When Amy Byrne (29) left Co Wexford last year she didn’t see herself working on a pumpkin farm in Gatton, a rural town in the depths of Queensland. However, this type of regional work is something many young Irish people endure to extend their time in the land Down Under.
“The work was really hard,” says Byrne. “We started on a farm picking pumpkins ... It was honestly back-breaking. It came to a point where we were standing in a field about to cry, saying we can’t do this any more ... our backs were so sore, it was just horrible – we were in the blistering sun.”
Despite undesirable living and working conditions – and eventually finding work elsewhere – Byrne says doing the required three months of regional work to extend her working holiday visa for another year was worth it and a highlight of her experience in Australia, mostly due to the people she met. Byrne now lives in Melbourne and says the social lifestyle is what makes the city so liveable.
Figures released earlier this week by the Central Statistics Office showed a “strong outward flow” of people emigrating to Australia from the State last year. About 10,600 people moved to Australia from Ireland in the 12 months leading up to April 2024, an increase of 126 per cent from the year before, when 4,700 emigrated there. The figures represent the highest level of emigration to Australia since 2013, the CSO said. The figures include those travelling to Australia on the working holiday visa.
However, Byrne has plans to return to Ireland after she reaches her two-year mark abroad, saying the struggle to get a job in her line of work in Melbourne plays a big part in this decision.
“If I could get sponsored in a job that I really liked, that I feel I was getting career progression in, then I might have stayed an extra year or two. I feel like I’m at a stage where I want my career to progress, and I think that’s better off at home,” she says.
Byrne says life in Australia is expensive and she does not feel “any worse or better off on the money front”.
Helena O’Sullivan (25), a pharmacist from Co Kerry, says living in Melbourne is costly. “For the first two months I had to live off my savings as I struggled to secure a job. I don’t think the grass is that much greener on the other side,” she says, having been “taken aback by the cost of living here.”
O’Sullivan had a steady life in Ireland before leaving – a great job as a community pharmacist in Cork and reasonable rent, sharing a house with friends in Wilton – but she left in search of better social opportunities and to broaden her horizons.
“I knew my pharmacy degree didn’t transfer, but I thought it would be easy to land a job in a similar domain. I was wrong,” she says. “I only got one interview and that is the job I am currently working, but thankfully this also covers my regional work.
“I think the working holiday visa’s job limit of six months makes it very hard to even get an interview, as it is unattractive to potential employers. I am living pay cheque to pay cheque here, as I am earning less than I was getting at home and [paying] close to double the rent.”
Rents average about $1,200 (€737) a month for a room in a house or apartment in Melbourne.
I am a homebird, and my return is as predictable as that of the swallow
Finding accommodation in Melbourne was a challenge for O’Sullivan but she says the support from the Irish community and the generosity of fellow travellers made a significant difference. “The strong network among the Irish population in Australia has been instrumental in helping me feel supported and settled,” she says.
She sees herself moving back to Ireland at some point, but not any time soon.
“The social aspect is far superior here, with everyone making an effort to meet new people and expand their horizons, given that we’re mostly in the same boat,” she says. “There seems to be a wider range of social activities and clubs, with a focus on health and fitness. There is an abundance of parks, running routes and generally just more on offer here. Joining a running club has provided me with a strong sense of community and belonging. The GAA’s popularity, including social-only memberships, is a fantastic social outlet as there is no pressure to play.”
Despite living a busy, satisfied life in Melbourne full of trendy coffee and delicious food at every turn, she says “there is no place like Kenmare ... Frankly I couldn’t live on the other side of the world away from my family. It simply is too far. I am a homebird, and my return is as predictable as that of the swallow.”
Roisin O’Donovan (31), a speech pathologist from Cork, doesn’t see herself returning to Ireland any time soon after living in Australia for four years. O’Donovan moved to Melbourne in March 2020, just before borders closed and the Covid pandemic hit.
“I really had no choice but to stay here,” she says. “The first few years were tough but by the time travel restrictions had lifted, I had discovered the work opportunities available and how you could craft your work around your life, interests and career ambitions so easily.”
When O’Donovan started work as a community therapist in Melbourne, “my day would look so different ... It gave me the contrast to what it would be like to work in Ireland. It really helped me see both sides very clearly. From a work perspective, there’s so many jobs on offer – it’s so easy to find them ... There’s so many different work styles.
“Recently, I did a locum in the Northern Territory and it was one of the most fulfilling things I have done in Australia, both personally and professionally. And I still feel like there’s loads I can do, things I never dreamt of.”
O’Donovon says the lifestyle in Melbourne suits her a lot better, especially when it comes to renting, saying that while it is her biggest expense, “it can afford so much variability in terms of what you want from your surroundings, because you are living in the centre of everything, you have so much life on your doorstep and you can move to locations you feel most aligned to.”
She says that in Melbourne she doesn’t “feel the weight of a mortgage ... I think I would have had a very fixed life in Ireland, I feel very light [in Australia].
“The renting situation isn’t ideal, but it’s also not ideal in Ireland, but now I have a lot more agency in the life I want to live, the work I want to do – it’s very empowering, it’s very hopeful.”
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