An Irish woman says moving to Australia is “the best thing she’s ever done” but warns those thinking of following in her footsteps that the idealised dream of Down Under as a “Peter Pan land” doesn’t always match up to reality.
Shannon Sulliman, 27, left 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 she said it hasn’t been easy.
“In Ireland we are sold the dream that we are going to make a lot of money here and that life is very easy,” Sulliman said.
‘I don’t know what land we lived in, but we literally thought we would come here and we could socialize as much as we wanted, have savings and travel. But you have to make a bigger sacrifice to move here.
“People think it’s very easy to come here, that everything will work out, but it’s much harder than they think.”
Mrs. Sullivan said Yahoo News that the Irish have such an optimistic view of Australia that they call it “Peter Pan lands and hopes to earn a “magic salary doing a normal job.”
However, he found that what he was paid in Perth was only “a little more” than his salary in Ireland and the extra money he earned was easily wiped out by higher prices in Australia.
Shannon Sulliman, a 27-year-old from Ireland, says she had unrealistic expectations of what her life would be like after moving to Australia (pictured enjoying an açai bowl on the beach)
Before moving to Perth, Ms Sullivan said she hoped to use the city as a base to travel every two weeks.
But he finds this unrealistic, especially since flights from the remote capital can cost up to $800 to get somewhere over the weekend.
Fortunately, she and her partner have still been able to enjoy camping trips and have even traveled to Bali and the Maldives.
Ms. Sullivan said she has had to make sacrifices to be able to make those trips, and strict savings is one of them.
He said that while eating out in Australia was comparable to going to Ireland, a night out drinking was more expensive than at home.
Last year, 21,000 Irish citizens were granted two-year working holiday visas to Australia.
Even though reality doesn’t exactly match the idealised version of life in Australia, Ms Sullivan said she would tell people who want to move Down Under to “just do it”.
“If you’re moving, just keep an open mind. When you first move out, it’s going to be the most stressful thing you can ever feel, but then everything will fall into place,” she said.
It seems Australia’s appeal remains bright for many Irish travellers looking to live abroad for extended periods.
Last financial year, 21,000 Irish citizens were granted two-year working holiday visas in Australia, which was the highest level in 16 years.
