But life is good for an Irishman in Australia as long as the pay is regular and the pubs are open.

So say two Guinness-swilling shamrocks who have been part of a swarm of overseas workers helping to strip this season’s harvest because of a lack of domestic labour.

Just weeks ago, brothers Tomy and Paul Murphy travelled the 540 kilometres from St George, Queensland, to Bourke in northern NSW, which, as Paul explained, was a distance longer than the island of his birth itself.

But before sojourning to the Great Barrier Reef for Christmas to swim and enjoy a cold beverage – their newest acquired taste, XXXX Gold – they had to finish the job – Clyde Agriculture’s 5000ha of wheat at Bourke, NSW.

Tomy, 24, a bricklayer by trade, drove a tractor towing a bin while Paul, 21, a farmer back home, sat behind the wheel of the header.

“I’ve been working seven days a week,” Paul Murphy said.

The Land caught up with Paul while he was smoking a cigarette and drinking a can of Coke waiting for his tyre to be fixed.

He gladly boasted of rarely using the air-conditioner in his cab and could not wait to start the engine again so he could work through the night.

Ten Irishmen were working for Clyde at Bourke but the diverse workforce co-ordinated by contract harvester, John Makim, further south included a Moldovan, Ukranian, an Uzbekistani and an airline stewardess from Germany.