I need some advice from sitters who have traveled to Australia to house sit and also from homeowners in Australia.
My partner retires early next year and we’re planning to spend about 8 weeks on the east coast, between February and April 25.
We’ve checked the weather for different areas and have decided to start in Tasmania at the end of Feb and end in Cairns at the beginning of April, with Sydney and maybe Brisbane in between. We’re based on the UK.
What’s the best way to organise this? What tips or advice can you give? What did you do that worked out well or not so well?
We would really appreciate any advice you can give that will help me to get my head around organizing this fantastic trip.
I’d just like to say that I think this forum and all the people who contribute are amazing. I’ve leant so much and I’m really enjoying my THS journey.
We house sat Whippets in a 1930s heritage house in Hobart Tasmania for a month (long before joining TSH) and had the best time! We went to MOMA twice and would go back just to go there again. It’s an incredible experience.
It’s an easy hop to fly from Melbourne and we spent 5 days there either side as lots to do (including coastal trip, comedy clubs).
We went to the Launceston side of Tasmania in the North and stayed Airbnb as too far for day trips from the house sit. Definitely visit the very weird Zeehan deserted mining town (museum took a day to go around) and travel on steam trains!
It’s doable for a long day trip out to Port Arthur (not ok if pets can’t be left very long though).
Definitely try to get a few days on Bruny Island (beware the boat trips though unless the sea is completely flat).
Driving Sydney to Brisbane via a stay in Newcastle is ok but in Australia fly if you can between major cities. Don’t forget Canberra; it’s a strange city but we found it interesting. Make sure you’ve worked out the weather in each place as it’s a huge distance between Hobart and Brisbane you’ll need very different clothing in each place. Best wishes
Hi @Cljk, okay, please don’t take this the wrong way, but 8 weeks are not enough to thoroughly enjoy your very, very long route you’ve chosen. Honestly, I can spend 8 weeks in Tasmania alone and feel completely happy. You will just be driving and moving on from place to place. This will not leave enough time to really get housesits, because:
Australia is so far away from the rest of the world, when Australians go on holidays, they tend to go for 3-6 weeks at a time. That was nice for us, because it meant we could get settled into an area, work during the day, and explore local walks and towns after work and on weekends. We did an ‘Around Australia’ tour in 2019/2020 - the tour was planned to take between 24-36 months! - we only got about a quarter through after 9 months, until covid put a stop to that, but we had a fantastic time.
Also look at aussiehousesitters and mindmyhome websites - they have a lot more Aussie listings than THS and are cheaper to join.
A car is very useful, but in your case, with your limited time, maybe it’s better to just pick 4-5 places and fly there.
Maybe I should have worded my message a little more clearly. We realise that we have limited time but would rather go for 8, maybe 10, weeks than not go at all. We plan to focus on 3 areas and fly between them. We wouldn’t dream of trying to drive from Sydney to Cairns!
Thanks for the suggestion to join aussiehousesitters, I’ll have a look at it.
Before I comment @Cljk, are you planning on house-sitting in Australia that trip or just touring? Being Australian, I could talk till the cows come home about your plans but would firstly like to know if it’s touring or sitting. I can then write a short novel on my thoughts
Oh, the dates you have mentioned, Tasmania will probably be really cold, Sydney and Brisbane you will probably start to keel over with heat exhaustion and Cairns you will simply melt But it’s ALL worth it
We’re planning to housesit with a bit of sightseeing in between sits, if poss. As regards the weather, we also have the option to come over September/ October/ November. I’m not sure which season is best, any advice?
Personally, coming from the UK, I think weather wise (heat) you would enjoy these places far better in September to November. Just need to watch Cairns as it is cyclone season October to April and the past few years we have had really devastating cyclones. I would START in Cairns if you could and work your way down but that might be backtracking. September/October is nice in the southern states, November is warming up, Cairns is permanently hot.
Storm and cyclone season in Queensland runs from October through to the end of April. During this time cyclones and severe storms with hail, lightning, damaging winds and flooding are more likely to impact the state. (But more October/November)
As a retired UK couple how about this as an idea: 3 weeks Tasmania 2-3 weeks Melbourne then 2 weeks Adelaide. We’ve been to Australia many times, we have friends on the Eastern side and our son lives in WA. We did 3 weeks just in one southern section of WA and barely scratched the surface, it’s MUCH BIGGER than you can imagine…. and driving can be pretty tough. Fitting house/pet sitting and Airbnb together as a puzzle could work ok. Personally we’ve found that travelling more than 10-12 weeks we get too tired and we miss our home activities and community.
Recent trips we did were Sydney/Newcastle/Brisbane/Vanuatu that was 10 weeks.
Another trip was Sydney/Canberra/Melbourne that was 9 weeks
The last trip was Tasmania/Perth/Sth WA that was 8 weeks.
We’re currently seeking a house/pet sit in Perth Jan 2025 but not seeing any at all atm (p’haps they stay close to home at Xmas) mostly it seems like WA HOs are getting away to Europe in their winter/our summer.
@BonnyinBrighton quite the opposite about Christmas. There is never enough sitters for the amount of homeowners looking, sitters are like gold at Christmas. But nobody starts advertising until a couple of months beforehand so it’s far too early now. Around September you will start to see them, but not so many on THS. We get four weeks annual leave each year and everyone goes away at Christmas if they can as it’s so hot.
Sits in Tasmania are extremely hard to get and Adelaide doesn’t get near as many availabilities as other parts of Australia.
That’s a shame that Perth folks leave it so late as we will probably have opted to go hang out in Thailand for a month if nothing gets advertised in the next 2 months….
All Australians leave it to around that timeframe, nine months out is VERY rare and the chances of cancellations is high when trying to lock someone in that far ahead. I’ve been fulltime in Oz and internationally for five years now and rarely, if ever, see sits advertised that far ahead.
So are you saying ‘all’ Australians mainly travel within Australia if they’re leaving it so late to travel over Xmas, because if that’s not the case then how do they manage to get last minute flights/hotels etc in Europe and elsewhere? And why are Australians different to say Americans or Europeans in planning forward?
We’ve been travelling to Australia since 1982.
Case 1
Xmas sits in Australia are mostly to cover Australians travelling between states eg visiting family
Case 2
Xmas sits in Australia, Australians only think about this last minute… even if planning International travel……
Case 3 something else….
It’s interesting what you say about a lack of sitters over Christmas and that home owners rarely advertise Christmas sits 9 months out.
So, is it better to book flights first and then apply for sits as they become available or wait until you have sits confirmed and then book flights? What are your thoughts on this?
We did a house sit combined with our own personal travel to the East coast of Australia in November a few years ago. We’re from Canada and knew nothing about Australia so I put together a four week itinerary. We flew to Cairns where we spent a week. We loved it there as we are hot weather lovers. We stayed at the Mantra Esplanade which I would highly recommend. We had a huge one bed apartment with cooking and laundry facilities and it was very reasonably priced. It was directly across from the Esplanade and lots of shops and restaurants. We booked three tours in Cairns. One was to the Barrier Reef, the other was an Outback tour and did the Durango Railroad tour. All three tours were great. We then flew to Brisbane and spent two nights but it rained while we were there so didn’t see much. We took the bus from Brisbane to our housesit on the Gold Coast where we spent two weeks and it was great we had a car included to enable us to do day trips. We then flew to Sydney where we spent the last week in Sydney. We felt four weeks was very adequate for what we saw and we had terrific weather in November. We found flights within Australia were very cheap compared to within Canada so that may be an option instead of driving to major cities. We’d love to return and see the other coast of Australia.
@BonnyinBrighton Case 1 is the normal. I can only talk about personal experience as a full-time sitter and resident of Australia my whole life.
But of course, some go overseas but as it is winter and cold in UK and Europe and USA, most leave such long haul trips to a time when weather is more pleasant and just holiday at home. It is just far easier to travel and tour in nice weather than cold and snowy weather. Also, as you know, it’s a very long flight to and from Oz so travellers who DO go overseas prefer to make it worthwhile at a time of better temperatures. Also, flights between mid December and end January are VERY expensive internationally, another reason most only go then for a particular reason. I am half way there now but wouldn’t have gone earlier as I just don’t like cold weather. I don’t mean “all”, bad choice of words, but majority for the reasons I have outlined.
Christmas time we go to the beach or visit family and friends interstate as the weather is warm throughout the country.
@Globetrotter that sounds like the perfect East coast trip and @Cljk I would look closely at that itinerary, it’s good! Also Cljk, I would not like to advise on when is best to book flights, that’s a dicey one. You could get caught out with nothing or get lots of sits, it just depends and I would hate to suggest. Every Christmas I am inundated with sit requests right up until December so yes, there is a shortage and yes, we do advertise closer to holiday time. But I have a LOT of reviews and I am a local so to speak. I am also on two other HS sites here which have heaps of sits but I don’t like to advertise the details on a THS forum. It’s just who we are I guess with all this, but it works.
Ok so from your experience Australians are moving towards the summers in the west for big international trips and us westerners are travelling towards Xmas downunder to escape our cold dreary winters ….and of course Perth ‘summer’ is Xmas time adding to the confusion of terminology. And school holidays also impact on all of this as each state has different dates.
We booked our downunder flights for Dec 2024 months ago and all on points
@BonnyinBrighton points are definitely the way to go! My last trip to Europe and back was all on points also and gee what a saving isn’t it!
So yes, what you have said about the movement between countries is quite correct Also, School holidays throughout Oz, though slightly different in each State, are generally mid December to late January so for example, older Aussies won’t travel in school holidays but families do. So end January lots of sits come up as the retired people start travelling and the cycle begins again lol But honestly, there is pretty much heaps of sits all year as so many now are doing “the loop” i.e. caravanning right around the country. My last sit was six months whilst the HO’s did only half the loop Before that was three months, so lots of retired people travel long term.
Just disappearing down an internet rabbit hole I’ve found these figures:
69% of Australian households have a pet
7.8 million Australians travelled out of the country over Xmas 2023
Flights to London at that time cost Aus$9000
The most popular Xmas travel destinations were: Bali Indonesia …Europe…Japan.
Only 6.5% Australians travelled internationally at Xmas.
Also, School holidays throughout Oz, though slightly different in each State, are generally mid December to late January so for example, older Aussies won’t travel in school holidays but families do. So end January lots of sits come up as the retired people start travelling and the cycle begins again lol But honestly, there is pretty much heaps of sits all year as so many now are doing “the loop” i.e. caravanning right around the country. My last sit was six months whilst the HO’s did only half the loop 
Before that was three months, so lots of retired people travel long term.