AUSTRALIA · JOB GUIDE
Look after children in a family home, either living with the family or travelling in for shifts. Start with the children’s ages, your childcare experience and the hours you can commit to.
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You enjoy caring for children and want a routine with one family whose dates fit your stay.
Live-in work puts your home inside your workplace. Agree private time and duties carefully; school runs can also create split shifts.
A shift can include school runs, children’s meals, play, homework and bedtime routines. Child-related tidying is common; whole-house cleaning is a separate housekeeping responsibility.
A live-in arrangement can give you a base, but your bedroom is also in your workplace. Agree your private space, days off, visitors, notice period and what happens to your accommodation when the job ends.
Choose a family whose dates and daily routine suit your trip. A school-run job may leave a gap in the middle of the day; infant care needs different experience from supervising school-age children.
Private nanny and au-pair routes do not all require a childcare qualification. Agencies assess the ages you have cared for, references and whether you can manage children independently. Infant care and sole-charge roles require more relevant experience than helping with school-age children.
Police screening, child-safety checks and current first aid/CPR are part of the agency routes linked below. State child-safety rules differ, so a check from one state may not cover a move to another.
School-run roles may include driving the family car. A driving licence is relevant to those placements, rather than every nanny job. Live-in work suits a stay of several months: Placement Solutions describes three-to-six-month placements, while AIFS starts at six months.
St John offers HLTAID012 Provide First Aid in an Education and Care Setting, covering first aid relevant to children and care environments. It includes practical assessment; general first aid and CPR are also available as separate options.
HLTAID012: $245, one day in class with no pre-learning. Victorian venues include Melbourne CBD, Clayton and Dandenong; the booking calendar shows sessions. This provides first-aid training for care duties, not a childcare qualification.
Course and Victorian booking locations · checked 23 October 2026.
Direct employer and agency application routes, checked 17 October 2026.
Victoria, Tasmania and Sydney
This nanny agency explicitly discusses placements for Working Holiday visa subclasses 417 and 462. Its live-in programme describes three- to six-month placements, a private bedroom and two consecutive days off. Confirm availability and the individual contract through its registration process.
Placements across Australia
Live-in, live-out and after-school nanny recruitment, with a separate au-pair application. The agency considers family childcare experience as well as professional experience; screening includes references, first aid and child-safety checks.
Live-in placements across Australia
A structured six-month-or-longer programme with up to 35 hours of childcare a week, accommodation and meals. Standard entry requires 200 hours of childcare experience. This is a paid placement programme: its UK application fee is £995 (£195 initially, £800 after placement confirmation).
Give your dates, preferred live-in or live-out arrangement, childcare history and two contactable referees. Explain the ages of children you have cared for, whether you handled school runs and what you did without supervision.
Have a video call before accepting a live-in placement. Ask for a written weekly timetable, pay, accommodation terms and emergency contacts. Meet the children and understand any allergies or additional support needs.
Dream Nannies describes most of its nanny roles as around $35 an hour. This is the agency’s published guide, not a guaranteed rate for every family; it does not specify one loading or super arrangement for all placements.
Dream Nannies — roles and pay guide
AIFS publishes AUD $295–$330 a week for its Classic and Plus packages and $350–$385 for Platinum, alongside accommodation and meals. Placements involve up to 35 hours a week and at least 1.5 days off. These are programme allowance figures, not hourly nanny wages.
Classic requires 200 hours of childcare experience. Platinum requires a childcare qualification or one of its specified longer experience routes. The programme also advertises a $300 completion bonus and a week of paid time off.
AIFS — package amounts and eligibility
The UK AIFS programme costs £995 to join; flights and other travel costs are separate from the weekly package. Fees are not an employer wage deduction.
Figures checked 17 October 2026. Hourly nanny employment and a live-in programme are different offers: accommodation does not turn a weekly allowance into an equivalent hourly wage.
Placement Solutions working-holiday placements
Register with Placement Solutions
St John accredited first-aid courses
Sources checked 17 October 2026.
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