The defender, who joined Hearts in 2018, is hoping impressing in the A-League can help win him his first senior cap for Northern Ireland.

Burns has represented his country at both Under-19 and Under-21 level.

He is also planning to take up surfing in the Hunter, once he he improved his surfing and conquered rip tides.

"I’m really enjoying Newcastle, it's beautiful," he said.

"There’s some lovely beaches. It’s very quiet, compared to Edinburgh. The people here are very chilled, very welcoming. I’ll probably try and volunteer to keep busy. I need to learn how to swim first.

"I can swim a bit, but not very comfortably in the ocean. I’d love to learn to surf, so it’s a work in progress…. Australia’s beautiful. I’m enjoying it so far… I want to travel as much as I can, see as much as I can."

Burns is also enjoying the different style of play in Australia, compared with Scotland's more robust and physical brand of football.

"The style of play here is different," he admits.

"I’m really enjoying the different way. Here people don’t really cross the ball from deep, it’s all more lower crosses. People don’t like to head the ball as much. It’s more like a tennis match in Scotland.

"The ball goes from end to the other so much you get whiplash. I’m enjoying it [here]. In Scotland there’s probably more of a focus on physicality, but at the same time the wingers track right back and the forward players are expected to do more defending.

"Here there’s maybe more, you can get a bit overloaded. But it’s good learning. It’s probably a bit more difficult to defend, but more enjoyable attacking. I researched the league a lot before coming out. The standard’s good, it’s quite similar.

"The quality of the play and training is quite similar, it’s just slightly different styles. I’ve been impressed by the league and the training facilties. Playing in the heat will be a challenge for me. Hopefully I can back to Hearts really, really fit, and as red as a lobster!"