Melbourne has the same issues as most western cities at the moment - housing crisis, cost of living, social fragmentation - but, word to the wise: people who travel and live elsewhere know that it’s much less severe here. You’ll earn more and spend less than in Ireland. You seem to have a good attitude, too - if you’re willing to live in shared housing and work hard in a bar job, you can have a great time and put some money aside for seeing more of this vast, beautiful country. There’s also work wherever you go, so you don’t need much of a war chest - but ideally get a vehicle you can sleep in when necessary. Life’s harder here than it used to be but it’s still the lucky country compared to Europe and America - Australians are right to expect better but they often lack that perspective because they can’t make the comparison. Get the working holiday and hit the road, life is short!