In The Heart Of Australia, Part One

Why did I go to Alice Springs?

My visa situation

My first experience in Australia was in the rural town of Murray Bridge. You can read about it here. I arrived in Murray Bridge in August 2018, in the middle of the Australian winter. In the three months I stayed in MB (Murray Bridge), I mainly focused on programming and doing online work.

During that time, there was always a thought in the back of my mind: I needed a proper job. The main reason for that was because of my status as a Work & Holiday visa holder. This visa (subclass 462) allows you to work for one year in Australia. You can do any job you like, the amount of time you choose. But in order to extend it one more year, to a total of 2 years, you are required to do specified work in regional areas of Australia. For example, in the Northern Territory (NT).

The government does this because it helps those regions in need of workers, and it also benefits people like me because we get to see parts of Australia we wouldn't have seen otherwise. But let's be clear: they need people in those areas because no one wants to go there, not even Australian citizens. That's why if you travel to those areas you will find a lot of backpackers getting their required specified work in order to extend their visas.

The kind of jobs that count for the extension is mostly either farm-related or involve picking up some kind of fruit or plant. If you ask around, there are horror stories but also some great experiences about working in farms around Australia. I'm 30 and a bit tired of the backpacker style, so I don't think those farm gigs in remote Australia were for me.

Turns out you have to do farm work in regional areas... except in the NT! In the NT, you can also do hospitality jobs: being a bartender, a receptionist in a hotel, a cleaner, etc.

So that is the main reason I decided to go to the Northern Territory: to avoid having to pick up potatoes in a farm during the scorching Australian summer. Because when I decided the time had come for me to work for my extension, it was almost summer.

Deciding, prior thoughts

I was reluctant to go to Alice Springs. My cousin had been there for a while and told me:

Dude, it is a total shithole. A town in the middle of the desert, you are completely isolated from everything. Also, aboriginals are drinking the whole day and causing trouble. At night it is like a jungle when drunk backpackers, tourists and locals meet in the many bars around town. Seriously, don't waste your time going there!!!

So... yeah. After these comforting words from my lovely cousin, let's say I was not THAT convinced to go.

But I still decided to read about it, investigate further. It looked amazing in the pictures, that's for sure. Before ever going to Australia, my dream was to experience The Outback. This red desert, weirdly filled with vegetation, giant rocks and ranges, and animals that want to kill you.

My friend Peter, a Sydney native whom I met in Bali, told me:

It is a special place. It has weird energy. You should go to experience it, you won't regret it.

Also the more I read about Alice Springs and Uluru, the more I wanted to go. I was tired of boring and soulless places like Adelaide and Murray Bridge. I wanted an adventure! I pined to (finally) see the heart and soul of Australia. I was hoping to experience this weird, strange place full of history right in the centre of Australia. After all, I said I always dreamed of experiencing the outback. It was time.

But... It was summer. Low season in Alice Springs. Temperatures range from 26 to 45C. Low season also meant probably not many jobs available, as I was looking for a hospitality job. Because, of course, the number of tourists and the season has a direct influence on hospitality jobs. Hospitality workers tend to follow the seasons in order to get more work and more hours. Makes sense, right? One could make a point that going to Alice Springs in the low season with no prior hospitality work experience was a bad move. And it was a big point because I wanted to move there for work!

Yet still, I felt it was my best shot. I liked the challenge. The biggest influence on me finally making the choice was Ainhoa. I always saw Ainhoa posting in the Spanish Work & Holiday Facebook group. You could tell she knew a lot about working in all parts of Australia and everyone in the group seemed to validate her advice. So I decided to send her a private message and started chatting with her. She absolutely convinced me to go, no doubt about it. I could tell she had an amazing time there and she still felt a strong connection to Alice Springs. Her experience and attitude pushed me to go there.

She recommended me to stay in a hostel called the Jump Inn. After many messages back and forth I trusted her, so I booked three nights at the Jump Inn. My plan was to look for a room during my first three days in Alice.

Nice to meet you, Alice

First impressions

From the plane I saw it: everything under me was this dry, red land filled with rocks, ranges and gorges. I was excited because it was different from everything I had seen before. It was finally time to live and breathe in the famous Australian Outback.

The airport, like almost everything in Alice, had this red deserty theme to all the designs. Words like: heart, center, red literally EVERYWHERE I looked. I was shocked because it was raining when I arrived. This was not the scorching hot desert I was promised!

I will never forget the smell of dry sand emanating from the ground. I loved it. On the way to the Jump Inn, I was happily surprised to see many trees and vegetation. I did not expect that in the middle of the desert.

Other than that, I felt a bit sad. It was a dark and grey day, and I was in a strange place where I did not know anyone.

The Jump Inn

Probably, the Jump Inn contributed to my first bad impressions about Alice. Mostly because there is nothing around the hostel itself... It felt a bit isolated from the town.

After checking in, I send a voice message to my cousin telling him that he was right, that the place is a muddy shithole.

It was dark already and I was in a bad mood, so I went to the bar. I fell in love with the bar. At first sight, it was so cozy and welcoming. The food looked amazing and they had a huge selection of beers. I was also happy to see that all the staff seemed like they were not Australian. After Murray Bridge, I could not wait to meet people I could relate to. I don't want to shit on Murray Bridge, but most people there are either old or bogan (or both 😂).

In the bar, I ordered two things that would end up becoming an integral part of my life in Alice: lu-rou fan and a pint of IPA. Wow. The food and the beer really made me feel better... I still felt lonely and shy, so I did not speak to anyone. The bartender came to ask me how were the food and the beer. He had a super thick Irish accent: I could not understand anything, but I just answered: "yeah, super good, thanks". Little did I know this Irishman would end up becoming my best friend in Alice!

The next day I walked to the supermarket to buy some food. I was not going to pay 30 dollars for dinner again. When I reached the store, I felt so scared. It was my first time seeing so many aboriginal people together. They did not feel welcoming at all. Outside the store, there were at least twenty of them just sitting there and talking loudly. I wondered... is this normal? What are they doing? Should I be afraid? Especially after all the stories you can read online about incidents happening between tourists and aboriginals.

Looking for a room

I could not stay in the hostel forever, so I searched for a room online. I saw a couple that looked good. One of them caught my attention because I could have my own bathroom and there were only two people living there.

I spoke to the guy on Facebook and arranged for an inspection. I went there and met him, and since I entered the house I knew I was gonna live there. It was a beautiful house, huge, with a big backyard as well. All the appliances looked new as well. They had three big dogs, which I instantly fell in love with. After bargaining with price and conditions, I told them I wanted to move in. Braden, the owner, told me he could drive me to the hostel to get my things. I still had one last night at the Jump Inn, so we agreed to meet the next morning.

Phew... I was lucky to skip all the hassle of looking for rooms. The first one I saw was the one I took. Sometimes you are lucky like that.

Great! I had a home. Now I needed a job...

Work work work

My first action was to put up a post in the Alice Springs Facebook Jobs group with my number and my CV.

After a few days at the Jump Inn, I realized I really loved the place. It was quiet during the day although there were many people staying there. The bar had this warm fuzzy feeling that all the bars try to reach for. It was a super cool place. So, why no work there myself?

So I went down to the reception to ask for a job. The same girl who checked me in was there. Her name was Danielle. She told me to send an e-mail to the manager. I thought she was just brushing me off, but I went to my room and did it anyway.

In about ten minutes I got a reply from Andrew, the hostel manager. I could not believe my luck. He told me to meet him the next morning for an interview. I did not even know what position was it about, but hell, I didn't care!

This was on a Saturday. I was supposed to move to the new house as well. Before that, I had an interview with Andrew. Actually, I had seen him before in the reception. I was shocked that this young guy with dreadlocks was the manager as well!

We sat in one of the tables as he went over my CV. He seemed impressed by it and asked me a lot of questions. He wanted to get me started right away in the reception because it turns out that Danielle was leaving soon and they needed a replacement. So like that, I got a job. I was scheduled to start training next Monday.

All my worries and the bad mood went away: in two days I had a home and I was starting to work in the coolest hostel in Alice Springs.

To be continued...