With Ireland's construction climate starting to look as overcast as the local weather, some young workers are shifting to a place where they've got good prospects of both a job and a suntan.

Wexford's Brenda Day has spent the past year working on the Hume Highway in southern New South Wales. She's among the vanguard of Irish construction industry workers who have been enticed to shift their career to Australia by the prospect of decent money and better weather.

Techstaff, a technical recruitment firm with local offices in Bray, says it is placing scores of experienced construction workers in jobs in Australia.

John Valente, a manager with Australia's largest construction firm, Leighton, is coming to Dublin in February to recruit up to 30 senior site professionals.

"We've focused on the UK in the past and basically we've decided it's time we tapped into the Irish market," said Mr Valente, speaking from his offices in Sydney.

"Ireland's had a lot of new infrastructure built in the last decade, so we're looking for people who've worked on those jobs."

Techstaff's Kerrill Thornhill says he expects those workers to enjoy a career shift as much as Brenda, a UCD civil engineering graduate.

She was on a year-long trip around the world when she ran out of money in Australia last December. Instead of following the well-trodden path of her compatriots by pulling pints or washing glasses in Sydney bars and restaurants, Brenda says that the strong Australian economy gave her the chance to test her engineering skills.

"It was Christmas, I was broke, and I was offered sponsorship," she says. Engineering contractor Leighton sponsored her for a four-year business visa. "It is a very good opportunity," says Brenda.

"The size of the job is unbelievable. Our contract is for 38km of road, and the entire project is worth 400 million Australian dollars (€240 million). I don't know any project in Ireland that size," she said.

As a graduate engineer working on drainage for the project, Brenda is paid a base salary of A$52,000 (€31,000). Site, project and living-away-from-home allowances bring the package up to about A$75,000 (€44,000) to A$80,000, (€47,000), she says. Not bad for a 23-year-old just out of university, and it's a small fortune in the small country city of Wagga Wagga.

Senior workers earn higher base salaries, although site allowances are only paid for remote jobs, or for work in less popular areas.

Thornhill says Australian salaries are comparable with those in Dublin, but are increasing more rapidly because of the shortage of experienced staff Down Under.

The wages certainly go further. Brenda pays A$100 a week to rent in Wagga, she says. She's just returned to Wexford for Christmas.

"The cost of living is so much more here than there," she says. "I've been home for a week, and the first time I went into the pub it was like, 'a pint is how much'?"

She says she's trying to convince her Irish colleagues to come over. "I've already been on to a couple of the guys who were in college. Two started work on our job last week, another guy is there at the minute, and there are two more coming out in the new year. I love it out there. I say: 'Go and do it - we're young, we've no ties'."

Mr Valente says that Leighton pays relocation costs of approximately $45,000 to shift a family of four from Europe to Australia. They'll do this for experienced workers only, he said. Graduates are expected to get to Australia under their own steam.

Techstaff's Kerrill Thornhill, who has just returned from a stint working in Australia, says the quality of life there is enticing workers as much as the prospect of decent money.

"Nearly everyone I speak to about working in Australia talks about how they're spending two to three hours a day on the M50, which is a parking lot. The chance to get away from that is becoming a real factor in their decisions."

Thornhill says that firms such as Leighton organise all the paperwork for four-year business visas.

Brenda Day never planned on spending more than a few months in Australia, but she now sounds sold on the place - for the next few years, at least.

"This job has another two years to run, and I'm definitely going to stay until the end of the job. After that they might have another job up in Byron Bay - and I wouldn't mind a year or two in Byron," she says.