Australia for Digital Nomads

• Easy living. English-speaking, safe, well organised and quick to set up in, with tap-to-pay everywhere.
• Outdoor life. City beaches, ocean pools, coastal walks, national parks and some of the world’s best surf.
• Asia-Pacific hours. Perth shares Singapore’s time zone, and the east coast overlaps well with New Zealand, Japan and Southeast Asia.
• A choice of bases. Big cities, surf towns, a tropical north and cool, green Tasmania.
• Working Holiday visas. Generous programmes for young people from nearly 50 countries, with a year or more of stay and local work rights.

Australia suits well-paid remote workers who want a safe, comfortable season by the sea, people working with Asia-Pacific teams, and younger nomads who can use a Working Holiday visa to stay a year or more and pick up local work.

It suits you less on a budget, if you want to stay longer than three months at a time on a visitor visa, or if you work European or US hours: 9am in London is 6pm to 8pm in Sydney, and 9am in New York is 11pm to 1am. Distances are huge, and flights within the country and out of it are long.

• Sydney: the biggest city, with the harbour, Bondi and Manly, a strong startup scene and the highest rents.
• Melbourne: the cafe, food and culture capital, with trams, laneways and changeable weather.
• Brisbane: sunny and subtropical, cheaper than Sydney, with no daylight saving.
• Gold Coast: surf beaches, high-rises and a growing remote-work scene around Burleigh Heads.
• Byron Bay: a famous surf and wellness town, small, scenic and expensive.
• Perth: sunny and isolated, with Indian Ocean beaches and Singapore’s time zone.
• Adelaide: relaxed and affordable, near the Barossa and McLaren Vale wine regions.
• Hobart: a small harbour city in Tasmania, with mountains, wilderness and cool summers.

Our where to base yourself in Australia page compares them in more detail.

• ETA (subclass 601): for passports including the US, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and the UK. Apply on the Australian ETA app for a A$20 service fee. Valid for 12 months, multiple entry, with stays of up to three months per entry.
• eVisitor (subclass 651): free, for EU and other European passports, including British citizens. Same 12 months, multiple entry and three months per entry.
• Visitor (subclass 600): for everyone else, or for a longer stay. Usually granted for three months, sometimes up to 12.
• Working Holiday (417) and Work and Holiday (462): a year in Australia with the right to work, for ages 18 to 30, or 18 to 35 for some nationalities. A second and third year are possible after regional work.
• No work for Australian clients. Visitor visas don’t allow you to work for, or provide services to, an Australian business. Remote work for an overseas employer isn’t directly addressed and sits in a grey area.

Our visas, taxes and money page explains each route, tax residency and banking.

A comfortable month for one person, with a room in a share house or a small furnished studio, costs about A$5,000 to A$6,500 in Sydney, A$4,500 to A$6,000 in Melbourne or Byron Bay and A$3,600 to A$5,500 in Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide or Hobart. A whole furnished one-bedroom flat costs much more. A cafe flat white costs about A$5 to A$6, a pub meal A$25 to A$35, and a 5G prepaid SIM with a large data allowance A$30 to A$50 a month. These are ballpark figures.

Costs that catch people out: furnished short-let premiums, bond (usually four weeks’ rent), card surcharges of 1% to 2% in some shops and restaurants, domestic flights, and car hire outside the cities.

Australia has three main time zones, and only some states use daylight saving, which runs from the first Sunday in October to the first Sunday in April.

The east coast overlaps with Asia and New Zealand during the day. European mornings fall in the east coast’s evening, and US working hours fall in the middle of the Australian night.

Seasons are the reverse of the northern hemisphere, and the north is tropical.

Home internet runs on the NBN, the national broadband network; speeds depend on the building, often 50 to 100 Mbps, with faster plans in fibre-connected homes. For mobile, Telstra has the widest coverage outside the cities, with Optus and Vodafone (TPG Telecom) as the other networks. Prepaid SIMs and eSIMs are sold at airports, supermarkets and phone shops with your passport. 5G is fast in the cities, but coverage disappears quickly in the outback and on long highways.

City public transport takes rechargeable smart cards or, in most cities, contactless bank cards, with daily and weekly fare caps. Uber operates in every city in this guide and DiDi in most of the big mainland ones. Distances between cities are long, so most people fly: Qantas, Virgin Australia and Jetstar cover the main routes. A car is useful for the coast, hinterland and Tasmania; Australians drive on the left, and visitors can usually drive on their overseas licence for a limited time, with an International Driving Permit if it isn’t in English.

Healthcare is excellent, with major public hospitals in every capital, but Medicare, the public system, doesn’t cover visitors unless they come from one of the 11 countries with a reciprocal health care agreement: the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Belgium, Finland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia and Sweden. Even then, what’s covered and for how long varies by country, so carry nomad health insurance. Pharmacies are everywhere, and GPs often have waiting lists.

Australia is very safe. The real risks are the sun (UV is extreme, even on cloudy days), rip currents (swim between the red and yellow flags), heat, bushfires in summer, and driving long distances tired. In the tropical north, take crocodile and stinger warnings seriously. The emergency number is 000.

• Biosecurity: declare all food, plants and animal products on arrival. Fines are heavy and enforced.
• Work: visitor visas don’t allow work for Australian businesses or clients.
• Drugs are illegal and penalties are serious; drug-driving is tested at roadside.
• Vapes are sold only in pharmacies, and smoking is banned in many outdoor public places.
• Driving: the drink-driving limit is 0.05% blood alcohol, and speed and mobile-phone cameras are everywhere.