Ok, sounds like some of you are kind of saying not to bother going ... Think I will delete the post, shouldn't have posted, this has been quite disheartening and I will have to change my plans

Why would you not go? A working holiday is meant for young people to enjoy a gap year.

Because I don't want to be confined to getting a job working down a mine or picking fruit. It wouldn't benefit me at all, it would be pointless for me. If i was 22, straight out of university then things would be different. I'm not, I'm 27 and very focused on my career. I would ideally like to go into research, but figured a year in Australia would look good. Unfortunately, that is why I wanted to go and that is what the WHV cannot provide.

Nobody is saying that you should not go, we are explaining what this visa is for. Some people will find work in their profession, but it is far from a given due to the restrictions mentioned. It is a great visa for a life experience, it is not a great visa to try to develop career on.

If you want to move to Australia to work in your career you could look into skilled migration - what subject do you teach?

Backpackers don't get mining jobs, those are far too sought after! And very few of them do fruitpicking.
A year in Australia probably would look good on a resume, even if you only did casual admin. Shows experience of the world etc. You might be lucky and pick up some teaching, either paid or voluntary, though you do need to check out whether your need to get your qualifications recognised at all beforehand.
But I guess the bottom line is that a WHV isn't designed to further a career, its a working holiday.

Why don't you contact one of the regustered agents who post on here and have a quick chat; I've learnt over the years that there are a few little known visas such as Training & Research visas, and you might find just something that would work. They are little known and so don't come up on forums but a good agent might be able to work something out.

You can work in a profession on a WHV - I did. But if you require registration/certification in order to do so it would be too difficult to achieve

There is a 6 month rule for working in any one job on a WHV but it is widely ignored and not really policed - you'd probably get away with it. What are they going to do if they catch you anyway?

Good luck

I only know one person who tried to game the rules. First working directly for the company, then once reaching the work limitation, working through an umbrella company instead - in the same role. They were almost immediately found out, I assume through tax records, and had to leave the job. I'd imagine worst case is a 3 year ban on coming back in.

Three year ban, and its more widely policed than you would think. Of course if the OP never intends coming back to Aus then its not an issue for them, but it could be for the employer.

I have more than 20 years of teaching experience, PR and full teaching registration. I applied for more than 60 teaching jobs, in schools, in TAFE in language schools ... No chance, they prefer applicants with local (Australian) experience! After nearly one year I got an offer for one morning (3 hours) in a language school. That was all I got in one year of being there.
I was clearly told by principals that they prefer local graduates, who are cheaper and have the knowledge about teaching in Australia.

Thank you everyone for your replies. Amazulu, my teaching subjects are in the social sciences, although I do teach English as a foreign language too. I was informed that TAFE would be my best bet, but thank you musicalfever4 for the advice from your own experience. This certainly would make things very difficult. Bermudashorts, I have looked into skilled migration, but I think it is a little risky, when I am not sure what the experience of living in Australia will bring. Thank you though to Pollyana, I will definitely have a look into the teaching and research visa, and have a chat with some agents.

Yeah, I don't know if that one would fit you, but there are some littleknown ones out there, so worth an ask at least

Fair enough. It was probably different when I did it back in the '90s. A friend spent a year (this was in the '00s) at one company on a WHV and he is now a citizen

I actually worked here illegally for 6 months during my backpacker days - no employer checked my visa. When I did our PR application, I told them about this episode and there was no comeback at all

WOW OP you are not taking the feedback well. Are you expecting to come to Australia on a 1 possibly 2 year WHV and find you land on your feet. You should not be so reactive to the posts, you are asking people for advice who actually life and work here and can provide assistance.

The WHV is about visiting a new country and experiencing lifestyle and culture, due to the 6 month limit it makes it difficult for potential employers to hire you as they know you will not be long term.

If you are so focused on your career and have a good job, your best bet stay with it and stay in the UK.

If you are willing to step outside your comfort zone, and maybe find an employer that would sponsor you in Australia, then take the chance. It can and does happen.

It appears to me you do not want to do this as you think the WHV will land you a permanent job.

From reading numerous posts on this forum and other expat forums, plenty of people take the risk in the hope of a better/different lifestyle. Some succeed, some fail.

As other posts I have read teaching jobs are hard to secure, especially being a new immigrant. The job market is quite tough in Australia at the moment and not only for teaching jobs, it appears to be all over.

Maybe re-evaluate your situation, could you take a year out and come back to the UK and still get back on the ladder!

Not so easy nowadays.
I used to work with a British guy who has been here about 35 years, came as a tourist, worked illegally (including jobs for the government!)but there was some kind of amnesty back in the late 80s or early 90s when he says a lot of'sins were forgiven and forgotten' and people were given PR if they handed themselves in He's been a citizen for years now. can't imagine that happening now

There were actually three amnesties where illegal or temporary residents were forgiven and granted permanent residency visas.

The first was in 1976 but relatively few people took it up. The second was in 1980. I was granted PR via that amnesty - not that I was here illegally, I had an extended WHV and wanted to stay longer - and there was another, supposedly final, amnesty in 1983.

As you say, there's never been one since, though Bob Hawke did grant thousands of PR visas en masse to the Chinese students who were in Australia at the time of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

I knew a guy who lived and worked here illegally for around 7 years. He was waiting for another amnesty. Gave up waiting eventually and returned to the UK. I often wonder what they said to him on the way out..