What's life like for Irish people who have moved to Western Australia in recent years? Is being Irish a benefit for professionals and entrepreneurs in Perth? Is it a family-friendly place? Do the high salaries and fast-track career pathways outweigh the challenges of working fly-in fly-out (FIFO) in the mining regions, where the attitude is "fit in or F-off"?
And will the thousands of Irish people who have moved to Western Australia in the past decade move back home, or stay put?
I spent last week in Perth meeting trying to find out. I was delighted to be invited to join Fiona Mayers and Killian Keating in studio to put these questions to a panel of Irish people who have made Western Australia home in recent times, for a special Irish radio programme on Heritage 107.3FM.
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About the panel:
Fiona Mayers moved to Australia from Cork in 2011, and was joined by Killian Keating in 2012. Fiona is a marketing manager for True Blue Migration Services, and Killian is a sound technician. They co-host ElectroFri on HFM 107.3 every Friday, an electro music show with an Irish twist, and are the Perth administrators of the Irish People Living in Australia Facebook page, a hugely successful social media community with 38,000 followers, which Killian started in 2012.
Vicki Buckley is a barrister, also from Cork, who moved to Perth with her family last year.
Ciaran Kelly is a chartered civil engineer from Dublin who has been working on a fly-in fly-out (FIFO)vcontract on Barrow Island in Western Australia for five years.
Yvonne McCarthy is a qualified chemist who now works as a FIFO health and safety officer. She arrived in Western Australia in 2013.
