Australia?

great experience, much preferred by time in nz and Vanuatu though, wouldnt be believing everything on the ould unsociable media though!

would second NZ over Oz. It's utterly amazing. Try get a campervan and drive it

People over there a lot like the Irish, and not as up their own arse like aussies

Just like in Braveheart, "The trouble with Australia is Australians"

just my own experiences that I found them, in general, quite arrogant. Lovely country all the same, absolutely HUGE and some amazing places

Overall, if I had to go and live somewhere it would be in NZ any day of the week

Lived there for 6 years, got there after the crash, spent most of my time on the west coast in perth and traveled all the way up to darwin, in hind sight i wish i had went to the east coast first, but i have great memories of the place. Perth was going through a boom when i was there so there were lot of opportunities for work at the time, settled in there pretty quickly. Salary there was probably 40% increase to what i was on at home straight away, and i went in fresh enough.

The weather, social life and place is amazing, you can have an amazing life there, but it was too far away from home for me, and if i had of settled there it would have been hard to go back home. I moved to the middle east which i find more manageable to get back home. There are pros and cons with everything, go for a year if you still have the option but you'll find the year goes in pretty quickly.

I found the aussies fine especially there ones i worked with, very welcoming, they like a beer, but its the same as everywhere, you go out on a Saturday night you will meet pissed up messes in any city.

Went to New Zealand for 2 weeks, its an awesome place.

Australia is great as long as you aren't turkish or asian, they really don't like them.

depends on how sensitive you are, i was called paddy and Mick ect for the year but to me that was banter so i'd say no but others might find it offensive

well it was Sydney and Brisbane but maybe it was just my experience

Vanuatu- sounds amazing. Always wanted to go there.

Everyone's Australian experience is going be different and their opinion and their overall mindset are going to be influenced by that experience.

There is going be Pros and Cons, but acceptance that different is not always negative is the key to success.

I been living in Sydney about 17 years, back in 2005 at 28 unbeknown to me it was absolutely the best single decision I made in my life was get on that plane and not look back. From a financial, career and quality of life I would never ever have had in Ireland. I had spent 3 months solo travel in Asia travelling Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia & Singapore and arrived in Sydney knowing no one on a working holiday. Ended up in a share house in Randwick for few months with a few Irish lads and worked the usual construction until I decided to get permanent job in my field, few of us who had decided to make a go of it and stay for the craic moved to the inner-west was there 3-4 years before I moved out on my own. I had only planned to stay few years but all this was before the Tiger went bust so I was kind of lucky I was where I was and fate played its hand unexpectedly.

Now my experience is probably going be a bit different from most, I have been extremely lucky in a couple of ways.. first for the last 14 years I been working as a Technical Specialist all over NSW & ACT which is about the same size as France & Germany combined about 50% of my work is metro around the city but some regional areas is 2-3 hrs drive any further and it was FIFO, drive to the Airport jump on a QL Turbo Prop and fly all over the state usually come back same day or stay over fly back the next morning every day is potentially an adventure and I have never grew tired of it. I still get a buzz when I hit the road on a perfect blue sky day and I also occasionally support other countries in Asia pacific, training and doing installs in Japan, China, NZ and some of the Pac Islands. Secondly I have been extremely lucky buying and selling property in the right place at the right time in short I moved to an area in 2010 and 4 years later the government built a underground metro station 100m from my house I sold for a good profit and the next house I bought lol was rezoned few years later from R2 to R4 more than doubled the value overnight and allowed me to buy a house in another area nearly outright. This has given me and my family huge financial security we live in a great area 4BR house with a pool and my wife is stay at home mum, kids go to private school we have a great lifestyle I also took up learning to fly. Luckily I have a good family support as my in-laws live 10 mins away, this is kind of essential as it would be very difficult without family.

I love the outdoors lifestyle mainly into Jetskiing, 4WD & fossicking, my inlaws have a holiday house up the coast near Ettalong NSW its just over an hours drive drive from my house so its easy to nip up on a Friday night for few days and we usually have the place to ourselves otherwise my mate has a class caravan he lends me for a week and I lend him my Jetski in return. Fingal Bay, Werri Beach and Jervis Bay amongst my usual long weekend getaways. Gold Coast has all the theme parks etc and its about 9 hr drive for me.

The Aussies are grand, sure you get a few dickheads like you everywhere else but I have never had any real problem. Personally the biggest issue I find is my accent especially pronouncing certain numbers some people always confuse 2,3 & 8 but I never felt found any issue with being Irish even in the rural areas never really had any problem. Bear in mind about 49% of Aussies were either born overseas or had at least one parent born overseas so they are used to different people but I can understand that some people take a joke the wrong way then again I can come across as a fairly confident type so maybe they don't bother with me, I'm not like some of these thin skinned princesses who get all upset because they cop a bit of stick.

Many Irish people in Sydney fall into the trap of of sticking to much with their own, but with that comes a lot of negativity especially around drink and the value of their time. Working 6 days a week then going out on the piss all weekend it not healthy.

Paul Kilroy has an excellent Podcast on getting the most out of life down under. His advice don't follow the crowd to find your best self.

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-irish-life-down-under-podcast/id1497479414