How to find a Job and extend your Australian Working Holiday Visa

Whether you are planning to spend a few years in Australia for work and holiday purposes, or whether you are within the country and loving the vibes so you want to stay longer, you are in the right place. I’m going to share with you all I know (tips I wish someone would have told me) about how to find a job to extend your Working Holiday visa in Australia.

Everything you need to know to extend your Working Holiday visa in Australia

Are you gathering all the information to understand how to find a job that allows you to extend your working holiday visa? I’ve got you covered.

Here you will find all the details about the kind of jobs, the locations and the days you need to collect to be able to renew your Working Holiday visa once or twice, and make sure you will live one of the best experiences of your life in Australia.

Australia is a beautiful country to explore, work and live in and, for the thousands of people I have met on my journey here, the Working Holiday visa is the first option if you want to experience it yourself, is the best way also if you are planning to get a permanent visa here but you want to have a closer look at the reality of this country, let’s say if it’s suitable for you.

Tips, rules and advice are what you are going to read also at the end of the article I will share my personal experience on how I extended my Working Holiday visa for a total of three years.

How to find a job and extend a Working Holiday visa in Australia?

The Working Holiday visa allows you to work and travel Australia for 12 months, this can be renewed two times for a total of 36 months that you can spend in this wonderful country.

If you are on your first Working Holiday visa and you would like to extend it for 12 more months you will need to work 88 days, or 3 months on a non-stop contract, in specific jobs and areas.

If you are on your second Working Holiday visa and you want to extend another 12 months, on top of the last 24, you will need to complete 6 months of non-stop contract work, or 176 days in regional specified works.

What kind of work do I need to do?

During the last few years, the options for the kind of work you need to do to be able to extend your Working Holiday visa, become more than just work in fruit, vegetable and animal farms.

The jobs can vary from fruit picking and packing, fishing, tree farming, dealing with animals, mining and even Hospitality and Tourism. So if you are not a big fan of dangerous insects and animals, high temperatures and long sun exposure you can opt for Hospitality and tourism works. Bear in mind that you can encounter dangerous animals and insects in your day-to-day life, this is Australia!

Let’s have a closer look at these categories of work:

• Farm work ( or plant and animal “cultivation”) and Tree farming and felling. These kinds of job opportunities are quite in high demand, as Australia produces a lot of food for the country and exports. Fruit, vegetables, animal stock and similar are the main “farm work” you can find all around Australia. As the climate differs from tropical to subtropical, desert and temperate, different fruit and vegetables are planted in the country. Also keep in mind that, working with fruit and vegetables, you need to consider the harvesting season. Here is a link that can help you to understand where and when you can find specific farm jobs. Farm work includes fruit and vegetable picking and packing, tree farming and planting, milk farms, livestock “farming” and others
• Mining work. Another option to extend your Working Holiday visa is by working in the mines. It’s a tough life but is well-paid and most of the mining work allows you to work 2 weeks on and one week off, or 2 weeks on and 2 weeks on and so on. Most of the time is a FIFO job ( fly in fly out), meaning the company pays for your flights, accommodations and food on-site. Mining jobs that count towards the 88 days don’t include housekeeping and cooking and can be quite challenging to get into the business. Also, consider taking a longer period to collect your days as the working routine is different from a normal job.
• Fishing and pearling If you love the ocean, and seafood, you might consider working on a fishing boat as a crew member or cook. Food and accommodation are included and usually, you will live and work on the boat for 10 to 14 days. The salary is good and you might get a percentage from the catch added to your wage.
• Construction jobs go from preparing sites and erecting scaffolding to painting new buildings. If you are lucky you won’t need previous experience for certain jobs but if you want a higher salary and a more qualified position, definitely experience is required. Also, you need to obtain a “white card” to be able to work in this field.
• Hospitality and tourism work. Lately, this option is the most common among the new backpackers coming to Australia with a Working Holiday visa and who want to extend the visa in a “chill way”. Since COVID-19 happened, Australia had a huge shortage of people who work in hospitality and tourism, this is one reason why now from 2020 is on the list to extend your visa. Most of the time the job offer in this sector offers food and accommodation, salary can vary depending on your experience.

Which areas count towards the 88 days and the 6 months?

If the list sounded easy here comes the challenging part. I’m just joking, I am going to make it so easy to understand – as I wish I could have found it when I was in need – so you won’t need to ask extra questions or leave this page without the real information you’re looking in order to extend your Working Holiday visa in Australia.

The Australian government website, luckily, provides all the right postcodes for each and every State and Territory of Australia. These postcodes point out all the areas within the country where you will have to complete your 88 days (or 6 months) of work to renew your WHV.

Here are the postcodes divided by State and Territory, scroll up and down for extra clear information from the official Home Affair website.

Some quick tips about the areas of Australia to extend your Working Holiday visa:

• Consider the difference between Regional and Remote areas: Regional areas are places that allow you to work in plant and animal cultivation, fishing and pearling, tree farming and felling, mining and construction. Remote and very Remote are the areas where you can add to the previous list the work in Hospitality and Tourism.
• Northern Territory and all areas north of the Tropic of Capricorn of Queensland and Western Australia are all classified as Remote and very remote areas.
• Tasmania, South Australia, Norfolk Island and Northern Territory are Regional areas.
• If you want to stay closer to a City, consider looking for farms and similar around Adelaide, Darwin and Hobart. You most likely will be able to reach the city within 30 to 40 minutes from the farm.

How do I find these jobs to extend my Working Holiday visa?

Strictly based on my experience and the experience of the people I have met during my Working Holiday visa in Australia there are a few ways to find a job to extend your visa.

Word of mouth is one of the main for sure, hostel life or moving around the country, you will be able to meet so many people during your journey. Some of them, if not most, are here with a Working Holiday visa and have done or are going to do these specific jobs to extend the visa. My advice is to speak with most of the people you come across, they might be giving you their previous farm contact or direct you to an area where farms are plenty.

The hostel that you are staying at can be a working hostel or have some job offer to share with you if you ask them. So go to the reception and see what they are going to say to you. Mind the traps or scams, unfortunately, some hostels can give false information just to keep you longer.

Working websites such as Indeed, Seek or similar are really helpful if you are already in an area and you would like to stay there to complete your days.

F-A-C-E-B-O-O-K is the king, I have to say. This platform is probably my number one choice if I don’t have any limitation on the area I want to work, as long as it will give you 88 days or 6 months to extend my Working Holiday visa. So make sure you follow and stay active in this kind of group on Facebook, the ads are daily and you have many groups.

These Facebook groups cover certain areas – smaller or the entire State – but even the whole of Australia. So if you don’t have any places you want to be but are keen on moving anywhere to complete your working days to extend the visa: Help yourself on this platform. Don’t forget to mind the scam ads here too! Search for groups like “backpackers jobs in Australia”, “88 days farm work” or similar..

Job agencies are another option to find a job to extend your Working Holiday visa in Australia, there are so many and they target specific jobs separately. MADEC is one example especially if you are looking for harvesting jobs in farms and similar. Different agencies also run jobs in construction and mining, some are: HAYS (also for some hospitality jobs) For what concerns the hospitality world, it mostly depends on the area you are looking but some of my favourite websites are: MLKA (specialized in Remote area job offer) and HOSPOWORD.

With this article, I share the main information about how to find a job to extend a Working Holiday visa in Australia. Things all these visa holders wish to know when they are getting closer to doing their 88 days (3 months) and 6 months (179 days) of specific jobs to renew the visa.

I hope this this article will be helpful for you too, if you need some more clarifications or you have some specific questions don’t hesitate to leave a comment below. I will be happy to help you.

Don’t forget: the main deal of the WHV is to have the most wonderful journey and why not, challenge yourself out of your comfort zone and try something new?!

ENJOY THIS AWESOME COUNTRY!