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Ideas for how to be really live like an Australian on your vacation


Wouldn’t it be fun to be an Aussie for a day, a week or more? In some parts of Australia you can do just that: be a postie, jackaroo, cook a mean barbie, or just be a jock. We’ve included ten ways to turn an Australian vacation into work and fun.

1) Live as long as you want on an Outback station
For two days or two months, visit an outback station and live the life of remote, rural Australia! There’s an array of choice for all tastes and budgets from ultra-luxurious lodging to working at working cattle and sheep stations. Some great stations to visit include:


2) Or become a Jackaroo or Jillaroo (Cowboy or Cowgirl!)
Learn the skills to be a qualified station hand at Goomeri in Queensland www.visitoz.org or Leconfield Jillaroo and Jackaroo School near Tamworth, NSW. Or dust off your boots and saddle up for one of the oldest time honoured traditions, droving cattle at the Great Australian Outback Cattle Drive on one of the seven rides taking place in May or June 2007. Riding alongside some of Australia’s finest drovers on the Oodnadatta track, enjoy evocative desert trails by day and luxury camping with a swag and campfire catering at night.

3) Join the postie
Delivering the mail doesn’t sound that exciting- but it is when your route is a river or follows the world’s longest fence. Just outside Sydney, join the local Hawkesbury postie as he floats down the river delivering mail to the locals. Or travel hundreds of miles along gibber plains, red sand hills and the Dingo Fence on the Outback Mail Run delivering mail to Australia’s largest cattle station, Anna Creek and historic outback towns like Oodnadatta and Williams Creek -- where you can stop at the Dingo Café or local pub -- just make sure to check out the bras on the wall and the town’s solar powered telephone. Mail runs usually happen on Mondays and Thursdays.

4) Have a go at the life of an Aussie jock
In a sports-mad country, to become a true blue Aussie its best to learn how to play or cheer like an Australian. And sports obsessed Melbourne is the perfect place to start. Melbourne Sports Tours can make you feel like you’re playing in the Australian Open, when you show-off your game on the showcourts where the champions play. They’ll even hold your hand at an Aussie Rules Football match and explain the rules, bumps and brawls- the sensational reserved seating, club song sheets, meat pie and beer are a plus.

5) Cook like an Australian
Ask an Aussie what food is most Australian and the likely answer is seafood. Bugs, mussels, octopus, crabs, sashimi, pipis and prawns (you may have heard of them as shrimp, but technically its prawns on the barbie) take center stage in restaurants from Melbourne to Darwin. Its even served for Christmas lunch (its too bloody hot for a full-on turkey dinner). And some of Australian’s greatest chefs want to share their love of seafood in classes at the Sydney Seafood School. Chefs include Cheong Liew, Neil Perry, Matthew Moran and Peter Doyle. Upcoming in November are Damien Pignolet from Bistro Moncur and a seafood BBQ class- and yes, you can probably throw a prawn on the barbie there too. www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au

6) Paint your way into the aboriginal art world
Travelers are scouring Australia’s city galleries in search of coveted indigenous art. But what better way to find an art treasure then to create it yourself with the help of an Aboriginal expert. At the Uluru Cultural Centre, work with local Anangu artists who explains how their culture is expressed in their artwork and helps you create a dot painting you can take home. Farther north, visit the remote Tiwi Islands and find out how art has shaped their culture on an art tour. Or head west to Perth for Aboriginal painting classes at various city locations like Kings Park Perth.

7) Research on the Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is a fascinating workplace and some locals get to explore, protect and give tours of this natural phenomenon every day. And you can do your part too. Under water, swim with Dwarf Minke Whales and participate in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority research project’s on one of the 9 participating tour companies that have multi-day tours mid-June to mid-August. Make eye contact, listen to their vocalisations and see how the whales act in the wild all the while diving the northern Great Barrier Reef. Get more info here.

8) Farm with the locals
Sometimes the best way to relax is to do a bit of hard work. Roll up your sleeves and milk a cow, shear a sheep, see a working farm dog in action or meet real life Australians on working farms in regional and rural Australia. Some options include.


9) Mine for rich outback heritage
Feel like panning for some gold? Or noodling for opals? Australia is a great place to don the appropriate hat and try your fortune. If opals are high on your list, then head to the underground town of Coober Pedy. Several tours let you get involved whether it’s a pick in the walls or looking for your own opal in mullock heaps (aka noodling). For gold, pan for a nugget or two at Sovereign Hill, a recreated 60 acre 1850s Goldfields Township near Ballarat, VIC where real gold flows in the creek.

10) Camel wrangle in the outback
Yes Australia has camels- lots of them. In fact the Outback has 750,000 wild camels. First introduced into Australia in 1840 were around 10,000 camels by Afghan handlers, they’re now a well-recognizedwell-recognised icon of the Australian Outback. Join a three-day drive outside Alice Springs with Camels Australia and see what its like trekking across the Outback on camel back, sleeping under an outback sky and passing waterholes, rock art and miles of Outback desert. Or if riding a camel’s not your thing, head to Alice Springs in July for their social event of the season- the Camel Cup Races.