A bit of Irish charm
We live here ‘cos we love it!
Karli Hassall
BEFORE I moved to Toowoomba, I lived with my parents on an alpaca farm near Kingsthorpe.
My family started farming alpacas about 25 years ago and imported some of the first alpacas in Australia.
Now they have about 500 head at their farm.
The good thing about alpacas is that they will only spit when you annoy them, where as llamas tend to spit whenever they want.
Alpacas are commonly sold as guard animals to protect sheep and goats from dogs and foxes but there is also a large market for their meat.
I didn’t really think much about living on the farm when I was there, but it was pretty cool.
I have lived in Toowoomba for the past seven years and I have been working at the Irish for the past five years.
I really enjoy the people I get to be with when I’m at work.
Alesha Stone
The first time I moved to Toowoomba was 15 years ago when I started boarding school.
I lived a little bit outside of Chinchilla before I started boarding at Fairholme College.
Starting boarding school took a little bit to adjust to, I went from having no sisters, to having heaps of sisters.
There was also a little bit of an adjustment period, having moved from a rural area to the centre of the city.
After school, I moved back to Chinchilla for a couple of years until I got this job offer and came back here.
My brother Nic and I both work as chefs here. We’re pretty close in age and we get along which makes work pretty fun. Working with my brother makes work pretty easy.
In my spare time, I like to hang out with my dogs and take them for walks and I also like to play tennis.
I also enjoy heading back out to Chinchilla to go shooting and four-wheel driving as well as seeing my family.
Brandon Collins
My parents moved from Noosa to Warwick when I was child before they decided to settle in Toowoomba about 10 years ago.
It was a big change when we moved from Warwick because it was my first year starting high school. I had to start from scratch making friends again.
I am currently working three jobs at the moment which gives me very little time to myself but when I do have free time, I like to spend it with my dogs.
The good thing about living in Toowoomba is how accessible everything is and how familiar the people are.
I worked three jobs before I went overseas to Europe about a month ago. A close friend moved overseas and so I decided to visit her.
Some of the highlights of the trip were staying with my friend in London and going on a cruise in Greece. I was only supposed to be in Europe for four weeks but I ended up staying an extra two because it was so much fun.