Sydney is a great place, but distance from home is so hard
Athlone man Neil Henry has been based in Sydney since 2009. He said the last two years had been strange and difficult at times, and he is grateful that he got to visit Ireland a few times in 2018 and 2019, prior to the pandemic. He is married to Joyce and they have two children, Liam (4), and Aisling, who will celebrate her first birthday on December 30.
Tell us about your Athlone roots?
Amazingly I was born in Sydney, but moved home when I was only six months old. We lived in Beechville when we were younger and then moved to Bloomfield Drive where my Dad (Frank) and my sister (Lisa) still live with Lisa's husband Brian (Famous St Patrick's Terrace O'Connors/Dullys) and their three kids (Shauna, Cian and Gerard). My brother Paul passed away in Spain in 2017. His family all live in Spain after they left Australia in 2011, and we miss his wife Claudia and the three girls (Camille, Jasmine and Claire). My Dad grew up in Iona Park and there is a big extended family all spread out over Athlone and beyond. My Mum was from Belfast, and I have a huge family up there as well.
How did your move to Australia come about? What do you do there?
Because I was born here I always had the Australian passport, which made it a lot easier. I made a few attempts at moving here in my 20s but always got too homesick and ended up going home soon after. When I hit 30, all the way back in 2009, I decided to give it one last shot and here I am, 12 years later but not much wiser! I work in international transport and did over seven years with the global arm of Australia Post as their international commercial manager (financial and operational reporting) which allowed me to get home and to other hub locations like London, Hong Kong and Jordan quite often. I then moved to my current company, Toll Global Express, who are the biggest domestic transport business in Australia and are trying to expand their international footprint and rival Australia Post, DHL, and many others. The growth of online e-commerce has resulted in a growth of over 400% in import and export parcels movements alone over the last few years
What has 2021 been like for you?
Funnily enough, the year started off great here. We had a new baby girl and Sydney for the most part avoided the pandemic, but at the cost of closed borders. That all changed when the Delta variant landed in July, and we faced one of the hardest snap lockdowns that went on until October, when we hit the 80% vaccination rate. Working and schooling from home became the new normal and my son was considered a close contact after only a week of the lockdown, so my wife and baby went to the in-laws and I did 14 days with him, which started with Liam drawing over every piece of new furniture with a permanent marker that we can't get out to this day!
What are the best and worst things about living in Sydney?
Sydney is a great place to raise a family, and outdoor life is so much easier here with the weather. There is so much for the kids to do to keep them active and, for me, my local club sells beers for €1.50 during its happy hours! The tyranny of distance is the killer here. While it's only a day away, the cost and distance of travelling with a young family to get home is very hard on both the parents and kids, and that has really been driven home in the Covid world we live in. Also, while we were lucky(ish), the cost of buying a house or apartment here has increased to the level that anyone looking to come here and settle will face a huge mortgage if they ever decide to buy.
It's $1.2m, on average, for a small three bedroom house within 45 minutes of the city, while rents are through the roof. You would need two people working in most cases just to survive, but childcare here is subsidised which encourages people to go to work.
What are your plans for Christmas Day?
We are doing a full Irish breakfast with a few Irish and Australian friends, and then we will have a few other friends (from all over the world, as is always the case here) over for a Christmas BBQ in the garden. I will attempt some tradition by at least roasting some turkey and spuds – seafood BBQs are the big thing here at Christmas and there are traffic jams in and out of the fish markets on Christmas Eve.
What are some of the things you will miss most about Christmas in Ireland?
I love Christmas Eve, where all of our extended family meet up and share some drinks, and some songs once the drinks kick in. It's a melancholy day here at times when you think of all your close family sitting down together and you are on the other side of the world and Christmas day is all over due to the time difference.
What message would you like to send to family and friends reading this?
Just that we really miss them all, and if we had a wish it would be to bring the kids home and all have at least one Christmas together while they are still so young. However, we are keeping an eye on flights and hopefully Aisling will get to meet you all soon enough – Lucky Liam was home twice before he was 3!