Carpenter in Australia

Carpenter in Australia

Going to Australia to build things for people for some free accommodation!
By Gerald Coulthard

I had always liked to travel and after several years of experiencing all different countries it was now time for working in Australia. One thing I had discovered by doing some travelling is that accommodation can be quite expensive, so I needed to find the best way to help me out with this. Somebody informed me that you can do some simple jobs when overseas and some places will let you stay with them for free. I did my research online and found a few places in Australia, and it just so happened there was a farm in Queensland that needed some pet sitter to work with animals. I was a carpenter so this was perfect for me. I applied for the job and got it, and was soon going to Australia to stay there for free.

The people on the farm were very nice, and they needed help because the main man of the farm had been injured in a horse riding accident and they didn't have many hands to help out. They showed me to where I would be staying and showed me around the farm. Some other jobs that I would have to do was to look after some of their pets and clean up after them. These jobs were fine as I had done a lot of cleaning jobs in my time before this. The main task that they wanted me to do though was to help build a new enclosure for their rabbits as their old one was causing them to escape. I drew up a plan for what I thought the enclosure should look like and went and got the wood and started to build it.

It was a pretty easy task to be honest as I had built a similar enclosure back home. I would start by building the foundations for it and then making sure it was the right size and dimensions for what they wanted. It would take a few of us to actually get everything into place correctly as it was quite large. Once we had the walls up of the enclosure and all the foundations then it was pretty smooth sailing. We had to then put up a roof and lots of wiring and netting and then pretty soon it was complete. I think the hardest part then was getting all the rabbits into the enclosure and not leaving any behind! I also had to make sure they were always clean and fed in their temporary enclosure which was often a very 'fun' task.

It was a great experience though and it really was great for me to get this experience out there when I was in Australia. I managed to stay there for a few months and meet some great people. I did too get to see a lot of the country I had wanted to go too and it wasn't always about work. It's a very easy way for people to get free accommodation if you are willing to put the effort in.