UK citizens can get a working holiday visa for Australia for an initial 12 months. Allows you to work up to 6 months with one employer e.g. bar work, office work etc. If you want to stay another year, you need to do 88 days of work in your first year in certain areas - usually fruit picking or regional work. Great way to combine some work and travel but you need to get the visa before you turn 31.
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I worked in Australia for a year, just doing waitressing, but i was enring $25 an hour. I wokred part time and made $2000 a month so still had loads of time to see the country too!
I've seen this done well and badly.
My cousin actually somehow got a permanent job with good holiday doing HR type work in Australia, saved for like 9 months then had easily enough money for loads of work-free travelling.
But I've also seen people working at a hostel getting free accommodation, but pay was pitiful and they had run out of savings so were having to work for like 4 weeks before getting together enough for a weekend away, and they really didn't know how they were going to get back to England at the end of it. Some were also working quite long hours doing multiple jobs.
I've also heard varying things about fruit picking - both that it can be good but also that if the weather is hot it can be absolutely brutal work, especially if its pay per basket you pick. I'm also not sure if accommodation is always provided? However in some places both meals and accommodation definitely are provided and they get a great community feel. I guess it depends where and when you go.
I guess my bottom line advice is: make sure you have some money to spare and a backup plan. You don't want to be in the situation where you need the money to eat/get back home!