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Mobile Phones in Australia 

Travelling Australia without a mobile phone is a big NO-NO. Especially if your on a working holiday visa. This is how future employers, your new travel mates and your family back home keep in touch with you. Even if it is only through sms, they know your alive and having the time of your life. So bring your phone with you. 

If you are only coming to Australia for a few weeks, then you may wish to bring the mobile phone sim card, you use back home. You will need to contact the company you are with, in your home country. Ask them to place your sim card on internetional roaming. This is expensive, if you make or recieve calls but is not to bad if you only use it lightly for sms only.  

The mobile phone industry in Australia is very competitive. The 3 biggest telecommunication companies in Australia are Telstra, Optus and Vodafone. It is highly recommended to stick with one of these 3 carriers.

Optus and Vodafone have better deals than Telstra but Telstra has slightly better coverage. Optus and Vodafone have the best pre paid deals and both have a deal which costs $29.95 to receive a sim card and you also get $30 worth of calls. It is a pre paid sim card and you are not locked into any contracts. Just top up your sim card when it runs out at basically, any general shop in Australia. There are a lot of different pre paid plan so just choose the one that is best for you.

Staying in Australia on a working holiday visa then it is best to check out Vodafone capped deals. With Vodafone capped you can choose between a $49 cap which gives you $310 worth of calls/sms or a $79 cap which gives you $500 worth of calls/sms. These 2 deals are both pre paid with no contacts and are very popular plans that most Australians use these days. They cost 39cent/30 seconds and 25 cent sms to anywhere in the world.