Working as a veterinarian in Suffolk, UK Eleanor decided she needed a tree change.

It was originally the weather and the lifestyle that drew her to Australia. After England’s “endless grey”, the pull of Canberra’s seasons was hard to resist. Then, the offer of a job in a city full of animal lovers was too good to turn down.

Moving across the globe in 2015, Eleanor says Canberrans welcomed her with open arms from the moment she landed– and she hasn’t looked back since.

“I’d spent some time after I’d finished my A levels, travelling in Australia, and had enjoyed the people, the lifestyle, the openness, the weather, and the environment. I knew that I wanted to come back and live here for a bit,” says Eleanor.

“It was more than I imagined, the welcome that I got,” she says.

“Within the first few weeks of being here, I just felt so very welcomed and settled quite quickly. The benefits of living here were very obvious pretty early on, and then I bought my first apartment within that first year.”

Today, Eleanor is working part-time as a registered nurse at the Canberra Hospital and treating animals part-time as an emergency veterinarian in Canberra’s north. Her move to the Bush Capital has allowed her the freedom to explore her passion for health care by pivoting from caring for animals to people – a transition made possible by a supportive and nurturing community.

“Being a vet is very hard, and particularly being a vet full time. It’s all-encompassing, emotionally, physically, mentally draining, and for me, on reflection, it probably took too much of me to do it,” she says.

“I thought about the things that I enjoyed about being a vet, and that’s communicating with people, meeting new people and hearing their stories and organising a plan of care that meets what they want and need…nursing came up. So far it’s been a really nice balance – I feel like there’s more room to give, but it takes less of me.”

Working two jobs while completing postgraduate studies at the University of Canberra –exploring how pets make a difference to patient wellbeing and how findings can be applied to palliative care in a hospital setting – ‘busy’ doesn’t even begin to describe Eleanor’s life.

But even with the long hours, she says part of the joy of living in Canberra is that the simplicity and ease of life here gives her the balance she needs and the room to breathe.

“A lot is going on in Canberra, and people are very proactive in involving themselves and doing different things – you’re swept along with the enthusiasm of that and encouraged to do things,” she says.

“I think that promotes good mental health and wellbeing and having a break from your everyday job. And the access to green spaces means that it is easy to have a break, switch off, refocus and then be efficient in the things that you do need to do.”

And as someone focussed on enhancing the care and wellbeing of both two- and four-legged Canberrans, Eleanor feels like she’s among like-minded people.

“I am often amazed at Canberrans’ commitments to their animals…I feel like we’re very, very fortunate to be in a place where our pets can have a really good quality of life, too.”

She does admit to being surprised by Canberra’s chilly winters, but it’s the natural beauty of her new home that Eleanor talks about with her friends and family back in the UK.

“I honestly do look out at the Brindabellas every time I’m cycling or driving home, and just think we live in a really beautiful spot,” she says.