TikTok user Dearbhla O’Neill jetted off to Oz earlier this year.
TikTok user Dearbhla O’Neill jetted off to Oz earlier this year and while she’s enjoyed some of her time there, she admitted she was “struggling” to settle into life in Melbourne.
In a video posted last month, she explained that she travelled around the country before trying to find a job, staying in Sydney and Melbourne as well as travelling to Byron Bay, the Gold Coast, Noosa, and Brisbane.
She also sailed the Whitsundays and visited Magnetic Island and Cairns during her time Down Under.
The 23-year-old said that she planned to stay in Australia for at least a year, telling everyone back home that she’d be there “maybe forever”, but recently got on a plane back home after almost five months abroad.
In her opinion, “the feeling of excitement about going home” outweighed staying in Australia.
“Why am I going home? Because I want to. I know it doesn’t matter where you are in the world, like your happiness levels depends on what you make of it, or whatever. Do I think some factors out here are making me a wee bit more sad? Yes.
“Girl wants to go home and that’s what’s going to happen.”
Dearbhla told viewers that she found it difficult to find work in Melbourne and when she did get a job, she quit after just a few days because it caused her to have a panic attack.
“Living in Australia, I knew it would be hard to get a job. Didn’t realise how hard. I thought I’d get somewhere for maybe a couple of hours a week. Girl, I’m getting nothing,” she said.
“I did have a job for two and a half days, but I genuinely had a panic attack on my third day, which never happens to me. The job was like a charity sales role and if you know what that is… It’s a bit icky.
“Charity work is brilliant when it’s not forced down your throat, which I felt I was doing to people, and it caused me to have a panic attack.
“A lot of places still won’t hire you because of your working holiday visa, and therefore it’s just a bit s**t, really.”
She also felt unhappy in Australia because she missed her loved ones back in Ireland.
“Being out here is so far away from home… I love my family, I love my friends back home, I love my pets. Did I realise how much I would miss them, especially my family?
“I have missed my family. I’ve missed my house. I’ve missed just being able to walk into the living room and talk to someone whenever I wanted to. I can talk to my flatmate whenever she’s here, but it’s not the same as your family member.”
Now back at home, Dearbhla told the Daily Mail’s FEMAIL that she doesn’t want to put anyone off the idea of moving to Australia but offered her advice for prospective backpackers.
“I would never turn someone off coming to Australia, even though in the end it was not for me to live, it does not mean the next person couldn’t love it,” she said.
“I would probably recommend they travel a bit when they first arrive just in case they end up wanting to go home early at least they will have seen multiple parts of the country.”
