Cairns Travel Forum

Hi, I am moving to Carins in July with my boyfriend. We both have college degrees and he is a certifed PADI dive master. I have never been to AU and he has limited experience over there. Would we have problems finding work? Were not looking for professional employment, more like bartending and service industry jobs. We plan on traveing alot and just having base camp in Cairns. Does Cairns have good public transportation or should we look into buying a car? What is the best option for temp. housing? How is the cost of living? Any info that u can give would be great!!!! Thanks so much :)

Hi Cannot help you with Cairns, but have a look at Hamilton Island as an option. Cost of rentals has increased in Cairns as with the rest of Oz in the last 2 years. There is a lot of casual work on the island which often includes accomodation.

I would also try looking at resort jobs. They almost always need people, diving instructors are wanted alot and they provide accommodation as well. It can be hard work, but the rewards are plentiful :)

Hi:
I moved 7 months ago to Cairns from Argentina and I must say is very nice, specially if you have kids.
REgarding jobs, hospitality pays really bad compared to other fields like trades, painter, plumber, carpenter, etc.So depends what you want to do it's what money you are going to make.
I tried to work as a Scuba instructor, however I got 3 jobs, none of them allowed me to survive.
Here in Cairns you need to reach about 1500 dollars per week to have a decent living, with less thant that, you are just surviving.
I would suggest to buy a car, go to the esplanada and look for boards where people leaving advertise their cars for cheap.I rather be having a car, because here you have a lot of things to see.
Good luck and welcome.

$1500 dollars! bloddy hell, you don't even need that in Sydney!