indonesia when it’s time to go traveling. But also it appears there’s a bit of a labor shortage as well, so you won’t be too hard-pressed to line up a temporary gig of some kind.

The story above has lots of great links to potential employers, but no matter what you’ll probably need to show up and burn some shoe soles to really find something solid. For some more leads and what to do for fun though, here’s another place to look. An globetrotting Australian and fellow travel book author who once crashed in my house runs an enterprise called Cairns Unlimited. Go check it out if you are looking for a pot of gold (well, a few extra dollars anyway) at the other end of your Asia-trekking rainbow.