Backpacker shares how she has travelled around Australia for free and saved over £10,000 along the way

A backpacker has revealed not only how she has travelled around Australia for free, but has also shared how she managed to save over £10,000 in the process. Hailey Learmonth, 25, Googled "how to travel for free" before venturing to Australia from Canada in January.

Ever since she made the move to the other side of the world nine months ago, she has been staying in other peoples homes for free in exchange for looking after their pets and homes for between six days to as long as three months.

She’s looked after a whole host of animals, including dogs, cats, chickens and cows in a number of different areas in the country such as Brisbane, The Hinterland and the Gold Coast. Living rent free, she has saved thousands.

Hailey, a photographer from Squamish, Canada, said: “It’s been a crazy experience. When I first came here, I thought it’d be good to house-sit for a while and find my feet.

“But it’s turned into me living in other people’s houses for the last nine months. I love Australia - and it’s been a fun little journey to get here. I can confidently say through working full-time and living rent free, I’ve saved around £10,400.”

Hailey first visited Australia on a university exchange programme for four months in 2018, and travelled the east coast, to Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road. “I met an amazing group of friends who I travelled with. I knew I’d be coming back.”

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Hailey began looking into how to travel on a bargain for when “the world opened up again”. Following a search, she was directed to a number of house-sitting sites in different areas.