Yes, there are a number of workarounds. You can use python or R for plotting, you can keep a single interactive session going and reload your source file in it, you can precompile Gadfly into Julia's global precompiled blob, etc, but the solutions take time and effort that significantly offset Julia's value proposition (for me, at least). If you haven't looked at Julia yet you might want to hold off for a while until they get it sorted out. It looks like it might happen in the next version, 0.4, which hopefully will support pre-compiled libraries.
I feel like a bit of a dick for complaining about hiccups in a beta version, but I really like Julia and I really don't want to see it go the Clojure route and simply accept several-second delays in oft-repeated tasks. Drake, I'm looking at you -- Make can build my entire C++ codebase in less time than it takes your "make-replacement" to launch! I love your features, but the stuck-in-molassas feeling I get when using your program was enough to scare me away.