Our time living in Brisbane

Brisbane - Home in Australia

Brisbane's skyline

During our year away we stayed in Brisbane for over 7 months and we managed to build a new life and at the same time explore Queensland and the rest of Australia. It wasn't always a walk in the park to begin with but was worth it and was a shame we had to leave in the end!

Our "Queenslander"

Bedroom: Better than a sweaty dorm room!

We had spent a week in a hostel which was long enough, and after Georgia bagged herself a job we went flat hunting in beautiful Brisbane. We found a double room just outside the city centre for a bargain $200 per week (£55 each and the min wage out here is £15 an hour- so think about it!). It wasn't exactly a luxury place but with all bills included and a 5 minute walk to the city centre it seemed like luxury after paying almost double in a dorm in a hostel! Our house was split into two sections with a downstairs and upstairs and for most of the time we were the only people living downstairs which meant we had our own living room, and bathroom for the first 5 months. It was literally like having our own place, all we have to do is go upstairs in the evening to use the kitchen.

Our share house

The house wasn't as glamorous and as good as it seemed, the front room would get flooded when a tropical storm battered Brisbane every month or so as there were cracks in the wall. The oven didn't work for about 3 months and the housing agency wasn't even bothered about it, not that I even went close to the oven in the 7 months as Georgia was chef!
We also had two Australian 18 year olds that claimed to be students living with us who were proper dirty and weird (I sound like a grumpy old man). When I mean dirty, they used to throw the pots and pans away in the bin to avoid washing them up!
Our small little garden was like a jungle with snakes, possums, rats (who often would like to come in and pay us a visit) but the parrots that lived in our garden made up for it. It was almost weird to see parrots in the wild, especially in a small city centre garden and not in a zoo. I much preferred the parrots in the garden to having pigeons and cats in the garden back home.
In Australia, there wasn't no cats really and me and Georgia just jumped to the conclusion that the snakes eat them which makes sense?
The last couple of months we had an Iranian man move in who was studying who seemed a genuine nice person although there was a few cultural differences we had to agree on.


Jobs

In Brisbane we had 3 jobs each in 7 months which was probably about average for someone with a working holiday visa.
Georgia's three jobs were all located in Brisbane city centre in hospitality usually involving making baguettes and salads for the city workers but was often part time work about 20-25 hours a week. Whilst Georgia was working she decided maybe she should look for another job to get more hours and money so she applied for a cleaning job online on Gumtree which was for one day a week. When she made the phone call the man was requesting if she was young fit and healthy and he needed someone to help clean whilst he was renevating a house and his wife was pregnant so couldn't help out. Georgia wasn't totally sure about how genuine it was and she was right! I was laughing at the time and still, I was on the computer and found an advert from the same man but instead this time he changed it to "topless cleaner" and for some reason Georgia was no longer interested? I told her she should do it and she would get money but there was no convincing her!
Georgia had a bit of a rough time when it came to jobs in Australia, she left the first catering company after being racially abused and picked on by fat old australian women, how can they be racist when their parents or grandparents would have been immigrants themselves? Her second job was just a trial for a South African couple who sounded mental and her third company dumped her without any notice. In the end I employed her as my personal chef and she took up the offer :)

When I first arrived in Brisbane I couldn't believe my luck and got a job at the Ashes selling radio headsets and more importantly got paid to watch the cricket! I met a couple of people there who I became friends with and enjoyed the banter with the Australians especially thinking that England were going to smash them in the Ashes again. We was only required to work for the first 3 days out of 4 so me and Georgia decided to have a day out at the cricket even though England were losing. I was a bit sneaky and used the work entrance that I had been using the previous four days and even wore my uniform whilst Georgia went through the public entrance. It was part of a cunning plan to sneak 14 cans of beer into the ground so we didn't have to spend £4 on a small 3% beer all through the day. The game itself was a bit boring as Australia destroyed England, the best part was probably the hail storm that turned the cricket pitch into a white field! Cricket stopped due to ice! We sat with the "Barmy Army" England fans which was a laugh singing the usually convicts songs and singing "God save YOUR Queen"

One of the trucks James worked with

Anyways, back to the job hunting, I managed to find a job at a cafe as my CV may have been slightly exaggerated in the fact that I mentioned I had worked in a bar and worked in the hospitality sector all my life....well I did do 2 shifts as a barman when I was 18, so not a complete lie. The cafe was run by a young Chinese couple who constantly looked over my shoulder and was paying me below the minimum wage and was actually useless serving food as I didn't know what half the menu was! Anything was better than doing farm work in the outback in the 40C heat though.
On the off chance I applied for a job that looked interesting and something I studied a bit about at university and managed to get offered an interview which surprised me. A lot of employers would immediately not even bother looking at your job application once they knew we only had a working holiday visa as we could only work for one employer for a maximum of one month. I got offered the job after impressing in the interview ans started as a Fleet Allocator for a haulage company that transported shipping containers. I was in charge of around 15 Aussie and Kiwi truckies, half the time it was like looking after children when they had tantrums but the pay was good and I actually enjoyed it most of the time. In the end they wanted me to stay and offered me a sponsorship for four years but I turned it down as it was time to go back to "Pommie" land


Things to do in Brisbane and the Gold Coast

On the Gold Coast there were no less than 5 theme parks in which we managed to go to 3 of them. Warner Bros Movie World, Seaworld and Wet 'n' Wild that kept us occupied for a few weekends....Georgia even got to meet Bugs Bunny.

 

Surfers Paradise: Not a nice area according to Aussies!

Weirdly enough Brisbane didn't actually have a beach, you kind of just assume that everywhere in Australia does! Although they do have one in the local park which is different.
To go to the beach we had to go down to the Gold Coast which was a hour or so away and a lot of people referred it to where "Bogans" hang out which is the Australian equivalent to chavs. Looking at that picture does that look like a Chavvy place, Surfer's Paradise isn't exactly Dagenham Heathway is it? The problem with Australians is that they don't know how lucky they are! Surfers Paradise seemed more like America than Australia was often described as Florida to many people we met along the way! Beach, bars and restaurants, whats there not to like?
Further along the coast there was just endless beaches and we even tried playing barefoot bowls. The requirement in England to play bowls is usually that you have to be over 90 years old but Australians love playing a bowls in the sun whilst having a "Barbee". I think we slighlty embarrassed ourselves playing bowls as most of the balls went off the green or heading towards other peoples games. To be fair, Georgia was quite good and beat me easily which to this day is still hard for me to admit as I'm clearly not competitive.

We visited a zoo type place and was called the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary which primarily looked after koalas, kangaroos and other types of wildlife you find down under. In that picture Georgia is completely petrified and they may look nice but they stink. Well it was worth the photo opportunity! There was a kangaroo field where you was able to feed and pet the kangaroos which was good although some were bigger than me! Apart from the 2 million Chinese people that were there on a tour group it was pretty good.
I managed to get a close up experience of some Aussie wildlife when I was walking back from work to the station when I heard some rustling in the grass. I turned back to notice I just walked straight past a 5ft snake! I hallucinated every time I walked home after work since that day!

Brisbane also has it's own brewery in which you can have a tour around but it nowhere near as good at the Guinness Brewery Tour in Dublin or the Heineken Brewery Tour in Amsterdam.

Mount Coot-Tha was also a favourite place for us which gave us an a amazing view of Brisbane and enjoyed the walks on top of the the mountain. We don't pretend to be professional hikers so we took the bus up and walked down to save us from passing out.

As mentioned earlier, there were no beaches in Brisbane but there was a park with a man made beach. It was a few minutes walk from our house and is such a good idea but most of the time it was so busy! Nine months of the year Brisbane is above 25C so it makes sense to build a beach and a swimming pool in a park I suppose but not sure if they anything else like this in the world, maybe someone can tell me? I was happy with just a paddling pool twice a year in the garden when I was a kid!

Beach within a park!

Brisbane has plenty of markets and we visit one near our house almost every Saturday , where we buy all of fruit and Veg for cheaper than going to one of the big supermakets. We have also enjoyed visiting the food markets here and having a range of food from all over the world. You name it we have had it. We both really enjoy the markets out here, much better than anything we have in England. There was a market that was made from old shipping containers and were converted to little food stalls which was a clever idea.

Australians are very patriotic so we decided to join in when it was Australia day when everyone has the day off work and gives people an excuse to have a beer and a BBQ, or in our case a foam party! Australia also have a day for ANZAC day which is a memorial day for the fallen soldiers in the world wars. It's good that Australia is so patriotic and think England should follow suit and have St.George's Day and Remembrance Day as bank holidays

Restaurants- We have visited some beautiful restaurants over the last 7 months living here, our favourites have been The Greek restaurant in the West End that does amazing garlic prawns and warm bread, The Indian which is the best Indian we have ever had, and last but not least the German Bier Cafe that does really good German food and 1 litre biers! We have ate in many places but these are definitely our top three!

Christmas was a strange day we had already enjoyed our day whilst everyone else was still sleeping. I made a huge roast dinner and just my luck the oven broke my luckily I had it all under control haha. Having a huge roast dinner perhaps wasn't the best idea as it was 34C, but we enjoyed ourselves. We spent boxing day at a Beach where we ate the chocolate that had been sent from home ( out here the chocolate just doesn't taste the same). New Years Eve we went out for a meal with our flat mates had a few drinks then went watch to watch the Fireworks on the South Bank.

We had such an enjoyable 7 months in Brisbane and not having to live out of a suitcase and in dorms but enjoyed the city most of all. It's not as touristy as Sydney and Melbourne but I think Brisbane is a lot nicer to live in as it's in Queensland they don't really get a winter! Also with the Gold Coast on Brisbane's doorstep there is so much to do! It obviously takes a few weeks finding somewhere to live and finding a job but it's definitely worth it to anyone thinking of doing a working holiday in Australia!!! :)

Byron Bay, Surfers paradise & the start of Brissy.

Byron Bay Lighthouse

We left Bob and Barbara (reluctantly) after 10 days and headed to our next adventure on the coast; Byron Bay. We booked a four bed dorm and shared it with a couple from the UK who were on holiday themselves from Melbourne. Byron Bay is your typical coastal town with bars, clubs and of course a beautiful Beach. We had only two nights in Byron therefore had limited time , we decided to go on a coastal walk to the Lighthouse which was about a 6km walk in the heat up to it. When we arrived  at the top we were told that we were currently on the most Easterly point in Australia. The walk was beautiful but very hot ( haven't  I already mentioned that?). We headed back to the hostel and had dinner then decided to go out with the couple from the UK, we had pre- drinks outside our room then headed to the bar across the road. The bar had a trivia night and of course I (Georgia) won several free champagnes because I am obviously a very clever person haha. Well other than go to the beach, go on a few coastal walks there wasn't much else to do in Byron. So we booked our next coach and headed to Surfers Paradise.

Byron Bay Beach

Warning to watch out for the snakes

Surfers Paradise is like Florida in America essentially. You have several clothes outlets, plenty of bars, amusements and of course another beautiful beach. The first night the hostel had a mini van taking everyone to the clubs adamant we wasn't going out that night, we obviously stayed in our luxury dorm with no air-con and got an early night, okay maybe I'm lying. We met two Irish Girls and spent the night in a club that had the bar maids dressed up in Ann Summers underwear , with cheap drinks and good music. We had a good evening and it was one of the best nights out in Aus with have had so far. After being in the middle of nowhere for 10 days it was only right that we let our hair down before we had to find a job in Brisbane.

Most Easterly Point in Australia

We booked our coach to Brisbane where we had to stay and find a job otherwise our dollar would have run out and we would have been coming home. We booked a week in a hostel not too far from the centre, our first impressions weren't so great of Brisbane because we got off  the coach  and it looked like Birmingham. Nonetheless we decided not to be too fussy and head to our room. On arrival they booked us into a 16 bed dorm by mistake.I Was adamant that I was never staying in a place that had that many people per room like The lovely Coogee beach in Sydney. After all the hassle we eventually got put in a 6 bed dorm. In the room with us,was a boy from the UK and three German boys. The room itself was okay until you got to know the boy from The UK; Gaz.

First week in Brisbane

Well what can I say he was the type of person who you wouldn't want to be friends with. He was loud, noisy always drunk and just a idiot if I'm honest ( Sorry). Anyways the hostel was okay and big enough with a big enough Kitchen for me to cook in. although it was always busy so you had to get in there by a certain time otherwise James was going hungry! One of the first nights in Brisbane a storm started, the sky literally felt like it had just cracked open, the thunder was like no other I had seen before. It was actually quite scary so we run into the room for shelter haha. We had a few nights out in Brisbane while we were job hunting and found a good bar called  'Down Under ' (original) and decided by this time that we were happy with our choice to stay here and look for a job. Everyday we were getting up searching for jobs on Gumtree, and looking for places to rent in Brisbane. After looking for 5 days searching for literally 6 hours a day, I found a job first on the Thursday and started the following Monday. I didn't have to search for very long and was feeling grateful that I didn't have to do farm work! The place I found a job in was called MYO, and I was employed as the breakfast/lunch chef . I got Tuesdays off work , so only worked 4 days a week which was good for me haha ( more time off in the sun). James also managed to secure his dream temporary job working at the Cricket selling headsets to people. This was the beginning of our adventure in Brisbane, the place we have loved and called home for the past 9 months.

Australian homestay with Bob and Barbara

After having a great time in Port Macquarie it was now time to do a home-stay that we had arranged on line whilst we were in Cambodia. We got off the bus in a small town called Maclean, and our first impression that it looked a bit stuck in time and a bit dated. We got off the bus without knowing what our hosts, Bob and Barbara looked like so we were a little nervous and didn't know who to look out for! Bob came over to us and took our bags and took us to his house a 15 minute drive away. When we arrived at their house it looked like a new one storey house with no neighbours next door, just plots of land for sale. We have noticed the housing in Australia is very different compared to back home, 95% of the housing is one storey and because there is so much land its common you buy a plot of land and design the house yourself with an architect. The house had a huge garden which should have been a sign for things to come!

Looks like he is having a bit of a scratch...

We introduced ourselves to Bob and Barbara and their little dog that they adopted after her owner died a few months back. They were so nice and showed us to our room and the first thing we done is slept as we were "coach-lagged" from the overnight trip, we must have seemed rude! The bed was luxury, the whole house and the gardens was nice to be fair. It was just in a little bit of in the middle of nowhere with no phone reception either and they didn't have wi-fi either. It was like the stone ages for us!
Bob was retired, and Barbara was semi-retired working 3 days a week with Bob being occupied with his a acre big garden most of the week. Bob asked us to help out with the garden for a few hours a day and in exchange we got free accommodation, food and everything paid for basically for as long as we wanted to stay. Georgia also agreed to do the cooking on the days Barbara was working but Georgia had a bit of a shock when we had dinner later that night and realised Barbara's food was delicious. Georgia had a high standards to meet and satisfy Bob with her cooking skills, the pressure was on!

Cindy

The next day we got shown around the garden and what needed doing. It was mainly just maintenance really such as weeding, potting and a word we became familiar with: mulching. For the next ten days we would mulch which was basically scattering a bark-soil mix over the million plant beds that was in the garden. Between the plant beds we discovered droppings everywhere, a bigger version of rabbit poo and was told that kangaroos liked to hang out in the shade in their garden. We was told not to approach them and they would not be any danger. Later that day we spotted one from our bedroom window, it was huge, around 8ft tall with a six pack. I have never seen anything that big in the wild before and even Bob admitted it was big.

Bob, Barbara and Georgia

Georgia's improvised Birthday cake

After a few days of mulching and gardening in the heat, we got offered their car for the day to drive around and see a bit of the local area and beaches. It was also Georgia's birthday the day after so we went to the cinema to watch a film and had a picnic whilst watching a bit of cricket. We went to the bottle-o(bottle shop) or as we normal people know as an off-licence, and bought a couple of drinks to go with Georgia's birthday dinner that Barbara was creating. Barbara made her own pizza from scratch that was then baked on a stone shelf which was impressive and tasty. Georgia had a few presents sent from home that she appreciated and we enjoyed the night talking and debating over a few drinks in the garden which is a bit of Georgia! 

Bob also had a go at the didgeridoo which is an Australian indigenous instrument made from wood, its hard to explain. Type didgeridoo in Google...

A didgeridoo (that's not Bob!)

Bob and Barbara took us out for dinner at an Aussie pub where we discovered Australians have a deadly combination of combining betting shops and pubs into one building. I can't imagine how many drunken bets are made, I think most of my friends would have no money left if they had that back home!
We went looking for a bit more wildlife, apparently there was a lot if wild emu's in the area but couldn't find. It was also to see so much wildlife burnt from bush fires where people have set light to the bush and it has spread over tens of kilometres where the ground has been so dry.
We decided after ten days it was time to move on after experiencing our first ever home stay and it was safe to say we got lucky in finding good hosts and having so much to talk about.....

James and Bob

Port Macquarie

Newcastle: Not a Geordie in site...

Anette (Norwegian), Johnny and Peter (Dutch) in the hostel

After leaving Sydney and sorting out our coach pass we headed up to the East Coast of Australia. We checked out Newcastle for a night but there was nothing special so we then then headed to the town of Port Macquarie. After the nightmare of our terrible 14 bed hostel in Coogee Beach in Sydney, we made sure we booked a 6 bed dorm up in advance! We were greeted at the bus stop by an Italian man by the name of Giovanni who whisked us away to the hostel and offered us a private room at no extra cost....we didn't hesitate to take up the offer. I had already recognised the pool table at reception and knew it was my kind of place! Giovanni started up the hostel with the owner Nick and another friend after meeting each other backpacking. The hostel was small and homely, probably had no more than 30 people and after a few days everyone knew everyone.
The hostel offered free surfboard lessons so I gave it a go as I was clearly a professional after my one hour surfing lesson in Bali. There was about ten of us who took up the offer and we was all pretty much useless! I gave up on the surfing and tried body boarding instead and had a bit more luck with it, although I was drifting away along the coast into rocks most of the time. I panicked a bit especially as the rest of the group was sunbathing relaxing on the beach and I was there just casually drifting away from the beach towards New Zealand. When I reached the shore I was shattered and passed out on the beach for a bit!
Me and Georgia got our first glimpse of a koala and checked out the koala hospital which looked after koalas with injuries from bush fires or car accidents. It wasn't like a zoo with cages, just a sanctuary for koalas. The people who run it were more concerned about the koalas than the tourism it attracted which was good. We also did a 6km coastal walk and came across beautiful deserted beaches and even the odd nudist beach, I did ask Georgia if she want to sunbathe but she passed on the offer. There was thousands of washed up dead birds along the beach which was strange and after asking our friend Google, they apparently make a journey every year from the north pole to the south pole but most of them don't make it. How did people find things out before Google?

Costal walk

We extended out stay in Port Macquarie for a further 3 nights but had to move to a dorm which we couldn't moan about. Our "roomies" were two Dutch guys, Peter and Johnny and two German girls, Isabelle and Katrin. We got on with them so well along with most people in the hostel including French, Norwegian and excited Canadians. Most of our nights consisted of Georgia cooking and drinking and playing games in the hostel. Georgia showed off her cooking skills by making all these different recipes whilst everyone else made the standard spaghetti bolognese most nights. We also discovered 5 dollar Domino's and goon. To anybody who doesn't know goon is cheap cask wine which costs around 6-10 dollars for thee equivalent of 6 bottles and is basically a backpackers dream although the morning after isn't great. We still had our secret stash or vodka from Cambodia, we couldn't let people know otherwise they would think we were posh pommies. The nights also consisted of me be giving pool lessons for free and Georgia being exploited by the hostel co- owner Giovanni phoning a girl working for a rival hostel as he was banned from making contact with her and the hostel.

Beer and a BBQ on the beach

Professional Chefs!

Our final night in Port Macquarie was having a BBQ by the beach with the Dutch boys whilst having a beer watching the sun set over the sea. That was one of the best moments traveling around Asia and Australia. We had such a fun time in Port Macquarie with the nice beaches, the weather and was lucky to share a dorm with Johnny, Peter, Katrin and Isabelle. We even applied for a few jobs in the hope we could work and live in the small town by the sea but it was not to be! It was time to leave as we were had a home-stay arranged with a retired couple further along the coast.