Backpacking Oz

Guide to Immigrating to Australia

I found something tonight while surfing that I know many non-aussies will want so decided to post with the update. It's called "Guide to Immigrating to Australia" and it contains everything you need to know about immigrating to Australia written by a guy who immigrated here in 2001. I've met and received emails from so many backpackers & online friends asking me if I could help them get here and never had any easy answers for them, I don't even know myself how people get here because I'm an Aussie citizen, so I'm so glad I found this, especially since it's all legitimate, I hope you find it useful. Guide to Immigrating to Australia

Chaffery's Farm - Woorinen South

(1) Bill and his loyal companion, (2) Nectarine Trees, (3) me on a tractor.

Takes about an hour to pick a row of nectarines/peaches. Picking Nectarines and Peaches are probably the easiest fruit you can pick, but can get a bit tedious, there wasn't one night that I didn't keep picking peaches & nectarines in my sleep. You work in 35-42 degree heat. The day starts at 6:30am and finishes around 3pm, but can sometimes be cut shorter due to extreme heat or when there is no more ripened fruit to pick. Chaffery's was a really decent place to work, the people were friendly, the boss wasn't nasty at all, and they let me "have a go" even though I'd never picked fruit before. There was one guy who couldn't stop talking about sex as soon as other's weren't listening, but all in all, it was still a great place to work. I was also allowed to ride the tractor on the 2nd last day which was a lot of fun - hope one of the other farms lets me get back on it! :)

(1) Jackie & Jade in Nectarine trees (2) Jade & Jackie on/near tractor

Jackie & Jade are 2 Koreans who I worked with on the farm, they are a couple of friendly guys who I hope to meet up with one day again in the future. We all left the farm at the same time. They were splitting and heading to Melbourne & Perth then going back home to Korea.

The Grand Hotel "balcony" - Nyah West

(1) Gayle (Ireland), Thomas (Germany), Dirk (Germany). (2) Linda (Finland). (3). Johno & Martin

The balcony is the "party" of the pub, especially on Friday nights after a long, hot week. At the end of the day, this is where you'll find many backpackers having a 'nice cold one'... or two... or ten... The first night that I came to the pub, I had to walk over a sleeping body in the doorway to get out onto the balcony :) Friday nights, my guitar usually gets a use from those that can play it, and after a few drinkies, we're usually all having a bit of a sing-a-long, in between having a music-war with the many different tastes of music we have from all around the world.

Thomas - Germany

Crazy German Boys roam around the hotel trying on women's dresses and playin` awesome guitar :)

The backpacker's buses... the hotel uses these buses to pickup the backpackers and drop them off to the surrounding farms.

Grand Hotel - Nyah West

Room 9

A very tight squeeze. One of the smallest rooms I think, but we reckon it has the best beds, so we don't care! It's right next to the bathroom, so is quiet at night. Currently I'm sharing with Mirium (Germany), but have shared with Sarah (Germany) and Sarah (Australia) and this is only my 3rd week. With dorm-styled rooms, you never know where you're going to end up or who you'll be sharing with, but I've been lucky and only had nice, trustworthy people so far!

Grand Hotel Kitchen - Nyah West

"Skippy" (Sudan) nicknamed because he can jump! Real name Carlo or Carlos

I'll definitely have to get some more photos of the kitchen as it has to be seen to be believed. With approx 50 people at any one time staying at the pub, the kitchen is always maxed out except during the day when we're all at work - which is when the little thieving non-workers come in and steal all our cool food. There are 4 fridges, and not enough room for ya food. I keep all my dry stuff, utensils and cookware in my bedroom and only buy what's necessary. I've learnt to live without milk as if you buy it, you only get enough for one coffee, and it's gone the next day, so I buy yoghurt for breakfast and make a chow mien or stirfry once a week and store it "where I can" in the fridge/freezer. I've never been able to cook just for me as people just help themselves, even with the many threats of death to those who get caught!

Nyah Dust Storm (Feb 1st 2005)

(1) Inside bar during dust storm (2) outside bar after dust-storm had sub-sided

(3) We couldn't get into the French couple's room to close their windows

(4) Front of Grand Hotel during Storm (5) Miriam in Windy Dust Storm

Never have I seen anything like it that went for such a long time! Thanks to Miriam, I now have some cool video images of the dust-storm. 5-8mb each:

The storm went for over an hour and left dust all through our rooms, through the bar, uprooted trees, the metal parts of the roof flew off. I got caught in it, and myself and 2 Finland girls had to run back to the pub with our eyes shut, thankfully we weren't very far away. I feel sorry for anyone who got caught driving or walking, as it was so sudden! Duststorm3.avi is my favourite for showing the strength.