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Hello everybody. I hope that you're well. My name is Christian and welcome to my channel, Backpacking Bananas. I have just arrived in Australia on my second working holiday visa. Exciting stuff, I know. And in this video, I'm going to be ticking off my first week essentials to basically set up my life here in Oz. This is something that I did at the beginning of my first year working holiday visa, but that was 10 years ago and so I need to do it all again. So, we're basically for the most part setting up again like it's the first time. So, let's hop straight into it. We have a lot to do.
The first thing that I'm going to do is set up a bank account. Now, I am choosing to go with Commonwealth. One, because I went with them last time and I had a good experience, and two, my boyfriend's with them. So, if we ever want to make a joint bank account, maybe it will just be a little bit easier. Now, I know things have progressed a lot over the years, so we are going to see how far that I can get just from downloading the app and creating an account here. I have a feeling they're going to want me to come into the local bridge.
I have just moved to Australia. Open an account before after you arrive in Australia. Apply online in a few minutes. All right. So, it says I have to complete the online form. Then I will visit a branch. Then I will get access to my money. I've just arrived at my local shopping center to identify myself to my bank to hopefully finalize all the details with my bank account. Got my passport with me and because I don't have a printer at home, I'm going to go to the local news agents and I'm going to get them to hopefully print out both my visa and also the welcome letter from the bank and I will then take them to the bank and we'll see if we can get this all sorted today. Okay, big success on getting everything set up with my bank
account. Annoyingly, I don't think I actually needed to print those documents. I think having them on my phone and just knowing the numbers would have been completely sufficient. So, that's a lesson learned because I spent $6 on that printing. But other than that, it was very smooth. I didn't have to book an appointment. I only had to wait about 5 to 10 minutes before I was seen by somebody. And then the appointment itself, well, it probably would have and should have taken about 15 minutes. I ended up being there for about 40 minutes because my guy's computer was being very slow and he was very apologetic. Anyway, good job done.
The next thing on the list is to get a tax file number. Now, I will already have one of these from 2015. However, if you've seen the previous vlog, you may know that everything I did in 2015 regarding tax file number, even my visa grant number, things like this I don't have access to because it was on an old email address, old phone number, old laptop. So, that means I'm going to need to make a call to the Australian Tax Office, also known as the ATO. To hear information about the collection of personal information, including your tax file number, press one. That's what I want to know.
I'm going to need to create an mygov account because once I get my tax file number, all my superanuation details, everything like that is all going to be kept on here. But I don't believe I ever created an account for this back in 2015. So, I'm going to do it now. And I'm going to need to wait until my boyfriend gets home cuz I have just been timed out for how many minutes I can make on my UK SIM. It says you've reached your monthly spend cap. Which brings me to my next point of communication. I need to get a local phone number here in Australia so I can make calls like that to the Australian tax office and so I can receive and make calls from potential employers. But Christian, you've been in the country a
week already and you haven't got a SIM card. Have you not been connected to the internet? Don't be silly. And that is why I would like to thank you, the sponsors of today's video, SY, because I was very smart. And before I even arrived in Australia, I got myself an Australia ESIM with SY so that I would have data the moment that my plane lands into the airport. Getting an ESIM is now something that I do in every single country before I arrive there, no matter how long I'm there for, even if I'm just there for a couple of days or if I'm planning on being there for a long period of time. On sale, there was a bunch of data options that I could choose from. And because I just didn't
know how long it was going to be until I took myself to get a local number, I bought 10 GB of data. So, that's seen me through my whole first week. And also, the Wi-Fi at my sister's place is very, very dodgy, and I often have to turn it off on my phone anyway, and I'm relying on my phone data. And the super cool thing about SY compared to other eSIM providers is that you only ever have to install an ESIM once when you buy your first eSIM. After that, you literally just top it up with data from whatever country that you're going to, and it just immediately works onto that ESIM that you have already activated. So, it literally takes less than 30 seconds to get your data for whatever country that
you're going to. And thanks to SY, you guys can get 15% off all data plans. You just need to use my code backpacking or you can head straight to s.com/backpacking. The link will be in the description as well. But like I said, I am going to need to get a local phone number specifically. So, I'm going to ask ChatBT what is the best phone provider in Western Australia. Best coverage, especially in remote areas, is Telra. And it says Telra consistently outperforms Optus and Vodafone. Now, although I'm currently not in a rural location, I am wanting to get a FIFO job. So, maybe I should go for the one that is best with the remote and rural locations, which is Telra. And once
you've got your SIM card all up and running, or even beforehand, if you can connect to Wi-Fi, it's a good idea to make sure that you are prepared on your phone by downloading a bunch of apps that you're going to find useful. So every state in Australia has their own service app, service New South Wales, Service Victoria, Service WA, it's a government app which is useful to have. Also mygov, another government app which is useful to have and perhaps you've already done this but your banking app. So I've got the Commonwealth app, also the app of your SIM card provider so that you can be on top of all of those
things. And then of course a few apps that I like to have on my phone whenever I travel. Google Maps, City Mapper, and there might be a few other apps that are worth looking into that you're going to find handy during your time in Australia. I've just seen on the app store there's an app called Perth Trails with curated walking trails around Perth. That's pretty cool. And also I discovered on Tik Tok recently an app called Eat Club which basically has really good discount deals for loads and loads of restaurants and cafes around the city which is always going to be a good thing, right?
Okay. Medicare is Australia's public health care system. Basically, it covers the cost or most of the cost of going to the doctor, getting hospital treatment in a public hospital or certain prescriptions as well. And as a working holiday maker, you might be ellegible to sign up if your country has a reciprocal healthcare agreement with Australia. So like the UK, most of Europe, and a few others as well. If you are ellegible, you can apply for a Medicare card and then when you go to a bulk billing doctor, your whole appointment is usually free and it doesn't cover everything like dentists, ambulances or some specialist care often cost extra, but it is really handy to have whilst you are living here. Now, silly
Christian did not get a Medicare card for her 2015 first year working holiday visa in Australia. So, I'll be applying for one for the first time today. First things first, I need to complete the Medicare enrollment form, which you will find on the Services Australia website. Medicare enrollment form. This is what the form looks like. I'm actually going to fill it out on my iPad. And finally, on the healthcare note, I am going to find my local chemist and my local bulk billing GP because if I get sick and I need a doctor, I need to know where to go. And to my knowledge, there's two ways I can do this. by either searching on health engine or the other one was hot dog.com.au. So what you can do is you can select
what you want. So I can just say general practitioner and then you can select billing here and bulk build. So when I type in a location, let's just say Perth, WA for the sake of this video, it comes up with your options and also the times that you can book slots. That's so good. This one's hot dog. I think I'll use this in the future. Right, I filled in the Medicare form and I've learned that you can just email them the filledin form and your documents. Don't really know what documents mean, but I might attach my visa and my passport. It's going to be pretty helpful as soon as you arrive into any new city that you're settling down in that you get to grips with the local transport cards.
So, obviously in London, you've got your Oyster card and in each city in Australia, there's a different transport card that you can get. So, in Sydney, I believe it's the Opal card. Melbourne has the Mikey card. Is it Brisbane's got the go card? I think I've had all of these at some point in my time over the years. In Perth, it's called a TransPerth Smart Rider. I've had one for years, but you can easily acquire one at any of the Trans Perth info centers. But if you haven't already, make sure that you acquire your local transport card so that you can use that on public transport across the city and also download the specific app for that card so that you can top it up easily. Keep
track of your spending and expenses. Maybe you want to set up something like a direct debit or auto pay so that you never have to think about topping up the card. That's always super useful. And other than that, you just want to do some everyday life setup. So, I've been doing a few Kmart runs, which I think is just an essential store that you need to come to when you first arrive in Australia. It's like the only store that I really, really wish that we had in the UK. But I'm actually going to make a full dedicated video to a Kmart haul of all of the things that I have bought from there in my first week to help me get settled and help me get organized with storage and organization.
Especially after unpacking your suitcase, you're probably going to need to get some groceries. So, the biggest supermarkets in Australia are Woolworths, Coohl's, and Aldi. You've got IG as well, which is kind of like the co-op of Australia. They tend to be more local but a lot more expensive. So, my preferred supermarket is Wworth's. But again, I'm going to make more dedicated videos talking specifically about Australian supermarkets because I love talking about supermarkets and I find comparing supermarkets in different countries really fascinating. And since arriving into Australia this time, I have not been to Bunnings Warehouse, but it's like Australia's BQ and it's like a classy Aussie experience. So, I'm sure I
will bring you there at some point as well. That's always a fun thing to go to early on in your life in Australia, even if it is just for a sausage sizzle. And something else that I've done this week, which I feel like was quite important early on, is I have signed up for a gym membership. I've been thinking about what I want my fitness routine to be here on Australia. And I've already been on a bunch of runs because obviously that's something that's just really easy to do wherever you are. It's free. You don't need to drive anywhere. But I don't just want to have running in my routine. And while I'm still figuring out what my full fitness routine is going to be, my boyfriend is a member of
Revo or Revo Fitness and it's basically like the Pure Gym of Australia. They've got them all over the country. They've got a bunch of them in just Perth itself across the city. And when you get a membership, you get access to all of them. And it's something like £12 a week, which is about £24 a month, which is ridiculously cheap. No. And you can cancel anytime. And so I thought, well, it's definitely worth me joining, even if it is just for now where I can do some weightlifting until I really figure out what my fitness schedule is going to be because with the membership that I have, I also have access to what they call the studio. So, it's a special area of the gym where they have all of these
reformer Pilates machines with their own little individual screens with over 200 classes on them. So, you can do ondemand reformer Pilates included in that membership. I just think that's insane value. Although I'm not the biggest fan of reformer Pilates. I have been thinking about getting into some sort of Pilates and incorporating that into my routine. So I've gone and done that a few times. They also have a body scan. They also have these big electric massage chairs and I'm like, how is this so cheap? England could never. Maybe it's just because going to the gym is just so popular here in Australia.
Everyone has a membership and to be fair that gym is always very busy. I try to go at the most off peak time. But anyway, like the other things, I am going to make an entire video or maybe even a series of videos of my fitness routine here in Australia once I get a bit more settled. So, after all of this, the next big things that I've really got to work on is finding somewhere to live and finding a job. So, I'm very lucky to be housesitting at my sister's house at the moment. However, I can't live here forever and I'm going to need to find a house share, some housemates. Um, and don't you worry, I am planning on documenting that entire journey as well as the journey of me finding a job. So,
this week I'm going to be working on my CV, my cover letter. I'm going to start applying for things, maybe visiting recruitment agencies. Again, I will be making dedicated videos on all of this. So, to recap on everything in this video and in the order that actually in hindsight, I wish I had have done all of these things. We got a local phone number. I would do that first thing next time just because I found that for basically everything else, it asks for your local phone number. So that's why I would get it sorted first. Then getting your transport card because no doubt you're probably going to be wanting to get around from day one, like being able to get to the bank. So I would sort out
my bank account next. Then I do my tax number, my Medicare, head Kmart, and all of the other things. I'll be honest, I've been dillydallying a lot since arriving in Australia, but I think it's possible to do all of these things within just a couple of days. And that is so worth doing when you first arrive in the country because it's just going to set you up. It's going to make your life so much easier and you're going to feel so prepped and ready to take on the year, whatever that is going to be looking like for you. Do please give this video a thumbs up if you found it useful and subscribe to my channel if you want to see all of these future things that I'm going to be getting up to on my second year working holiday
visa in Australia. I am so excited to be here and I will see you guys in the next video. Bye-bye.
