Making friends on a Working Holiday Visa in Australia

When preparing for a working holiday, or even while living it, most people talk about jobs, road trips, farm work and fun. In every whatsapp or facebook group you'll read about regions, wages, visa conditions, where the work is and how to extend for a second or third year. But making friends? Hardly anyone talks about that part.

And that feels like a missed opportunity. Because depending on your situation, it can be surprisingly hard.

Don't be surprised if you feel lonely

Almost everyone will experience loneliness during their working holiday at some point. I certainly did. And it comes in waves.

The first few weeks in Australia, I felt incredibly alone. I had just left my friends in India, was petsitting, and was also quite sick at the time. Even though Australia is a comfortable country, that doesn't necessarily make things easy. In India you're bound to have conversations with people every day, all the time. But in western countries, in my experience, people are more to themselves. The first few days this was okay, but as the excitement of the new place wore off (and I was too sick to really do anything fun), the loneliness set in.

After some time I slowly built a group of friends (more on this below), but now, while writing this and after moving to the other side of the country, I feel lonely again. 

There were often moments when I questioned myself. It seemed like everyone else found their people and community? Why am I alone this weekend? But what helped me most was understanding that a working holiday is not comparable to “home”. At home, friendships grow slowly and quietly. You see the same people every week. There is so much shared context, shared history, mutual friends and routines. You do not have to explain yourself from the beginning every time you meet someone new. But on a working holiday, everything is changing all the time.

The positive side of this is that connections can form quickly because you are all new, figuring things out and open to meeting others. Shared novelty accelerates bonding. Seriously! There is research showing that experiencing new or uncertain situations together increases closeness. When you are both figuring things out, it is easier to open up. But travel also disrupts friendships just as quickly as people leave. Someone goes north for farm work. Someone else extends their visa somewhere else. The repetition that usually makes for better friendship is constantly interrupted. I had friends doing FIFO who were all over the country for weeks at a time, and people I'd only just met who went on with there journey while I stayed where I was.

Another thing that happens, which people often don't realise is that when you move countries, you temporarily lose your social identity. At home, you are someone’s long-time friend, someone’s colleague, someone’s neighbour, the girl who climbs at the gym every Saturday. On a working holiday, you are just you, without context. That can feel really free, but it can also feel totally destabilising. Humans like belonging somewhere. When we do not feel socially anchored, our nervous system can interpret that as threat. So if you feel lonely, it does not mean you are failing socially. There's a lot going on and it's totally normal to struggle with that.

What helped me most was surprisingly simple:

• Assume people are open, even if they seem busy.
• Invite people, even if it feels weird or vulnerable.
• Go to things alone.
• Keep showing up.
• And find ways to make friends.

Different circumstances, different challenges

Sometimes making friends is easy. You arrive in a social hostel, meet your dorm mates, and suddenly you have a group chat and weekend plans. But sometimes you are housesitting. Or living in a small town. Or working shifts that do not align with anyone else’s. Or surrounded by couples. Or by local people who already have “their” group and are not necessarily looking to expand it. Your situation is important (and something you can change!). 

When I first arrived in Australia, I spent months housesitting. It was peaceful, free and kind of a luxury. But I did not meet other travellers. I spent evenings alone with cats in beautiful homes. It took me a while to realise that although housesitting solved my accommodation, it increased my isolation. Housesitting is not a bad option. It just requires you to actively create your social life outside of it. Your environment really influences your opportunities for connection, whether you realise it or not.

After leaving Perth I lived in my car, and that also has isolated me quite a bit from much social interaction. It's a choice I've made and it saves me a bit of money, but it also means I don't meet people every day who are cooking in the same place, or chilling on the same couch. 

The obvious ways of making friends

Hostels

Hostels are often the fastest way to meet people. Shared kitchens, shared dorms and shared chaos make conversation almost unavoidable. The downside is that many connections are short-term. People move on quickly. But that does not make the connections less meaningful. Some friendships are intense and brief. Sometimes you only meet for a few weeks, yet stay in touch for years.

If you are looking for stronger connections, smaller hostels, worker hostels or simply staying longer in one place can help.

Workplaces

Work can be onother good place to make friends. You see each other regularly, share experiences and complain about the same shifts. At the same time, it is still work that connects you, which does not always translate into friendship outside of work. Sometimes your colleagues are younger and focused on partying every night. Sometimes they are older with families. Sometimes you will find your closest friend there. Sometimes you will not.

If you are lucky enough to find work that aligns with your values or interests, that helps enormously. But even if you don't, work can still provide connection, even if it is just one person you click with, or simply the sense of belonging while you are on shift.

House shares

Some people live in vans. Some stay in hostels. Some live at their workplace. But if you are staying somewhere for a while, shared houses can offer more stability and an immediate social life. Living with others creates natural interaction. Small conversations in the kitchen turn into shared dinners. Someone suggests watching a film and someone else brings home dessert. Even if everyone is busy, just living in the same house makes connection easier. You do not have to plan every interaction, it just happens.

The less obvious ways (that worked for me)

Luckily, I had two years of travelling behind me, so I had learned that if I wanted connection, I needed to build a bit of structure. Waiting for friendship to “just happen” rarely worked for me. Instead of only trying to meet people, I started trying to build a life that felt like mine. It helped that I had a job and stayed in one place for a while.

Yoga classes, climbing gyms, conservation events, protests, board game evenings, vegan meetups, going somewhere that reflected my values and interests made conversations become easier. We already share something and had something to talk about. But also, when you show up consistently, you are not introducing yourself from scratch every time. A bit of familiarity makes it easier to talk. The second conversation is easier than the first. The fifth is easier than the second.

For me, finding an active vegan community (through a friend) and joining a climbing gym were real turning points. The gym became more than a place to exercise. It became a space where I recognised people, where short chats turned into longer ones, and where I eventually started meeting people outside of training.

The vegan community had organised events, but at some point I decided to organise my own. That changed everything. Organising something, even something small, shifted me from outsider to contributor. People recognised my name from posts in the group before we even met. That made conversations easier as well.

It does not have to be activism or climbing. It can be running clubs, book clubs, language exchanges, surfing groups, photography walks or volunteering. Australia almost certainly has a community for whatever you are into. Finding it can change your experience.

Apps and websites that can actually help

It can feel awkward to use apps to make friends. There is still a strange stigma around it. But most people on a working holiday are in exactly the same position. They are new, slightly unsure and hoping to meet others too.

Some options that worked:

• Meetup – Great for hobby-based groups like hiking, board games, meditation or language exchanges. Especially useful in bigger cities. It gave me a reason to leave the house and a built-in topic to talk about.
• Facebook groups – Search for:
  • “Backpackers in [city]”
  • “Hiking [state/city]”
  • “[City] climbers”
  • “Women in [city]”
  • “[Town name] community”
• Events and informal meet-ups are often posted there, and many of them are free.
• Bumble BFF – It can feel strange at first, but many people genuinely use it to find friends, especially in larger cities. It is particularly helpful if you want to meet people who are also new, international or actively looking to expand their circle.

Non of these apps or websites instantly create friendships, but they are a way to find people, and I'm sure you can take it from there. 

A final thought

Making friends on a Working Holiday Visa in Australia is different from making friends at home. It can be faster, more intense, but also more difficult and temporary. You might share weeks of deep connection with someone and then hug them goodbye at a bus station, not knowing if you'll see each other again. And again, that does not make the friendship less real. You are not failing. 

Travel speeds up and intensifies the whole experience. Everything, including relationships, jump to the next level much quicker than in a home environment. You meet people when you're both figuring things out. And sometimes that creates bonds that feel unusually honest. At the same time it requires effort. It requires showing up when you would rather stay in. It requires inviting someone for coffee and risking a polite no. It requires going to events alone and trusting that something might come from it.

Just remember, it isn't easy, but that's normal. Keep following your interests and values and you'll find people aligned with that. Stay open, and friends will even find you.