“The snakes are bloody bad, there’s nothing poisonous in Ireland,” David Brown said of his first impressions of Australia.
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Mr Brown is one of more than 50 Irish backpackers working in the Narromine and Trangie districts during the summer.
Twenty-three-year-old Irish backpackers Mr Brown and his friend Kristopher Vance were working on a cotton farm at Narromine.
Part of their work included starting siphons and “making socks for people back home”.
The men explained they had come to Australia for more than just a holiday.
“There’s no work in Ireland,” Mr Vance said, adding that thousands of people were leaving Ireland each year in search of work.
Mr Brown said he was keen to enjoy “the Australian experience”.
The men worked on a dairy farm in Ireland but said they found Australian farming “different, bigger and dryer” and with “more intensive irrigation”.
When they were asked how they enjoyed the heat Mr Brown said he loved it but Mr Vance said “it’s a killer, summer’s hottest is 25 degrees in Ireland”.
“It was minus eight degrees when we left home and 43 degrees when we landed,” Mr Brown said.
“The Aussie people are good fairly similar to the Irish, only without the accent.”
Many areas in regional NSW seek backpackers for short-term jobs, especially during harvest time.
The work ranges from harvesting and fruit picking to bartending.