It led to a career in the golden age of air travel [\u201cI\u2019d go to Darwin for lunch and Singapore for dinner\u201d] and eventually to a successful travel business founded \u201cby accident\u201d.<\/p>\n
Four decades later, she returned to Northern Ireland in her 60s for what was meant to be a short stay. Now in her 80s and speaking from her home Portstewart, Co Derry<\/a>, Rae still dreams of Melbourne<\/a> sunshine. <\/p>\n Rae left her childhood home in Pomeroy at the height of the Troubles, as the era of shillings came to an end and at a time when she was the only woman in her college law class.<\/p>\n With a desire to escape a divisive society, she decided not to take up the option of living in apartheid South Africa, where her brother was ordained a priest. <\/p>\n Rae grew up hearing stories from her father, who worked as a horserider in Australia as a young man. \u201cIt was a big thing going to Australia \u2013 there was no sectarianism, so I\u2019d be making friends and not needing to know things like what school they were in.\u201d <\/p>\n She initially went to Australia for a short time on \u201ca jaunt\u201d with her sister. Rae thought she\u2019d have a little holiday before resuming her law studies over there. <\/p>\n But in the pre-internet age she was unable to check details and got the academic dates wrong, arriving in May for an academic year which began in February. <\/p>\n It was chaos, the only thing I knew how to sell was Canada, and at that stage people were going to Thailand and Vietnam<\/p>\n Rae soon ran out of money and had to get a job. \u201cSomeone had said to us if you join an airline you can go home [to Northern Ireland] cheaply.\u201d Rae joined local domestic airline Ansett Airways.<\/p>\n She later worked in Canadian Airlines\u2019 Melbourne office, \u201clike a modern-day call centre\u201d. \u201cI\u2019d go home [to Northern Ireland] for three or four days. It used to take my Daddy six weeks to come home by ship.\u201d She organised holidays to Canada, working alongside a woman from Hong Kong. \u201cNone of us had been, so we sold it from the brochures.\u201d<\/p>\n She soon found the travel locum company that would sustain her for the next four decades. \u201cI started my own business by accident,\u201d says Rae, who had taken a break from the airline industry for cancer treatment and later to study psychology and business.<\/p>\n One day, a travel agent called her to help cover sick leave at their business. \u201cIt was chaos, the only thing I knew how to sell was Canada, and at that stage people were going to Thailand and Vietnam.\u201d <\/p>\n But out of this chaos she spotted an opportunity in an industry full of small owner-operators. \u201cIt was a nice little niche discovered by accident,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The business had its hiccups, including taking four years to convince the phone company that she was not a locum doctor. \u201cI had a list of doctors by my bed\u201d she said of the many 3am emergency phone calls.<\/p>\n Rae also survived an economic crash which forced her to break a contract on an unaffordable office. \u201cI was very nervous about losing my phone number,\u201d she says, \u201cso we drew a circle around the telephone exchange and found a building we could afford.\u201d She would have to \u201ckick needles off the doorstep\u201d of the building she bought. But Melbourne\u2019s declining core underwent a large-scale urban renewal plan from the mid-1980s. \u201cIt turned out to be a good investment,\u201d says Rae.<\/p>\n Technology moved rapidly in the intervening decades, so when Rae returned almost 20 years ago to post-Belfast Agreement Northern Ireland, she was able to run her business remotely. <\/p>\n Rae initially came back for a few months to care for a sick aunt, but stayed. She now lives in the seaside Derry town of Portstewart, with two older siblings, including ordained brother Barney.<\/p>\n Did she ever think of returning to Australia? Rae, who has been busily chatting and reminiscing, pauses. Yes, she had considered moving back to Melbourne after her aunt had died. And now? \u201cIf I wasn\u2019t 84 and Barney wasn\u2019t here, I would move back,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n [\u00a0When my first child was born the distance from Ireland became a physical acheOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n She still visits, as her sister still lives in Melbourne, aged 91. \u201cI miss my sister, and lovely Melbourne and the beautiful music and the better climate. I travel when I can. And I play it by ear,\u201d she says, with a twinkle. <\/p>\n Are you Irish and living in another country? Would you like to share your experience with Irish Times Abroad, something interesting about your life or your perspective as an emigrant? You can use the form above, or email\u00a0abroad@irishtimes.com<\/a>\u00a0with a little information about you and what you do. Thank youFollow us on Instagram<\/a> to keep up with the latestSign up to The Irish Times Abroad newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for Irish-connected people around the world. Here you\u2019ll find readers\u2019 stories of their lives overseas, plus news, business, sports, opinion, culture and lifestyle journalism relevant to Irish people around the world.![\"Cliodhna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/7CBRTNJQANC4VM52ZKUMOD2WJM.jpg\")
Cliodhna Rae now lives in the seaside Derry town of Portstewart but still dreams of Melbourne sunshine. Photograph: iStock <\/p>\n![\"Cliodhna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/BXBTWTFBMVFBTBVPSE746NUMXQ.jpg\")
Cliodhna Rae: ‘It was a nice little niche discovered by accident,’ she says of her travel locum business <\/p>\n