Colleen Deere, 35, from Carlow, Ireland, moved to Australia after securing a working holiday visa and found her now-fiancee, Tom McParland, 39, while working on a vineyard
A woman has shared her story of how she moved to Australia after years of being a fan of TV show, Home and Away.
Colleen Deere, 35, originally from Carlow, Ireland, had a “really good job” in a bank in Kildare but was always curious about life overseas. She spent half a year saving up for the move and initially flew to Perth with a working holiday visa — a place she says she “fell in love with straight away”.
Colleen met her now-fiancée, Tom McParland, 39, while they were both working on a vineyard and living in the same hostel in Margaret River. The couple clicked instantly. Now they have been together for eight years, have Australian citizenship, and currently reside in Sydney with their one year old son, Cove.
She encouraged those contemplating living abroad to “go for it because if it doesn’t work out, it’s literally just a return flight back”. Mum-of-one Colleen, who is now a team leader at a recruitment agency, said: “I had a really good job at a bank back home, but to be honest Australia had interested me ever since I was really young and I had always really wanted to visit.
“Customers used to come into the bank and send dollars to their sons and daughters abroad and it always really interested me where they were and what they were doing.
“I finally made the decision to fly the nest and saved hard for about six months after booking the flight — I flew out to Perth with around 7,000 Australian dollars and I remember I just settled in really really quickly and fell in love with the place straight away.
“I was always interested in Australia — I think watching a lot of Home and Away episodes had something to do with it. When I finally made the decision and booked my flight in January 2015, I spent six months saving hard. I flew out in June with less than 10,000 Australian dollars. My family thought I might come back home, they thought I was a bit of a homebird.
“But I loved it there — I spent a year in Perth and then applied for my second year visa, moved down to a hostel and vineyard in Margaret River, and began working there. I arrived at the hostel and didn’t know anyone.
“I remember the first time I heard Tom’s scouse accent — he’s from Merseyside — and I knew I liked him straight away from day one. Within the first two weeks, we were sharing a dorm together — it made sense with the rent costs.
“You don’t earn much from regional work — it worked on a commission basis so you basically just picked grapes and put them into buckets. The faster you picked the gr apes and filled up your buckets, the more money you would earn.
“There were some weeks where I’d only be working a few hours each morning and would be earning about 400 to 500 Australian dollars a week and I think our rent at the hostel was around 180 Australian dollars a week. It was a really really good experience though.”
Tom had been grafting in the vineyards prior to Colleen’s arrival, wrapping up his obligated hours ahead of her. Nonetheless, he hung around in the hostel waiting for Colleen to wrap up her stint too.
With their grafting days behind them, the enterprising pair took off to Bali for a fortnight’s worth of celebration marking the end of their agricultural endeavours. Colleen said: “We then went back to Perth together — to be honest, at first, we didn’t really know where to go from there.
“It was tricky — with Tom hailing from England and myself from Ireland, figuring out how to navigate the visa restrictions was a puzzle. We hadn’t laid any firm plans, so we decided to wing it and see what options we could rustle up to remain down under.”
After a bit of time living communally in Perth, they saw greater potential in Sydney and opted for the move, sensing more prospects there. Securing roles, Colleen as an aspiring recruitment assistant and Tom in the building trade, they took a chance and hopped over to Sydney, which has been their home base for the past eight years.
The family of three lives in a two-bedroom apartment costing them $750 (£387.02) a week, including their one year old son Cove.
After receiving sponsorship from her employer, Colleen couldn’t contain her joy, commenting: “I was over the moon when they told me, because it meant I had a way to stay in Australia.”
Earning their citizenship in December 2023, Colleen and Tom have now embraced Australia as home, with little Cove gaining citizenship by birthright. According to Colleen: “We just absolutely love it here — the weather, the opportunities, the fact you meet people from all walks of life. It’s just amazing.”
The family has plans to relocate back to Perth after spending years in Sydney, Colleen revealed: “We’re moving back to Perth soon — after all our years and time spent in Sydney, we’re now at the stage where we’re a little bit older and ready to settle down more.”
Reflecting on their Sydney experience, she enthused about the city’s vibrancy during their younger years: “Sydney has been incredible and we had great times here, especially in our mid-20s when we went out lots and partied, we really experienced the Sydney lifestyle.”
However, the move to Perth comes with both an emotional and financial consideration: “But Perth is cheaper and we’re now at a different stage of our lives — we can rent a lovely four-bedroom house there for around $650 (£335.41) a week.”
She passionately advised expat hopefuls to jump at the opportunity, saying: “Have no regrets — if it doesn’t work out, or it’s not what you expected, it’s literally just a return flight back.”
Colleen concluded with words of encouragement for those yearning to explore new horizons: “I truly believe if you’ve always wanted to travel abroad or move to another country and you go for it, you’ve won no matter what.”
“You’ve either made the best decision of your life, or you’re now richer with knowledge and wisdom knowing that you have no regrets and you gave it a good crack — no ‘what ifs'”.