Best Apps & Websites for a Working Holiday in Australia
Every app and website we used on our own Australian working holidays, sorted by what you'll need it for. Most are free. The five that pay us a commission are marked, and none of them got a better spot for it.
What apps do you need for a working holiday in Australia?
For a working holiday in Australia you need about ten apps: ImmiAccount for the visa, myGov and the ATO for your Tax File Number, a fee-free card such as Wise or Up, SEEK and Backpacker Job Board for work, Hostelworld for beds, Google Maps with offline areas for the outback, and Emergency+ for calling 000. Everything else is nice to have.
Last checked: 19 September 2026. Apps change hands, get renamed and occasionally die. If a link below goes somewhere odd, tell us and we'll fix it.
The ten to install before you land
You'll be tired, on airport wifi, and trying to find a bus. Set these up at home.
| App or website | What it's for | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| ImmiAccount (Home Affairs) | Applying for the 417 or 462 visa and checking its conditions | Free (the visa itself is not) |
| myGov + ATO | Your Tax File Number; without one 45% is withheld from your first shift | Free |
| Wise | Holding AUD before you have a local account, paying without overseas card fees | Free account, small transfer fees |
| Up Bank | A local account with a BSB so employers can pay you | Free |
| SEEK | Formal job listings, filtered by region and casual work | Free |
| Backpacker Job Board | Fast, informal listings for farm and hospitality work | Free |
| Hostelworld | The first few nights, and every city hop after | Free app |
| Google Maps | Offline areas for the regions where signal drops for hours | Free |
| Airalo eSIM | Landing with data so the first Uber and hostel check-in work | Paid data packs |
| Emergency+ | Sends your GPS position to 000 from anywhere with signal | Free |
How we chose these
Three rules. Official beats third-party: if the government runs a tool for it, that's the one listed, even when a private app looks slicker. Free beats paid unless the paid one saves real money on the road. And nothing earns a spot for paying us. Wise, Agoda, Klook, Airalo and SafetyWing are affiliates, and each one sits next to a free or unpaid alternative that does most of the same job.
We also cut things. No currency converters (your banking app does it), no packing-list apps (our packing list is a web page for a reason), and no "all-in-one backpacker" apps that wrap a job board and a map in a subscription.
Visa & admin
Sort these first. Almost everything else on this page needs a visa grant, a myGov login or a TFN before it works. How the TFN application runs, and what to do if the letter hasn't arrived, is in our TFN guide.
Home Affairs (ImmiAccount)
The official portal for checking eligibility and applying for the 417 or 462 Working Holiday visa. There is no app for the application itself, so do it on a laptop.
Check eligibility →VEVO / myVEVO
Shows your visa's grant date, expiry and conditions on your phone. Employers check the same system, so if it looks wrong to you it looks wrong to them.
Check your visa conditions →myGov
Your single government login for the ATO, Medicare and most other Australian services. Set it up before the TFN, not after.
Create a myGov account →Australian Taxation Office
Apply for your Tax File Number online once you've landed. Skip it and 45% comes off every payslip until it's sorted.
Apply for a TFN →Banking & money
Set one of these up before you fly so you're not paying overseas card fees on day one. Which local bank to pick, and what you need to open the account, is in our banking guide.
Wise
A multi-currency account and debit card. Hold AUD, top up from home, and skip the international fees your home bank charges. Affiliate link.
Open a Wise account →Up Bank
A fully digital Australian bank with fast online account opening and no monthly fees. Popular with working holiday makers because payroll needs a local BSB, and Up gives you one in minutes.
Open an Up account →Revolut
Handy for locking in a decent exchange rate and spending in AUD before your local account is open.
Open a Revolut account →
Sponsored by Wise. If you open an account through this banner we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. See our affiliate disclosure.
Jobs & work
Where working holiday makers actually find work, from formal listings to the harvest trail.
SEEK
Australia's biggest job board. Filter by region and by casual or temporary work, and set alerts for the towns you're heading to next.
Search jobs →Harvest Trail
The official government seasonal work service. This is where most people bank their 88 regional days, and the listings are vetted in a way Facebook groups never are.
Find harvest work →Backpacker Job Board
Informal, fast-moving listings, especially useful for farm work and hospitality with minimal admin. Has an app now, and it flags jobs that count toward the 88 days.
Browse listings →Facebook groups
Search groups like "Australia Backpacker Jobs". Often the fastest way to hear about start-tomorrow work, and also where most scam listings live. Never pay a deposit for a job.
Search Facebook groups →Workforce Australia
The government's own jobs board, broader than Harvest Trail. Worth a search alongside SEEK for casual and regional listings.
Search Workforce Australia →WWOOF Australia
Work a few hours a day on an organic farm for food and a bed. A good way to spend the gap between paid jobs. It does not count toward the 88 days.
Find a host →Workaway
Same idea as WWOOF, wider range of hosts: hostels, family homes, the odd sailing boat. Paid membership. Read the host reviews before you commit to a week somewhere remote.
Browse hosts →Our 88 days postcode checker
Pick your visa, the industry and the postcode, and it tells you whether that job counts toward a second-year visa. Built on Home Affairs' own eligible-postcode data.
Check a postcode →Chasing your 88 days for a second-year visa? Eligible industries, eligible postcodes and how to spot a scam listing are all in our farm work & 88 days guide. Job types, wages and interview tips by industry are in our jobs & finding work guide.
Accommodation
From your first hostel booking to a room in a share house once you settle somewhere.
Hostelworld
The default app for booking hostels city to city, with traveller reviews built in. Book the first two nights from home and decide the rest once you've seen the place.
Find a hostel →Flatmates.com.au
The main site for finding a room in a share house if you're settling in one city for a while. Expect to inspect in person; nobody good rents to a photo.
Search share houses →Gumtree
Rooms, furniture, and everything you'll need to set one up, sold cheap by travellers leaving town. Also the classic place to buy and sell a backpacker car.
Browse listings →Agoda
Hostels, motels and hotels in one search, so a dorm bed and a cheap private room sit side by side. Worth it for the nights a dorm won't do: your first night off the plane, or a weekend away from the farm. Affiliate link.
Compare stays on Agoda →Klook
Tours, day trips and airport transfers, and you can add a short stay in the same app. Useful when the bed belongs to a trip you're booking anyway. Affiliate link.
See tours and transfers on Klook →The Agoda and Klook links above are affiliate links. We may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you; see our affiliate disclosure.
Transport & road trips
Getting between cities, coastlines and the outback, and not running out of fuel in between.
Greyhound Australia
The east coast's main coach network and a solid budget option for hopping between cities. The hop-on-hop-off passes suit the Cairns-to-Melbourne run.
Check routes →Jetstar
Budget domestic flights that beat multi-day bus trips for the long hops, like Perth to the east coast. Check baggage fees before you compare prices.
Search domestic flights →WikiCamps Australia
The road-trip app: campsites, caravan parks, free camps, showers, dump points and drinking water, all rated by the people who slept there. Paid app, and worth it the first night you'd otherwise pay for a caravan park.
Get WikiCamps →CamperMate
Free alternative to WikiCamps with campsites, fuel prices, rest stops and points of interest on one map. Many people run both.
Plan your route →PetrolSpy
Crowd-sourced fuel prices by station. Prices swing a lot between towns and across the week, and in a thirsty backpacker van that adds up fast.
Compare fuel prices →Google Maps (offline areas)
Download the area before you leave town. Outback highways and farm regions can run hours between phone signal. Maps.me is a solid backup built for offline use.
Save an offline map →Airalo eSIM
Buy a data eSIM before you fly so you land already connected for maps and rideshares. Affiliate link. For a whole year, a local prepaid SIM usually works out cheaper.
Get an eSIM before you land →Heading into farm country or the outback? Which picking regions run patchiest for signal is covered in our harvest calendar, so download maps before you leave the last town with reception. Whether an eSIM or a local prepaid SIM works out cheaper is in our SIM card guide. The Airalo link above is an affiliate link; see our affiliate disclosure.
City transport & rideshare
What locals actually tap on once you've landed in a city.
Opal (Sydney)
Tap on with a physical Opal card or a linked debit card for trains, buses and ferries across Sydney. Cheaper than single paper tickets, and the fare caps reward a busy week.
Check Opal fares →myki (Melbourne)
Melbourne's transport card covers trams, trains and buses. Trams inside the free tram zone in the CBD don't even need it.
Get a myki →Translink (Brisbane & QLD)
Covers trains, buses and the CityCat ferries around Brisbane and South East Queensland, all on one go card.
Plan a QLD trip →Uber
The rideshare default in every major Australian city. DiDi is worth having installed too as a backup where Uber's thin on drivers.
Get the Uber app →Perth runs on its own Transperth SmartRider system if that's your base. None of the links in this section are affiliate. It's just what we'd put on our phone.
Community & safety
Install these before you need them. Nobody downloads a weather app during a cyclone warning. What SafetyWing covers, and what it doesn't, is in our insurance guide.
Bureau of Meteorology
Official cyclone, bushfire and severe weather warnings. Check it before any regional road trip, and again before you set off each morning in the wet season.
Check warnings →Emergency+
A free government app that shares your exact GPS coordinates with Triple Zero (000). Genuinely useful if you're calling for help from a farm, a trail or a stretch of highway you can't describe.
Get Emergency+ →State Emergency Service
000 is Australia's emergency number for police, fire and ambulance. The SES handles storm and flood callouts, and each state runs its own emergency-warnings app.
Learn more →SafetyWing Our top pick
Flexible working holiday insurance you can extend from the road. Affiliate link. Reviewed in full on our insurance page, including where it falls short.
Get a free quote →Solo travel safety guide
Travelling by yourself? Our full guide covers accommodation, transport, farm work and emergency prep for solo backpackers.
Read the guide →Super & tax back
Every employer pays 12% on top of your wage into a super fund. Once you've left Australia for good you can claim it back, minus 65% tax on a working holiday visa. That is still money most people leave behind.
ATO: DASP claim
Apply directly for your Departing Australia Superannuation Payment once your visa has expired or been cancelled. Free, and the form takes an evening if you know your fund.
Start your DASP claim →Taxback.com
Handles both your income tax return and the DASP claim for a fee. Worth it if your paperwork's a mess or you've lost track of a fund, not otherwise.
Start your claim →Our full super & tax back guide
A live reclaim estimator and the step-by-step process, in more depth than we can fit on this page.
Read the full guide →Tools we built for the bits no app covers
Free, no sign-up, and they run in the browser you're already using.
Visa eligibility checker
Answer a few questions and it tells you whether the 417 or the 462 applies to your passport, then hands you a tickable pre-application checklist.
Check your eligibility →Budget calculator
Weekly and monthly costs by city, plus the one-off setup costs nobody budgets for. Adjust it to your own plans.
Run the numbers →Harvest calendar
Which crops are picked where, month by month, so you arrive in a region when there's work rather than three weeks after it ended.
See what's in season →Which Australian city should you work in?
Six questions on budget, jobs, climate and vibe. Takes a minute and settles an argument most people have with themselves for weeks.
Take the quiz →Frequently asked questions
Short answers to what we get asked most about apps for a working holiday in Australia.
Which bank app is best for a working holiday in Australia?
Use two. Wise before you fly, so you can hold Australian dollars and pay without overseas card fees from the moment you land. Then a local account with a BSB for payroll: Up opens fully online in minutes, and the big four (Commonwealth, Westpac, NAB, ANZ) all let you start the application from overseas. Employers can't pay wages into Wise reliably, so don't skip the local account.
What is the best job app for backpackers in Australia?
SEEK for formal listings and Backpacker Job Board for fast, informal ones. If you need your 88 days, start with Harvest Trail because the listings are vetted. Facebook groups are quickest for start-tomorrow work, but they carry the most scams. A real employer never asks for a deposit or an upfront fee.
Do WWOOF or Workaway count toward the 88 days?
No. Specified work for a second-year visa has to be paid employment with proper payslips, in an eligible industry and postcode. Work-for-board stays are unpaid, so they don't count. The only exception is declared disaster-recovery work, which can be paid or unpaid. Treat WWOOF as a cheap week off, not as visa strategy.
Do I need an eSIM or a local SIM card for Australia?
An eSIM gets you online the moment you land, which matters for the first Uber and the hostel's check-in message. For a whole year a local prepaid SIM is usually cheaper per gigabyte and has better regional coverage. Many people do both: eSIM for the first week, local SIM once they have an address and a spare afternoon.
Which apps work offline in the outback?
Google Maps, if you download the area first. Maps.me is built for offline use. WikiCamps and CamperMate both let you save regions for use without signal. Download everything in the last town with reception, because on many outback highways and in some picking regions you'll go hours without any.
Is there one app that does everything for a working holiday in Australia?
No, and be wary of the ones that claim to. The visa, the Tax File Number and your super refund all run through government sites (ImmiAccount, myGov, the ATO). Jobs, beds and transport each have a specialist app that works better than any bundle. Ten well-chosen free apps beat one paid all-in-one.
This page contains affiliate links (Wise, Agoda, Klook, Airalo and SafetyWing). If you sign up or book through one, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It doesn't change the price you pay. Every other link is a plain, unpaid recommendation. See our affiliate disclosure for details.