my aussie mates told me it has natutal remedies

No NRL in Cairns, but if you get the chance [ido[/i give the QLD Cup a go. Obviously not NRL standard (or SuperLeague) but it's well in advance of the Championship and you'll get to see some stars of the future. Similarly, the Toyota Cup (under 20s).

Go to a reputable sports tourism agency well in advance to get your Brisbane Origin tickets, they sell out in under half an hour.

Not sure why you are worrying about that. You'll probably get a ticket for about £20 / £25.

Origin games are good but after seeing them myself, I have to say I was a tad disappointed. There's more atmosphere at The Oval (even before lunch).


Don't bother with Adelaide. It's very dull, nothing of interest to see, the locals are strange and everything seem to shut on Sundays. There are a couple of nice boozers and apleasant little beach (Glenelg) buit that is about it. It's a long to travel for very little. I certainly wouldn't recommend staying in Adelaide for more than a day or two. If you are going to go to Adelaide, hire a car and drive the Great Ocean Road. Don't bother with Mount Gambier.

I like bits of the east coast but couldn't stand Surfers. Byron Bay and Fraser Island are great places. Byron is a place to relax. Don't go there expecting to have a ball. You obviosuly have the Reef and Whitsundays on the east coast. Cairns is a dump full of Aussies staggering around in a gaze. I have heard that's the effect of troppo. A few smackheads can be seen wondering around Cairns. Either that, or they have been licking the cane toads. There is little to do during the day, and as it rains regularly, you will need to arrange stuff to do in advance. Try Port Douglas (nice place) and take a sailing trip to the reef for a dive or snorkel.




Go to Newcastle Kinights, Cronulla (try to pick the Sharks / Dragons game), Manly, Bulldogs (it's a bit feral though), Penrith (cracking stadium and leagues club) and Brisbane.

Just a bit of advice, don't stay in city centre hostels. plenty of thieves, posing as travellers, stay over for a night, and most of the visitors stay just for a few days so you don't get to meet many people. Try staying somewhere like Coogee or Manly. I'd recommend Coogee ahead of any other place in Sydney - great beach, two large bars and 15mins bus ride from the city. Nice hostel called 'Surfers' above McDonalds. Great views of the beach as it's on the sea front.


Enjoy it.

quite amusing well thanks for the advice mate.i was looking at staying in the city centre hostels but now not to sure doubt ill bother with adelaide, heard the same off other folk aswell.im going alone so would be nice to meet people doing the same thing,Are hostels the best way of doing this?Byron bay sounds nice heard good things about the place.thanks again.

If you fancy coming to see the best part of the country there is a pre season NRL game in Perth on Feb 14th and a regular season game (probably) early June featuring Sth's v Melbourne.

You are a bad, bad person.

Well it will be if we can stop all the blooming Q'landers from moving here!

12 month down under???

Couldn't have stolen anything that significant then.

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.