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GETTING AROUND (BUSH-“WHEELING”):

There are a series of postcards sold here which depict the Australian border placed over Europe, Asia, or North America. Regardless of size may seem on a globe, this visual metaphor imposes the reality that the continental United States is about the same size as The Island Continent. If you are planning to visit for three weeks and see Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, and everything in between, be aware that this is no different an undertaking than planning to see San Francisco, Miami, Boston, and everything in between. The island continent is an island, but more importantly, remember it is a continent. Australia is 2,966,150 square miles in size. The U.S. is only about 600,000 more, and that additional size mostly consists of Alaska and Texas. There is much land to cover, and it takes time to see it. Driving across country means the same thing here. Except,  you're not taking the short route across, rather, mostly driving across the coast .Whatever any guidebook or tour guide tells you about transportation methods, don't listen. Buy a car. Or a campervan. I've flown, travelled by bus, and taken trains all over Australia. And each transportation taken has been an experience of superior quality. The two main bus services, Greyhound and McCafferty's, are luxurious by comparison to the American equivalent. While going Greyhound in the United States is much like an extended visit to a homeless shelter, the Aussie company is far more comfortable and clean. It's very cheap, and chances are the person sitting next to you is not only coherent, but has probably showered in the last day or so. And you will not be hassled at bus stations, regardless of the hour (the almost nonexistent homeless population also contributes to this). Travelling by train, while slower, is certainly comfortable as well. So why buy a car?

Whatever your intentions may be, a car will allow you the mobility to go where you please. 
When I first arrived in Australia, I thought buying a car would be a waste of money. Buses and taxis are so much cheaper, I rationalized, and there's so much to see that I don't yet know about, it would certainly be a waste of money. Although I've seen much of Australia without one, there is so much more I could have accomplished had I owned a car on arrival. And as far as the economics are concerned, I've spent more on transportation than I would have with my own vehicle, even had it needed repairs. 
Car rental, while cheap, is comparitive to U.S. prices, and it adds up. While taking trains and buses and taxis, one pays more than you would were you in control of your own destination. I cannot stress enough that when living or even just visiting - having a car is essential. Even while living in Sydney for a few months, public transportation made each day that much shorter.I was working mostly dinner shifts at a restaurant, and in a day that could've been spent doing four things, I would accomplish only one, since waiting for trains and buses, the time it takes to travel from one point to another, and the walking distance in between took up all the time.

For example, one day I had a 10:30 appointment at the eye doctor on Oxford St., in the middle of the city, and had to be at work at six p.m. I was living in Manly Beach at the time, which is very close to the city on a map, and easily accessible by car. At nine a.m., I walked the seven blocks to the Manly Ferry (which costs four dollars), arriving at 9:22. Waited the eight minutes until the ferry arrived. The ferry takes a half hour. It's a beautiful scenic trip which travels across the Sydney Harbor, with views of everything from the Pacific Ocean to the famous Sydney Opera House, arriving in Circular Quay at 10 a.m. From there I took the subway (additional $2.20), to the Museum Station, arriving at about 10:20. The eye doctor is five blocks from the station, so I got there a couple of minutes late. The appointment ended at noon. I walked out of the eye-doctors and stopped in a nearby café for lunch (the Roo Bar, which has excellent affordable food and a $3/hr internet-eat-while-you-surf section as well). Left at 1:15. Walked back to the train station, took a train back to Circular Quay, back across the ferry, arriving back at home at 4pm. Just enough time to get ready for work and catch the 4:40 bus which would arrive near my workplace at 5:40, hopefully, depending on how many times the bus stops and rush-hour traffic. 

Spending= a total of 15 for the day in transportation, then finishing work at 1:03 a.m., after the trains have stopped and the busses are only hourly. If I took a bus home, I would get home about 3 or 3:30 a.m.  So, I took a taxi, which I costs about 15 to 18 dollars, thus spending about 30 dollars in one day on transportation alone, and accomplishing only one thing, not even anything fun. One entire day. With a car, it would've taken fifteen to twenty minutes to and from the eye doctor's. Also, parking in Sydney is more sane and plausible than most world cities. BUY A CAR. 

Want another reason? I travelled Queensland by bus. Took Greyhound on the way up the coast, McCafferty's on the way down. Both bus companies have these one, three, six, and twelve month tickets which have unlimited stops between two points, within a certain amount of time. You pick a departure and arrival spot. My first ticket , for example, began in Sydney and ended in Cairns. It cost $200 (Australian dollars, remember). Once you have the ticket, you call the bus booking center and tell the dispatcher which days you wish to depart from which place, and where you would like to stop. It’s a very good idea- and allows you the freedom to stay in one lace for a couple of days or a couple of months. Very flexible to you and your needs. If you are traveling with a surfboard, golf clubs, or other larger size luggage, you will be charged ten or fifteen dollars for every pick up, unless you pay one set fee when you first purchase the ticket, usually about forty dollars. I managed to bat the eyelashes enough to avoid having to pay several times, or if that doesn’t work, or the eyelashes are on a heavily bearded face, you can usually try the “I paid but lost my ticket” trick.

The buses run constantly, yet space may be limited, so it's recommended to book ahead of time, even if it's a day or two ahead. For example, when attempting to travel to Byron Bay in January (peak season), there was a two week waiting period. And the buses, since they run 24 hours, will often pick you up at very odd hours. I've taken several buses at times like 5:06 a.m. You may be on that bus for ten or twelve hours. And while it's more comfortable than an American Greyhound, it's nevertheless a bus. I've spent many days and nights- sandwiched next to someone for more than nine hours, with my legs crunched up in front of me for lack of floor space, just waiting to get to a bus stop. When you get to that spot, whether you have a ride coming to meet you or not, you'll still wait for a while. Buses are often not on schedule. I learned this from a fellow bus traveller, the first time waiting, who, after an hour of waiting, said, "Oh, you're travelling Greyhound? They'll be here sometime in the next hour." 

When you get to your next destination, you may not be in walking distance of everything.  When I arrived in Coolangatta one morning, which is on the border of New South Wales and Queensland, at the bottom of the Gold Coast, after waiting two hours for my hostel pick-up, the driver told me I should visit the grocery store before getting to the hostel, as there is none there, and only one trip per day to the grocery store before getting  to the hostel.  Each trip, of course, takes several hours, including waiting for the ride to and from. When I arrived at the hostel, a YHA which was highly recommended by a surfing travel guide, it was across a busy highway and 15 more minutes to the beach. A beach with no waves. One hour’s walk down the beach later, I found Kirra, the famous break that the hostel was supposedly close to. Two and a half hours later, after asking locals and looking around, and a lot of walking, I found the perfect place to stay, within walking distance of three good breaks-Kirra, Greenmount, Durranbah, and a grocery store. By this time, it was dark. I booked a room for the next day, and walked the hour and a half walk back to the "centrally located" YHA. If I had had a car, I would've realized upon arrival that the YHA was far from where I wanted to be, and found more appropriate accomodation. Or it may not have been an issue, since the vehicle solves the dilemma.
If you are at all interested in staying at or near the beach, do not stay at a YHA. There are always better options. While they are clean and efficient, there is only one YHA in ALL of Australia that is beachside. That's the Colloroy Beachhouse in Sydney's Northern Beaches, which, while next to the beach, is a 25 to 35 minute walk to a decent break in either direction. Also, YHA's are incredibly sterile, so much so that they're not very homelike. Internationally, they're nice for a night of cleanly recuperation at best. Perhaps it's personal preference, but a dirty little hut just seems preferable to a pristine place without character. YHA is also the Big Brother of backpacking. Each room key has a code which alerts the main desk to every time you enter the room and bathroom. This “safety precaution”, any good conspiracy theorist will tell you, is an imposition on privacy best avoided. Internationally linked, years from now, there will be a record of your daily habits from the YHA in Egypt to the one in New Zealand.

With a car, you can explore more than just the sights you want to see. You control when you go and stay. When you want groceries, you get get them. And if you feel like a twelve-pack or a watermelon, you don't have to worry about walking it home. All of this time and effort I've put into days without a vehicle should be convincing enough .BUY A CAR.
It's really easy to do. All the capital cities have car swaps, and every hostel you'll stay at will have message boards with car sales posted, as well as the obvious classified ads and various trading posts. 

GETTING A JOB (TO DOLE OR NOT TO DOLE)

Getting a job in Australia can be hard or easy, depending on what you know to do, where you are, and how you go about it. If you have a working visa already, or a marriage/de facto relationship, skip this section entirely. You're as hirable as at home.

The United States is very tight with the working visas allotted to citizens of other countries, including Australia. Reciprically, they're tight with working visas allowed to U.S. citizens. Apparently, the U.S. regulations and restrictions will be changing in the next year or so, but that is not the case yet. While the Australian immigration raises open arms to all the British Commonwealth countries, it's a bit harder for American citizens to achieve. However, if you are a direct descendent of someone from a Commonwealth country, say a grandmother or father, you're eligible. This can get a little tricky. Call the U.S. Consulate to find out if you're eligible. So, how does it work? Because of your relative, you can then get a passport from a commonwealth country, let's say, for example, you grandfather was born in Ireland. You are then eligible to obtain an Irish passport. You are not required to enter Ireland (although it would be nice),  just to get the Irish passport. and you are then eligible to obtain a one year working visa to Australia (as well as to work throughout Europe).

If all else fails, and you can't get a working visa- then- work is still very possible without it. It's simply a matter of where the work is and how. It was once easy for the budget traveller to find work fruit-picking throughout Australia- no visa required. The lists of fruit-picking seasons and places are found everywhere from the popular TNT Magazine for backpackers to daily papers.  Recently, however, a law has been passed which fines those who employ illegal aliens (that's us, the Americans), sometimes up to 20,000. Two consequences have developed from this: 1. It's much harder to find work fruit-picking; and 2. I've heard many horror stories from fellow travellers where they have worked dawn to dusk for a couple of weeks, until paycheck time, when they were threatened with jail and chased off the property, never to be paid. If you are involved in such a situation, you are entitled to get the police to retrieve your pay, and then the rotten employer will be fined, and you will be deported for a few years. The glamorous ideal of working as a fruit-picker is in actuality a reality not unlike the back-breaking slave labor of cotton-picking in the eighteen hundreds. It's sticky hot- with no relief (AKA any nearby bodies of water, Air Conditioning, etc) and the pay is ridiculously low. If you are looking for a working-class labor experience, try the GAP sweatshops in Saigon- they might be more of an adventure. 

If, however, you are looking for regular laboring jobs, from skilled to unskilled work, the best way to find decent ones is in your local pub. Rather than searching the want ads or the internet, where you'll usually be checked for the proper visa, talk to people. The wages are comparable to those at home, depending on whether the labor is skilled or not. If you have a trade, explore it. There is a high demand for most, just make sure you’re looking for the right job description. For example, auto-body mechanics are called “panel-beaters.” 
It's really easy to get cafe work as well. This works best with word of mouth too, but most cafes are cash-paid jobs anyway, so you can just walk in and ask for a job.  Before you go looking, be aware that tipping is almost nonexistent in Australia. Waiters/Waitresses/Bartenders are paid a regular wage, ranging anywhere from about 12 to 17 per hour. Occasional tips are looked on as an added bonus, but in no way expected. 

 Stay towards the coast. The closer to the water you are and the greater the populous, the better your chance of employment. Most guidebooks will tell you to stay to the cities as well. Not all cities are hiring though. This January, which is the middle of summer and one of the best times to find jobs, there were almost no jobs in Brisbane. I looked and looked. and met others who were doing the same. By late February, I still met people who had passed through Brisbane, finding no work. But who knows? This may be different next year.
Regardless of the type of work you're looking for, if you're looking for work, you can always find it in Sydney. Especially with the Olympics coming on- there are jobs jobs jobs. Anything you want to do, and you're hired. Or, watch for large festivals or events. Obviously the Olympics. But also, there are always work-available situations such as the Formula One Races in Melbourne in February. Or the Blues and Roots festival in Byron Bay in April. 
These are all jobs that are accessible once you are here, without a working visa. If you are planning on going to Australia, but are still outside the country, find the job first. If you already have the job, then you already have the legal work permit.

TECHNOLOGY

The general Australian public is more technologically advanced than that of our own. Internet "phone booths" are found in the smallest towns, and internet cafes as well. Most larger cities, like Brisbane and Sydney, have such a competitive market with internet cafes, that the general price range is $3 per hour, or $4 for unlimited. Almost everyone has a cellular phone, and most mobile phone networks have service Australia-wide, for really cheap rates.
As soon as you get to Australia, buy a mobile phone. Even if you are only staying for a few weeks. It is worth the thirty American dollars it will cost you. Yes, that's the price. There is an ongoing price war with cheap offers for mobile phones. Pre-paid phones are on sale in every grocery store and convenience store, generally for about 100 dollars (Australian) each including a thirty dollar phone card. So you're getting a phone for sixty dollars, or about thirty dollars worth, in home currency. Almost every convenience store has recharge cards, from 10 dollars to 100. And it's really worth it. More than the convenience, is the fact that despite all these technological advances, the payphones here will eat your change. Put a dollar's worth of coins into a phone, and somehoe you'll be cut off mid-sentence, unless you continually feed it coins. Local calls are supposedly either 30 or 40 cents, but dial the wrong number and you'll see the change return button(if it has one) doesn't work. It's really worth your while to get a mobile phone. And most moblie phone phones from home will not work here. You can, however, use any mobile phone bought here in Europe. Having a phone will help you when looking for jobs, homes, or even just keeping in touch with friends.

PREJUDICE

I've experienced many sides of racism here. It really depends on who you talk to. Obviously, the closer you are to big cities, the less close-mindedness you will encounter. This is not necessarily the case in Australia. One thing is certain, though, no matter how multicultural, with so many races everywhere, there are very few African faces seen daily in the cities. While persons in the city are generally more idealistic about the racism issues, many have never met, worked with, or gone to school with any aborigines. Aborigines must not be thought of as African Americans are, though. They are more like Native Americans, abused and used in their own country of origin, as our own indigenous peoples were, And how many Native Americans do you see walking around the streets of Seattle or Atlanta? So, if you are searching for Aborigines, you must drive to their equivalent of the Navajo nation. Once you begin to see things in these terms, it makes a bit more sense.

I stayed with a mixed couple in Noosa for a while, the wife Aboriginal, with two beautiful daughters, and they treated me like family. They claimed to encounter no different treatment than before the relationship. But I met three train drivers in Sydney on their coffee break (ironically, two of them very dark-skinned men from Syria), and as the conversation turned to racism and jobs, all three explained to me why for one reason or another he would not hire an Aboriginal man for the job, were he up against a white man. So, yes, sadly, prejudice does exist here in some forms. In fact, there have been protests Australia-wide lately by Aboriginal activists, as one prominent politician denied the Stolen Generation's existence. The Stolen Generation is as recent as Civil Rights. It's the name for when the Australian government took Aboriginal children from their homes and families en masse in order to make them "civilized", sending them to white schools, living with complete strangers This happened as recently as thirty years ago, and denying it is similar to denying the Holocaust. So, eventually, after many demonstrations and petitions, the politician rebuked his answer. However, there is still a very good possibility that during the Olympics, radical activists will stage more protests, to make the world aware of the plight at home.

More often than not, though, Australians poke fun of everyone, themselves included. The differences between cultures and skin colors is not to be taken too seriously. A popular comedy currently showing in movie theatres is called “the Wog Boy”. “Wog” is the Australian term for Italian and Greek people, of which the eastern and southern parts of the country have a large population. Popular sentiment leans towards accepting all peoples.  Even the names for various peoples of the world reflect this. For example, Canadians are kanucks, and the British Pommies. P.O.M.Y. is actually an anacronym for Prisoner of Mother England. One group of Australian friends confided to me that while we Americans think that we’re being called “Yanks”, they actually call us “God Damns,” since that’s all we ever seem to say. I thought this was really unusual, until I started watching, and realizing, that in every American movie I watch, it’s “god-damn” this and “god-damn” that. You know, they’re god-damn right.