Travel Insurance for Australia: What Ireland’s Health Deal Won’t Cover

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Updated October 2026.

Flying home for Christmas? Our Christmas in Australia guide has the 2026 posting dates, routes home and which insurer suits you.

Do you need travel insurance for a working holiday in Australia? Yes. Ireland has a health agreement with Australia, but it covers a lot less than most people think: no GP visits, no ambulances, and no flight home if something goes badly wrong. Here’s what it actually covers, what can catch you out, and the insurance I’ve used myself in Australia, Canada and Europe.

It also covers family coming out on holiday, and what to buy once you live here and you’re flying home. Jump to: visiting on holiday | living here and flying home | FAQs

What Ireland’s health agreement with Australia actually covers

Ireland has a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement (RHCA) with Australia. If you were living in Ireland before you arrived, it covers you from the day you land until your visa ends. You don’t need to enrol in Medicare or get a card. You just show your Irish passport at a public hospital or pharmacy and ask to be treated under the agreement.

Covered	Not covered
Medically necessary treatment as a public patient in a public hospital, both inpatient and outpatient	GP and doctor visits outside hospital
Some prescription medicines at the general PBS rate	Ambulances
	Private hospitals, dental and physio
	Getting you home to Ireland if you’re seriously ill or injured
	Anyone on a student visa (it doesn’t apply at all)

Source: Services Australia, visiting from Ireland. More detail in does Medicare cover Irish people in Australia?

So if you get a chest infection and need a GP, you pay. If you’re taken to hospital by ambulance after a night out or an accident on a farm, you pay for that too: in NSW, an emergency ambulance for an overseas visitor costs A$948 plus A$8.56 per kilometre (NSW Ambulance, from 1 July 2026). And if you need to be flown home, Smartraveller warns that medical evacuations often cost thousands of dollars and aren’t covered by health agreements. That’s the gap travel insurance fills.

Is travel insurance the same as health insurance?

No. Travel insurance covers a trip: emergency medical costs, getting you home, and usually lost bags and delayed flights. Health insurance for visitors, such as Overseas Visitors Health Cover (OVHC) or Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC), is ongoing cover for treatment while you live in Australia. Which one you need depends on your visa:

• Working holiday visa: Home Affairs strongly recommends health insurance but doesn’t require it.
• Student visa: you must hold OSHC for your whole stay (Home Affairs).
• Some other visas carry condition 8501: you must keep adequate health insurance while you’re in Australia. The Skills in Demand (subclass 482) work visa, for example, makes it a visa condition. Check your cover against Home Affairs’ adequate health insurance page before relying on travel insurance alone.

Why True Traveller is my pick

I’ve used True Traveller in Australia, Canada and around Europe. It’s a specialist policy for long trips and working holidays, and it ticks the boxes that matter for Irish people heading to Oz:

• For Irish residents. It insures residents of the UK and Europe, including Ireland.
• You can buy it after you’ve left. Forgot to sort it before you flew? You can still buy it once you’re in Australia, as long as nothing has already happened that you’d need to claim for. For the first 48 hours there’s no medical cover except a serious accident an independent witness can confirm, and no baggage cover.
• Long trips are covered. Policies run up to 18 months, or up to 2 years on worldwide cover including the USA and Canada. The 2-year option is for under-36s, and from age 50 the maximum is 366 days.
• Work is covered. Bar, restaurant, office, au pair and childminding work are covered as standard. Farm work, fruit picking and light building work are covered when you add the Adventure Pack, which matters if you’re doing your regional work.
• Adventure activities are included. 92 activities come as standard, including surfing, scuba diving to 18 metres, bungee jumping and trekking to 3,000 metres, with packs for more extreme stuff.
• Proper medical cover. €10 million of medical and repatriation cover is standard for European residents, including getting you home if it’s medically necessary. Ambulances are covered too.
• Three levels of cover. True Value (designed for travellers under 40 and backpackers), Traveller (the most popular) and Traveller Plus for enhanced medical and cancellation cover.

Check True Traveller prices

Doing farm work or construction? Read this first

This is the one that catches people out. Most travel insurance policies exclude manual work unless you add it. If you’re doing your 88 days on a farm, picking fruit or labouring on a site, check your policy covers it before you start. With True Traveller that means adding the Adventure Pack. Even then, it won’t cover work involving plant, trade or industrial machinery, non-domestic power tools, or heights over 2 metres, so read the work section of the policy wording. Driving a tractor is fine if you hold the right licence.

If you’re injured at work, your employer’s workers compensation may also apply. But don’t rely on that alone, especially for cash-in-hand or short-term farm jobs.

What to look for in a working holiday policy

• Medical limit. The big one. A serious accident or illness is where the real bills are.
• Medical repatriation. It should pay to fly you home to Ireland with medical help if a doctor says you need it.
• Work cover. Which jobs are covered as standard, and does manual work need an add-on?
• Adventure activities. Surfing, diving and skydiving can sit in different packs, with depth and height limits.
• Excess. What you pay towards each claim. A higher excess usually means a cheaper premium.
• Pre-existing conditions. Declare everything. Some are covered automatically, others only if the insurer accepts them.
• Maximum trip length. One policy should cover your whole visa, and you should be able to extend it from Australia.
• Buying after you’ve left home. Some insurers allow it, usually with a waiting period.
• Theft and gadget limits. Baggage cover can be optional, and phones and laptops often have a per-item limit.
• Side trips. Planning Bali? True Traveller’s Australia & New Zealand cover allows 7 days in other countries on policies of 2 months or more (14 days on 6 months or more). Travelling further? Pick worldwide.

How long can a policy last?

A first working holiday visa lets you stay 12 months, and 3 months of specified work lets you apply for a second. Your insurance needs to keep up.

• A full year is no problem. True Traveller policies run from 2 days up to 18 months, and one longer policy works out cheaper per day than two short ones.
• Extend before it runs out. True Traveller lets you extend without going home, at the normal price for the new period less 10% (if the new period is no longer than your current policy). It can’t extend a policy that has already expired.

Watch out for annual multi-trip policies. They cap how long each trip can be. Bank of Ireland’s Holiday Travel Insurance limits any one trip to 31 days, and AA Ireland allows 31, 45 or 60 days depending on the level. A working holiday blows past all of those, so you need a single-trip or backpacker policy for the full stay.

Visiting Australia on holiday from Ireland

Parents coming out for Christmas, or a few weeks touring the east coast? The same health agreement covers you, with the same gaps.

• It covers visitors. Services Australia says it applies if you were living in Ireland before you arrived, from the day you arrive until your visa expires. A normal holiday is covered start to finish.
• It’s public hospital care only. No GP visits, ambulances, private hospitals or flight home. It also doesn’t apply if you travel to Australia for medical treatment.
• The visa doesn’t require insurance. Irish passport holders can visit on the free eVisitor (subclass 651), staying up to 3 months each time. Home Affairs recommends health insurance and says visitors are personally liable for all their healthcare costs.

Travel insurance fills the gaps. True Traveller sells single-trip cover to Irish residents for anything from a short holiday to a year or more. For older travellers:

• Age limits. True Traveller covers single trips up to age 75, or 65 if you buy once you’re already travelling. Go Insurance’s inbound policy for visitors is for people aged 75 or under, unless Go agrees otherwise before issuing it.
• Declare medical conditions when you buy. Both insurers only cover conditions they include automatically or have accepted.
• Arrived without cover? Go Insurance’s inbound policy can be bought in Australia, with a 72-hour waiting period and a confirmed return ticket home.

Living in Australia and flying home to Ireland

Once you’ve moved here, the rules flip. Irish travel insurance is built for people who live in Ireland. Bank of Ireland’s policy, for example, requires everyone insured to be “permanently resident in Ireland for a minimum of 180 days per calendar year”. Two years into life in Sydney, that’s probably not you, and a claim could be refused.

Your Irish passport doesn’t guarantee free public healthcare at home either: Citizens Information says entitlement is based on being ordinarily resident in Ireland, regardless of nationality. And the health agreement only works in Ireland if you have a valid Medicare card (Services Australia), which Irish people here under the agreement don’t get.

The answer is an Australian policy. Go Insurance covers people who live in Australia, not just citizens. Its policy wording says non-permanent residents are eligible if they have lived in Australia for at least 3 months before buying, hold a valid visa, are 75 or under, and will be overseas for no more than 18 months.

• Coming back? The policy must end on the date you return to Australia.
• Moving home for good? Buy a one-way policy that ends when you land.
• Buy it before you leave. Once you’re overseas, Go also needs you to have a permanent address in Australia, access to long-term medical care here (the health agreement doesn’t count) and a ticket back, and there’s a 48-hour waiting period.
• Go home every year? Go’s annual multi-trip policy covers trips of up to 31 days each, or 50 or 60 days if you choose that when you buy.

No need to hunt for an insurance shop near you in Sydney: Go sells online and over the phone. Still sorting flights? See our guide to return flight deals from Australia to Ireland, and if you’re heading home for good, our returning to Ireland guide.

Other options worth knowing about

• Go Insurance is an Australian insurer with policies for visitors and people living in Australia for a while, plus the outbound cover above for trips home. It excludes manual work unless Go agrees first, so it isn’t one for farm work. Irish Around Oz readers get 10% off.
• SafetyWing is nomad insurance for long-term travellers, paid every four weeks, and you can cancel any time. It suits people moving between countries, but check its work cover carefully if you’re doing manual jobs.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Relying on an Irish annual travel policy. They cap each trip, often at 31 days, so they won’t cover a working holiday.
• Thinking the health agreement is enough. As above, it doesn’t cover GPs, ambulances or getting you home.
• Not declaring work. If you claim for an injury at work and your policy doesn’t cover that kind of work, the claim can be refused.
• Letting it lapse. If you extend your stay or get a second visa, extend your insurance before it runs out. True Traveller and Go Insurance both say they can’t extend an expired policy.
• Skipping it on a student visa. Student visa holders must have Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) as a visa condition, and the health agreement doesn’t apply to them at all.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best travel insurance for a working holiday visa in Australia?

No policy is best for everyone, but my pick for Irish working holiday makers is True Traveller: up to 18 months, bar and restaurant work covered as standard, farm work with the Adventure Pack, and you can buy it after you’ve left.

Is travel insurance mandatory for a working holiday visa?

It isn’t a visa requirement, but it’s strongly recommended. Ireland’s health agreement only covers public hospital care, not GP visits, ambulances or getting you home.

Do I need to enrol in Medicare as an Irish citizen?

No. Under the agreement you don’t enrol and you don’t get a Medicare card. You show your Irish passport at a public hospital or pharmacy and ask to be treated under the Reciprocal Health Care Agreement.

Does the health agreement cover me if I’m visiting Australia on holiday?

Yes, if you were living in Ireland before you arrived. It covers public hospital care until your visa expires, but not GP visits, ambulances or a flight home.

Does Irish travel insurance cover me in Australia?

A single-trip or backpacker policy can, if you live in Ireland and it covers the whole trip. Annual multi-trip policies cap each trip, and once you live in Australia, Irish policies may not cover you at all.

Can I get travel insurance for a year in Australia?

Yes. True Traveller policies run up to 18 months, and you can extend from Australia before your policy ends.

Can I buy travel insurance after I’ve arrived in Australia?

Yes, with some insurers. True Traveller lets you buy after leaving home, as long as nothing has already happened that you’d need to claim for. Cover is limited for the first 48 hours.

I live in Australia: can I get travel insurance to go home to Ireland?

Yes. Go Insurance covers non-permanent residents who have lived in Australia for at least 3 months and hold a valid visa. Buy it before you leave.

Does travel insurance cover farm work?

Only if your policy includes manual work. With True Traveller you add the Adventure Pack to cover farm work, fruit picking and light construction.

Is an ambulance free in Australia?

Not for visitors. Ambulances aren’t covered by Ireland’s health agreement. In NSW, an emergency ambulance for an overseas visitor costs A$948 plus A$8.56 per kilometre, and other states set their own fees.

More for your move: how to apply for a working holiday visa, the complete guide to moving to Australia, the cheapest way to transfer money, the tax refund guide and our guide to the Irish in Sydney.

This guide is general information, checked against Services Australia, Home Affairs and the insurers’ own websites in October 2026. Always read the policy wording before you buy. Some links are affiliate links, which means Irish Around Oz may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

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