Now hiring Melbourne Full time or part time Ongoing, year round

A job where the city is your office and being sociable is your key performance indicator

Year round. Salary + entitlements, and a (mostly) predictable roster.

Same city, same meeting point, a lot of different people holding the umbrella.

January 2017

April 2018

January 2020

Our guide team.

March 2020

One of our final large-group tours. Post-COVID we renamed and capped groups at 12.

March 2026

Guide Simon leading a food tour.

Why this job is different

Four things guiding jobs almost never offer

We took our experience as tour guides and tried to improve on the biggest complaints of the job.

A roster you can plan your life around

You work the same days every week. Not a rotating pattern, not a text on Thursday night with work assignments for that weekend. The same days, written into your contract.

Hours move a little within those days, because we offer tours between 8:30am and 10pm (with the majority of tours operating between 11am and 6pm).

A fixed annual salary with room to grow

We’re looking to build a team who will build our business for years, not weeks. That means paying a fair wage and promising growth opportunities.

We’re a fast-growing company and hoping to hire folks who will grow into their next role within a year of starting.

Freedom to do the job the way you work best

We don’t believe in scripts, we would prefer to train you on the core skills of any tour host, then let you make the experience your own.

We would much rather you take your guests to your favourite cafe and introduce them to your favourite barista rather than go to a company-mandated stop.

A core part of our growth

This is a job for someone who becomes a fundamental part of the business, not a gun for hire. We’re looking for someone who is eager to jump in and help take Depot into its next phase.

For a successful applicant, that could look like attending future trade shows, managing our Reservations department, or leading expansion to current destinations.

The actual job

Don't call it tour guiding

Let’s be honest – calling this role “curator” rather than “tour guide” is a bit strange.

But we feel it best reflects the actual job. Think of leading a Depot Adventure in the same way you make dinner on a given night: You don’t reach for a recipe card, you open the fridge and consider what’s in front of you, what’s in season, who you’re cooking for, and compose something from that.

Knowing the ingredients is table stakes – in this metaphore, that’s knowing what Melbourne is all about.

The skill we’re hiring for is the ability to know which ingredient to reach for, in what order, for the occasion and group in front of you.





An Experiences Curator works the same way. Before it starts, you’ve read the booking. Who is in the group? Where they’re from? Are they a solo traveller who wants to disappear into the city, or a corporate team who need to warm up to each other first? A family? A group of retirees with a sharp sense of humour? What time of day is it? How’s the weather? What’s on in town this week?

How we work

Twelve people at a time, in somebody else's neighbourhood

Depot owns no venue and no vehicle. Every bar, distillery, market stall and kitchen on our experiences is independently owned, most of them owner-operated.

The introduction to the owner is the experience we’re delivering on. In the age of AI, knowing things about a city isn’t special. It’s trading on the relationships, genuine relationships that we have built over years, that leave lasting impressions on our guests. And we’re asking you to be a part of that experience.

That’s not something that can be delegated. We’ve learned that in our 10 years of operation.

Degraves Street. The trader is doing the talking, and the guide is the reason he is.

The week itself

A laneway in the rain, a bar courtyard at nine at night

The job changes every day. The only constant is that a group of strangers is depending on you to make it good.

What the week looks like

Full time or part time, and you tell us which

Same job, same rate, same standing in the team. What changes is how much of the week it takes up. Anything from about half time upwards works, so say what suits you and a roster gets built around it, including around school drop-offs, study, or anything else that is fixed in your life.

Hours Full time is 38 a week over five consecutive days. Part time is negotiable from about half time upwards.

Weekend As a tourism business, we require our team to work one weekend day every week, either Saturday or Sunday. In our interview process we work out which roster works and lock it into your schedule. There are no purely Monday to Friday rosters available.

Days off Consecutive, and the same days every week.

Overtime High season runs mid November to mid April and there are more departures than the roster covers. Extra tours are available to anyone who wants them, paid at overtime.

Split Roughly 75% on the street, 25% admin. Guest comms, reviews, social.



Admin can be done from home when it falls on a weekend.

Departures The Melbourne History Walking Tour, Night Bites, the Hidden Bar Tour, and private and corporate work. Start times run from 8:30am to 7pm depending on the day and the season.

Where this goes

A role that will grow with you

Depot is a small business, and we prefer all hands on deck to siloing off areas of responsibility. Bookkeepers, accountants and lawyers come in when they are needed. Everything else is the team.

So this is a role that helps keep the lights on. Answering customer phone calls and emails. The occasional social post. Tidying up around the office when it needs it.

Corporate and private work, reseller relationships, and the conversations that turn an enquiry into a booking.

Marketing

Four products, seven days a week, and a city that photographs itself. Somebody should be catching it.

Operations

Rostering, product design, trader relationships, and the things that make a tour run on time.

Accounts

Reconciliation, supplier invoices, and the reporting that tells us which departures actually pay.

The money

What it pays

Unusual for this work, and said plainly rather than discussed at the third interview.

$70,000

Base salary for a 38-hour week, plus 12% superannuation. Part time is the same rate, pro rata. Paid monthly.

Base, full time $70,000

Superannuation at 12% $8,400

Total package $78,400

Extra high season tours paid at overtime

The first ninety days

Nobody gets thrown at a group on day one

Training runs in stages, and you always know which one you are in.

Week one

Training week

Full time, paid, off the tools. The city, the products, the systems, and the standard you are working to.

Stage one

On tour with an experienced Curator

You lead sections while they hold the group, so you get to make mistakes with a safety net under you.

Stage two

Your own departures, with support on call

The tour is yours. Someone is reachable if you need them, and there is a proper debrief after each one.

Review

A formal sit-down on how it has gone, what you want next, and where the role goes from here.

Before you ask

The questions everybody has

Do I need tour guiding experience?

Do I need to have grown up in Melbourne?

What we look for is a unique perspective on the city. Someone who can speak competently not just about the great neighbourhoods, but about what to order at which restaurant, and who to talk to while they’re there.

You’re on your feet outdoors for several hours at a stretch, in whatever Melbourne is doing that day. Walking pace, not hiking. If that’s a question for you, raise it early and it gets talked through properly.

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📌 Experiences Curator (Melbourne)
🏢 Walks 101
📍 Melbourne