An Irish woman says moving to Australia is the ‘best thing she has ever done’ but has warned those thinking of following in her footsteps that the idealised dream of Down Under as a ‘Peter Pan land’ does not always match the reality.
Shannon Sulliman, 27, quit a marketing job in Limerick to move to Perth with her partner in June last year after previously ‘falling in love’ with the city.
She has landed a full-time marketing job and is being sponsored for a longer residency than her current two-year visa but said it hadn’t come easy.
‘In Ireland, we’re sold this dream that we’re going to make so much money over here and that life is so easy,’ Ms Sulliman said.
‘I don’t know what land we were living in but we literally thought that we’d come out here and we’d be able to socialise as much as we want and still have savings and still travel. But you have to make more of a sacrifice to move over here.
‘People think it’s very easy when you move over here, everything will work out but it’s a lot harder than people think.’
Ms Sullivan told Yahoo News that Irish people have such a rose-coloured view of Australia they call it ‘Peter Pan’ land’ and expect to get a ‘magical wage doing an ordinary job’.
However, she found what she has been paid in Perth was only ‘a bit more’ than her wages in Ireland and what extra she was making was being easily wiped out by the higher prices in Australia.
Irish woman Shannon Sulliman, 27, says she had unrealistic expectations of what life would be like after moving to Australia (she is pictured enjoying an Acai bowl on the beach)
Before moving to Perth, Ms Sullivan said she expected to be using the city as a base to travel every two weeks.
However, she has found that unrealistic, especially as flights from the remote capital can cost up to $800 to go somewhere for the weekend.
Fortunately, she and her partner have still been able to enjoy camping trips and even travelled to Bali and the Maldives.
Ms Sullivan said she has had to make sacrifices to go on those trips and strict saving is one of them.
She said while eating out in Australia was comparable to Ireland, a night on the drink was more expensive than back home.
Last financial year 21,000 Irish citizens were granted two-year working holiday visas in Australia
Despite the reality not quite matching the idealised version of life in Australia, Ms Sullivan said she would tell people looking to move Down Under to ‘just do it’.
‘If you are moving out, just be open-minded. When you come out first, it’s the most stressful that it will be but after that everything falls into place,’ she said.
It seems the lure of Australia is still bright for many Irish travellers seeking to live abroad for substantial periods.
Last financial year, 21,000 Irish citizens were granted two-year working holiday visas in Australia, which was a 16-year high.
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