Matt Down Under

In 2008 I left Germany to travel Australia. Before I left I finished my studies in computing and media design and worked in a media agency. Then I felt the need to do something different and applied for a Working Holiday Visa.

My plan was to travel around Australia for at least a year, but – of course – things went completely different in the end. After two months I had bad luck when I lost my backpack with all documents while in Tasmania, this required me to stay in Launceston longer than I had planned in order to replace at least the most important things before I move on.

Then I simply started to work, as a fruitpicker and treeplanter, at that time I just wanted to work something completely different, and I enjoyed it! Working outdoors is great.

The longer I stayed in Launceston the more I wanted to stay and live in Australia. It’s such a friendly and beautiful country, there’s so much to do, the weather is great and job opportunities for media/IT people are great too. So I decided to apply for a Skilled Working Visa that would allow me to stay in Australia.

In the meantime I realised that I was made for office work, not for forest work, and as I had decided to stay in Australia anyway, I started to look for an office job.

Tasmania doesn’t have a lot of media/IT business and I had almost given up hope to find a job here, but only days before I wanted to leave to Sydney I found a full time position as a web developer in Hobart. So I packed my stuff and moved from Launceston to the capital of Tasmania.

Early 2009 I received a new visa with a state sponsorship in Tasmania. Two years later, in early 2011, I was granted permanent residency and so after three great years in Tasmania I decided to spend a few months traveling and hiking on the mainland to see the rest of the country.

Contact

matthiassiegel at gmail dot com