I arrived in Cairns on Friday the 25th of May, 2018. It was the last stop of my Australian Trip, the one I did with my friend Chaves. I arrived in Cairns a little after having spent 7 months in Australia. I didn’t have any plans but I wanted to try to do my 88 days just in case one day I decided to apply to my second year visa. Thus, I knew I would start looking for work in Cairns.
Before going on, I would like to give you some perspective about the 88 days and Cairns. Since my visa was the 462, if I wanted to extend my visa one more year, I had to work for 88 days in some regions over the Tropic of Capricorn. I couldn’t just do any job but it had to be either hospitality or farm. Spain is one of the few European countries with that visa, (the rest have the 417) but, worldwide, we can find countries like Argentina, Chile or China.
Because of the above and because of the time of the year when I arrived in Cairns, (the dry season was starting and below the Tropic people would start to freeze) I knew Cairns could be overbooked by people looking for work. And that was what I found. I didn’t know the city or the surroundings but I already had some experience when it came to looking for work, (or that was what I thought) plus I had my Time Machine (our beloved and faithful car).
So, as soon as Chaves left, and to get over the fact that I was “alone” again in Australia, I started to walk around the whole city dropping resumes. I like cooking a lot and I had already learnt some stuff from my previous jobs. But, I had also learnt all the stress and troublesome situations (getting cut, getting burnt, etc.,) you find yourself every time you work in a kitchen. So, that time, I was more inclined to try to find something as a waiter or behind the bar.
I spent a couple of days handing resumes pretty much in every restaurant, bar, pub and club in Cairns. Regardless of my efforts, I got no positive answer. I was staying at a “Chinese” hostel, the same one I booked with Chaves for our days in Cairns. The name of the hostel was “Red Key”. I say “Chinese” because it was pretty much full of Asian people, most of them Chinese. The hostel was cheap, but the setup, cleanliness and vibe were not the best. It was also kind of far away from everywhere. I guess that was why it was so cheap :).
I liked the city. It was way smaller than Sydney or Melbourne and it was way cheaper. It didn’t have many impressive buildings but it had a nice promenade with a pool that had the setup of a small beach (it didn’t have a real beach). The water coming from the sea was stopping at some sort of coastal lagoon. Because of its low depth, it was full of pelicans, which I enjoyed seeing every time I passed by.
Driving around Cairns
After the first two days handing resumes, I decided it was time to try my luck in some other town. Since I had my Time Machine, I bought some food and hit the road onto the unknown yet once again. There were a few towns within a radius of 100 Km and I thought I could check them all. So, my first stop was “Palm Cove”, which was just 30 minutes away from Cairns.
Palm Cove is a tiny beachside town that belongs to the Cairns Region. It doesn’t have much to see, except for the promenade that goes along the beach. That promenade is full of bars and restaurants, and I thought it could be a good place to hand in some resumes. Like in Cairns, I pretty much exhausted my options with no positive answer. Like in Cairns as well, I was told most of the time that the “season” hadn’t started yet and everything was kind of quite. I was told the season would be starting in the middle of June, so, I would have to wait a couple of weeks.
Since I didn’t have anything to do other than looking for a job, I didn’t care too much about when the season would start and I kept on going with my job hunting plan. Thus, after spending the whole evening checking bars and restaurants asking: “Could I please speak to the manager?”, I decided it was time to have some dinner, catch some rest and get ready for the next day.
Next day I drove to the town of “Port Douglas”, whose name I already knew because originally we were supposed to finish our Australian trip in that city. This one wasn’t the biggest city in the world either, but it had way more stuff going on. The town was just 30 minutes away from Palm Cove, so a pretty convenient one hour away from Cairns. Compared to Cairns, it had less entertainment options, but it had a real beach and a beautiful esplanade looking straight to the ocean. That place was usually full of people doing yoga, meditation, playing frisbee or guitar. It had a very chilled vibe. On the way to the esplanade there were some barbeques which normally were super crowded.
I parked my car in a free parking lot next to the esplanade and from there I started to walk around the marine to check some restaurants. In some of them I had to fill out very long forms before even handing in my resume. I talked to some managers but they were not looking for anybody as of yet. Like in Cairns and Palm Cove, the season hadn’t started yet. I made it to “Macrossan Street”, one of the main streets in Port Douglas, and I kept on checking every restaurant, bar and pub on both sides of the road. Like before, however, I didn’t get many encouraging responses.
Like in Palm Cove, by the time I realised, the night had fallen already. So, I got some dinner, found a calm and quiet spot outside out of the police’s view and went to sleep on my Time Machine.
Next morning I drove to my last and final destination before going back to Cairns: “Mareeba”. The way there was beautiful, with some astonishing landscapes as well as some frightening curves. It reminded me somehow to the roads I have back home in “Valdepeñas de Jaén”. It took me a little over an hour to get to Mareeba and, once there, I started to do what I had been doing for the last 3-4 days. The town of Mareeba was a little bigger than Palm Cove and Port Douglas, but unlike in the previous ones, this town offered more farm and less hospitality jobs.
Mareeba and its surroundings was full with banana, lemon and avocado fields, but like with the hospitality sector, the season either hadn’t started yet or it was already over. To be honest, I was more inclined to look for jobs in the hospitality sector since I had already spent around 3 months picking apples and pears. But, since I was already there, I didn’t mind to get some names and phone numbers in case I needed to look for farm work once again.
Like in the previous towns, I went through the main street and even through some small ones. I checked every single bar, restaurant, food chain (like Hungry Jack’s, McDonald’s, etc.,) pub and food bistro (the one where you normally have the bar, restaurant and gaming area). Nevertheless, like in my previous attempts, I was unsuccessful. I didn’t get any “yes” to my “are you hiring now?” question.
Like in the previous days, I spent the night in my car. After having been driving it for over a month, I was already very thankful to it for its reliability as a vehicle but also for its comfort as a “hostel”. After waking up and having some breakfast I drove back to Cairns.
As I arrived in Cairns I got a phone call from a Pro Dive office. I had previously filled out a cook form and that was the reason of the call. They were looking for a cook to be able to cook for 40 people without any supervision. I had been working in some kitchens before but never without supervision or for so many people. All in all, after thinking about it for a little bit, I decided to give it a try.
Doing a trial at Pro Dive
Basically I would be going on a boat for 3 days. I would have a cook on board who would help me out the first day, would supervise me the second day and would let me fly the third and final day. It would be a trial to decide whether I liked the job and whether they liked me. Since I didn’t have any other alternatives I thought: why not? The sooner I did it the sooner I would know where to go next.
Thus, I went to the office to clarify all the points and to get the recipe book, which basically was made of 3 different menus that were alternated every week. I spent the evening reading through and went to sleep soon, since I was scheduled to show up at the office at 05:00.
Next morning I showed up at the office and we drove a van to the port, where we had a huge diving boat waiting for us. We had unloaded most of the ingredients the evening before so as soon as we got to the boat, we jumped in. While waiting for the customers, the cook and I started to prepare breakfast for them and for the crew. The book was kind of self-explanatory and I didn’t find the recipes hard. It was more a matter of doing everything on time so the customers wouldn’t have to wait, which would lead to their dives being delayed.
I did pretty OK the first day and with the help of the cook we managed to get breakfast, lunch, dinner and a couple of cakes to the guests in a timely manner. I spoke to some of the customers during the little free time I had as well as to some of the crew members to get to know them a little bit. Most of the time the cook would be in charge of “just” cooking and the crew would help out doing dishes. That was pretty nice. Nevertheless, even with their help, you would spend pretty much the whole day working. We finished at around 21:00 that day. We could have finished a little earlier but we decided to leave the fruit salad prepared for the next morning’s breakfast.
Next morning I woke up at 05:30 and I started to do everything on my own. I still remember the first hour I spent cracking around 150 eggs to prepare scrambled eggs and bacon for the customer’s breakfast (along with the fruit salad). It was pretty “funny”. I went to some other boats as a volunteer during the next months and I have to acknowledge that the food provided by Pro Dive was superb.
I managed to work on my own throughout the day and I served all the food in a timely manner, with no delay whatsoever. If I had a question I could still ask the cook, but as I said before, following the book was not super difficult. That day again I had to bake a couple of cakes and I finished work at around 20:30. Yes, if you do the math, the journey was anything but a short one. I had a couple of breaks for lunch and in the evening, but, still, I had to work a lot.
The next and final day, the journey was shorter, because we had to be back in town by 16:30. Yet, even though I had to cook less, as soon as we anchored the boat and the passengers left, I had to help cleaning the boat and making beds, which I found extremely unpleasant and far from easy. Yes, one thing is making your bed “in whichever way” but one other thing is making 10 beds (I just did the crew’s beds) in an almost perfect way. So, if you ever run into someone who works making beds, please, don’t underestimate his/her job 🙂
I had never worked on a boat before so it was an interesting experience. You could see beautiful sunrises and sunsets and, sometimes, even turtles coming out of the water to breathe. If you got to work as a cook, as you mastered your job and got better and faster at it, you could dive for free. I like cooking a lot so, of course, working as a cook would help me improve on my cooking skills. During the time you were on the boat, you didn’t have to pay for accommodation. Normally, if you spent some months with them, they would help you out getting your Dive Master certification. I would say these were the nice points about working as a cook on a boat.
Unfortunately, like with pretty much everything in life, nothing is perfect. Thus, there were also some less-appealing points. You had to work a lot. You had to be good against seasickness, which I wasn’t at the beginning. Normally you would spend 3-5 days on open sea and then 2-5 days without work. That might sound like a good point except for the fact that, while you are not working, you are not making money. If you do the math, the salary you get for the amount of time you work is far from fair.
After considering the pros and cons I decided it wasn’t something I would like to do. They eventually called me to tell me they had picked a professional Japanese cook so I guess it was written (maktub).
Back in Cairns, I stayed at “Asylum”. It was my second hostel since I arrived in Cairns. Compared to Red Key (the “Chinese” one) it was more central and the vibe was better. I spent 2-3 days there waiting for some phone calls that would tell me I got a job. In the meantime, I kept on handing in resumes and I even had time to meet some people from the hostel. Most of them were French. It is crazy when I think about it. I met so many French throughout my time in Australia, they were everywhere! 😉
They were so much everywhere that I even had time to go see my old friend from Sydney, Virasy. We met in Sydney through Cyprien and we even spent some time living together in my apartment. I knew they had spent sometime working on the banana fields in “Innisfail”, but by the time I arrived in Cairns, they had already left. So, I felt very happy when Vi told me he was spending a couple of days in Cairns, before continuing with his trip around Australia.
It was nice to see him and have some drinks with him and his friends in a camping site in the outskirts of Cairns. It was nice to take a break on my “looking for work in Cairns” quest. Since Chaves had left Australia, I hadn’t made any new friendships so, it was nice to see and talk with Vi. I didn’t know it just yet but it wouldn’t be the last time we would meet that year 😉
Cairns’ Iron Man
The second weekend of June an important event was taking place in Cairns. It was an event where the participants needed to swim 3.86 Km. They also had to do a 180.25 Km bicycle ride and, when they thought they were done, they needed to run a marathon. That was the cherry on the cake. Yes, you might have guessed it right. The second weekend of June, on Sunday the 10th, Cairns welcomed the Iron Man.
I checked the area where they were setting up the stage, booths, etc., but they told me I had arrived too late and there were no jobs available. Again, looking for work in Cairns was not that easy. Nevertheless, I was lucky enough to find myself in the press conference that took place on Saturday morning next to the lagoon. I had the chance to hear some of the greatest athletes to speak about the race, but also about their lives and dreams. I even had the chance to get a photo with Gómez Noya 😉
On Sunday, after having spent the morning handing in some more resumes and chilling on the lagoon, I went to the finish line to wait for the first participants to arrive. It was the first Iron Man for Gómez Noya (he had already won some World Championships and even a couple of Half Iron Man, or Iron Man 70.3) and he finished second, just behind Braden Currie. Gómez Noya became the best rookie in the history of Iron Man with a finishing time of 07:56:38 and I was there to see him. It is crazy what human beings are capable of.
Doing a trial at Villa Romana
The excitement and joy from the Iron Man remained with me as the next day I got a call from “Villa Romana”, an Italian restaurant on the “Esplanade”, one of the main streets in Cairns. I was scheduled to do a trial in the evening as a waiter. The person in charge, “Nick”, was an arrogant and unhappy Italian who had spent half of his life in Australia. I didn’t do much on my first trial other than learning the setup of the restaurant and the way the ordering system worked.
Next day I was called again and, that time, I had to take action and go greet customers, take notes and bring the orders to the table. I managed not to drop any of the drinks I had on my tray but it was one of my hardest trials ever. I didn’t have any experience with the tray plus my steady hand had always been far from great. All in all, I did well enough carrying the plates to the table as well as cleaning and re-setting them for new customers.
After my second trail, Nick told me I did OK, and so he asked me to come next day for the final trial. They had another girl on trial and he needed to pick his/her candidate. Before letting you know who got the job, I would like to use this part of the post to tell you how some businesses take advantage of people.
They get people on trial every 2-3 days and they spend weeks like that. Some trials are not paid and some others are. The ones paid, are paid, of course, in cash. So, when you think about it, they are saving a lot of money without hiring a “real” employé. And also, without declaring the real amount of money they are making or they should be paying to the employés. Unfortunately, this is something that I saw pretty much in every place and city I worked. There are plenty of things I don’t like from Spain, but Australia is not perfect either.
The next day I went back to the restaurant and I did my best. I felt a little bit more confident with the tray and I tried to serve all my customers as best as I could. A couple of days later, they told me to come to the restaurant. They gave me some cash for the hours worked and they told me that they had picked the girl. I remember how Nick told me “I had to pick the best one and that was not you. If you were unable to succeed working at this restaurant, I really doubt you can succeed working anywhere else in this town”. He didn’t know it just yet, but a couple of months later, I would be serving him a beer in one of the most famous breweries in Queensland 🙂
I didn’t let the situation discourage me. As I write these lines, several months after I left Australia, I would say the virtues that I improved the most were never giving up and staying positive. I could have complained about how “unfair” life was. I could have complained about how, after having spent 2 weeks reaching out to every single manager in Cairns, Palm Cove, Port Douglas and Mareeba, I still didn’t have a job. I could have complained about how the hundreds of resumes printed out didn’t get me anything. I could have complained about how I had been treated and, about the fact that after some trials, I didn’t get anything. I could have felt sorry for myself because I was alone and the money was running out. I could have… But I didn’t.
Complaining and feeling sorry for yourself don’t help you in any way. So, the way I thought about my last trial in Villa Romana was that: I had been given some education as a waiter, I had learnt to use the ordering system, I had improved on my tray and plates skills and I had got some money. So, instead of complaining or feeling sorry for myself, I tried to think about the skills I had just learnt/improved and how they could be useful in the following trials.
