As said before you should have no problem getting origin tickets for the Sydney and Melbourne games. The game in Brisbane sells out very quickly though.

If you are going to be in Sydney over christmas then try to book a hostel a few weeks in advance before you get here over christmas and new year as it does get very busy.

With regards to New years eve, if you want to see the fireworks in Sydney its best to buy a ticket for somewhere around the harbour, it is expensive, but last year people where queuing for 6 hours just to get into the park.

If your going to NRL games I would suggest trying to visit the more traditional grounds rather then the big stadiums, although suncorpe is a brillaint stadium when its a full house. try and get to brookvale oval on a Sunday afternoon, brillaint day out.

Also as said before, I dont think you will like surfers paradise, its basically just like a posh magaluf. We stayed there for 5 nights, and that was about as much as we could take. Byron bay, fraser island, whitsundays islands are the places I would go to, as well as brisbane, sydney and melbourne. Cairns is good for about a week, but there isnt that much to do up there apart from the reef.

Have a brillaint time down under, im just coming to the end of my 12 months here and it has been fantastic. get ready to be confused by some of the different names of things down here!

Going on your own?
Brave fella.. i just dont know how you finance 12 months!

you work when you get there.

Is it that easy to find a job though?
Couldnt have a situation like over here..id be broke in a month

plenty of cafes and bars to work in!

what do you do?

theres plenty of farm work in the rural areas. what alot of backpackers are doing is 2/3 months on a farm then doing a bit of looking about then back to a farm or getting working in the city.

theres a few good job websites to see and alot of people advertise in the backpackers itself.