Moving to Australia from Ireland? Here’s the Money Checklist I Wish I’d Had

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In partnership with CurrencyFair. This article is sponsored: the note at the end explains how.

I landed in Perth in 2013 with €3,000, a one-way ticket and no plan beyond “find a job and a room”. The €3,000 lasted about five weeks. Thirteen years and a few hundred thousand group members later, the questions in the Irish Around Oz groups haven’t changed much: how much do I need, how do I get it over there, and what do I sort before I fly?

This is the checklist I’d hand my younger self. It covers the visa and flight money you need up front, a realistic landing fund for 2026, the Australian accounts you can open from your kitchen table in Ireland, and how to move the money without a bank quietly taking 4 to 6% of it.

1. The up-front costs before you ever leave Ireland

These are the bills that land before you earn a cent in Australia. Figures are correct at the time of writing (October 2026) and in Australian dollars unless stated. Check the Department of Home Affairs site for the current visa charge before you apply, because it tends to creep up every July.

Item	Rough cost	Notes
Working Holiday visa (subclass 417)	About AUD 670	Paid online at application. Irish citizens aged 18 to 35 are eligible.
Flights, one way	€900 to €1,800	Cheaper in February to May and August to November. Avoid landing in the two weeks before Christmas if you’re job hunting.
Travel insurance	€300 to €600 for a year	Irish citizens get reciprocal Medicare for essential care, but it doesn’t cover ambulances, dental or flying you home. Get a policy.
Police certificate, medical, documents	€0 to €300	Only if requested by Home Affairs. Most Irish applicants on a 417 aren’t asked.
Proof of funds	AUD 5,000	This is the official figure you may be asked to show at the border, on top of a ticket out of the country. In practice very few Irish arrivals get asked, but have a recent bank statement in your email just in case.

Add it up and you’re looking at around €2,000 to €3,000 before the plane leaves the ground, on top of whatever you bring to live on.

2. How much to actually land with in 2026

The AUD 5,000 proof-of-funds figure is a visa requirement, not a budget. Rents have moved a long way since it was set (our cost of living guide has the full breakdown). In the Sydney and Melbourne groups the going rate for a room in a shared house is AUD 300 to 450 a week, with a bond of four weeks up front and two weeks’ rent in advance. That’s AUD 2,000 or more gone before you’ve bought a kettle.

Here’s the landing budget I give people now, assuming you want four to six weeks to find work without panic:

Cost in your first six weeks	Sydney / Melbourne	Perth / Brisbane / Adelaide
Hostel for the first 1 to 2 weeks	AUD 700 to 1,200	AUD 500 to 900
Room bond plus rent in advance	AUD 1,800 to 2,700	AUD 1,200 to 1,800
Food, transport, phone, SIM	AUD 1,500 to 2,000	AUD 1,200 to 1,600
Work gear (White Card, RSA, boots, uniform)	AUD 200 to 400	AUD 200 to 400
Buffer for the unexpected	AUD 1,000	AUD 1,000
Total	AUD 5,200 to 7,300	AUD 4,100 to 5,700

In euro, that’s roughly €3,000 to €4,500 to live on, plus the €2,000 to €3,000 of up-front costs above. So a realistic target is €7,000 to €9,000 saved for a big city, or a little less for Perth, Brisbane or Adelaide. You can do it on less, plenty do, but you’ll be taking the first job offered rather than the right one.

One honest note on the “hidden burn”: the thing that catches people is not rent, it’s the first fortnight. Hostel, eating out because you’ve no kitchen, Ubers because you don’t know the buses, a new phone plan, a night out to meet people. Budget AUD 150 a day for those first ten days and you won’t be far off.

3. Set up your Australian bank account from Ireland

This is the one thing most people don’t realise they can do early. The big four Australian banks (Commonwealth, NAB, Westpac and ANZ) all let you open an account online from overseas up to 12 months before you arrive. You get the account number and BSB straight away, so you can transfer your savings over before you fly and it’s sitting there waiting when you land.

1. Apply online 2 to 6 weeks before you leave. You’ll need your passport, your intended arrival date and an Australian address. A hostel address is fine.
2. Transfer your money in before you fly. Most people move half their savings before departure and the rest once they’ve settled, so they’re not exposed to one bad exchange rate on the whole lot.
3. Verify your ID in a branch when you land. Bring your passport. You usually can’t withdraw until this is done, so do it in your first day or two.
4. Apply for your Tax File Number (TFN) once you’re in the country. It’s free, takes five minutes on the ATO website, and you’ll need it to get paid properly. Don’t pay anyone to do this for you.
5. Keep your Irish account open. You’ll want it for sending money home later, for anything still direct-debiting in Ireland, and for the day you move back.

A tip from the groups: bring a debit card with no foreign transaction fees for the first week while your Australian card is in the post, but don’t rely on it as your main account. Employers want an Australian BSB and account number for wages.

4. Moving your savings over without losing 5% of them

This is where I lost money in 2013 and it’s still the most common mistake I see. I sent €3,000 from my Irish bank to my new Commonwealth account. It took four days and cost me over AUD 150 between the sending fee, the receiving fee and the exchange rate. The rate is the killer: a bank sets its own rate 4 to 6% worse than the real one, and that difference never shows up as a “fee” on your statement.

On €8,000 of savings, 5% is €400. That’s two weeks’ rent in Sydney, gone for nothing.

The fix is to use a specialist money transfer service instead of a bank. They exchange at a rate close to the real mid-market rate and charge a small, visible fee. I’ve used CurrencyFair since a mate put me onto it a few weeks after I landed, and it’s still what I recommend first in the groups for a few reasons:

• It’s Irish. Founded in Dublin, regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland. Your money is held separately from the company’s own funds.
• The fee is flat and visible. You see the exact rate and the exact amount landing in Australia before you confirm. No surprises three days later.
• Irish Around Oz readers get their first ten transfers free through this link. For most people that covers the move over, the first year of sending money home, and change.
• It works in both directions, so the same account does your savings going over now and your wages coming home later. That’s article two in this series.

How to do your first transfer

1. Open a free CurrencyFair account online. It takes a few minutes with your passport and proof of address.
2. Add your new Australian account as the recipient (BSB and account number from step 3 above).
3. Send euro from your Irish bank to CurrencyFair by normal bank transfer.
4. Check the rate and the exact amount you’ll receive, confirm, and the Australian dollars land in your account, usually within one working day.

Compare the quote with your own bank’s once, just so you see the gap. You won’t go back.

Get 10 free transfers with CurrencyFair →

5. The rest of the money checklist

	Tell your Irish bank you’re travelling so your card isn’t blocked on day one.
	Set up online banking and two-factor on a phone number that will still work. Irish banks love texting codes to a number you no longer have.
	Check your Irish direct debits. Gym, phone, subscriptions. Cancel what you don’t need before they quietly drain the account you’ve just emptied.
	Student loan or credit union repayments? Decide now how you’ll pay them from Australia. CurrencyFair can send euro home on a schedule.
	Get a White Card (construction) or RSA (bar work) booked for your first week. AUD 60 to 150 each, and most construction and hospitality jobs won’t start you without them.
	Know your tax position. Working holiday makers pay 15% on the first AUD 45,000. Your employer also pays superannuation on top of your wage, currently 12%, which you can claim back when you leave for good.
	Screenshot your proof of funds (a bank statement from the last week) and keep it in your email for the border.
	Bring AUD 200 to 300 in cash for the airport-to-hostel run. Not more. Australia is tap-and-go, and cash is still accepted everywhere that matters.

What I’d do differently

If I were landing in 2026 instead of 2013, I’d have the bank account open before I left, the money transferred through CurrencyFair at a rate I could see, and about €8,000 behind me instead of €3,000. I’d still have ended up in the same share house in Scarborough with the same three lads from Mayo, but I’d have got there with a lot less stress.

If you’ve a question about any of this, the Irish Around Oz Facebook groups have a few hundred thousand people who’ve done it before you. Ask away.

Next in this series: Sending money home from Australia. How to beat the bank fees on wages, savings and mortgage payments going back to Ireland.

This article is sponsored by CurrencyFair. The links to CurrencyFair in this article are tracking links. They cost you nothing and get you ten free transfers that you wouldn’t get going direct. I’ve used CurrencyFair personally since 2013 and only recommend services I’d use myself. Visa charges, proof-of-funds figures, tax rates and superannuation rates are correct at October 2026 and come from the Department of Home Affairs and the Australian Taxation Office. Check them before you rely on them.

Ah go on, give it a share!