31 years old and want to travel and work in Australia.......?

...........does anyone know of a way that I can obtain the necessary visa that would enable me to do this for a period of approximately 9 months?

We will be visiting NZ as well but mainly want to work in Sydney for 4-5 months and then travel for the remainder of our time.

Thanks in advance guys!!

i think you are to old for a working holiday visa,did you check out the australian visa site?

Unfortunately you have just missed out on our "working holiday" program, which is for ages 18 to 30. But I can think of a few options...

One is to enrol to study in a course here and come on a student visa. Choose a course with very few contact hours and low fees (get my drift?) and you're allowed to work 20 hours per week whilst you're "studying".

Another would be if you have a skill that we're short of - and it's a long list! - and then perhaps you can find a job before you come and get sponsored by an employer. The list of jobs that are needed can be found here: http://www.immi.gov.au/allforms/pdf/1121i.pdf

Or you could get a 12-month tourist visa, but of course you CAN'T WORK ; ) You would readily find cash employment in some jobs, eg restaurants, cleaning at hotels, labouring, tutoring, working at markets, etc that the govt would never know about - but I'm NOT suggesting that you should do that, because that would be wrong.