University graduates can now earn six-figure salaries in their first year of work, if they're prepared to leave Australia's cities and move to one of the country's more remote areas.
Brooke McKee, 24, recently moved to Mount Isa in north-west Queensland after studying medicine at James Cook University in Townsville.
“I really love the vibrancy of a small mining town,” she told Daily Mail Australia.
“There's definitely a great sense of community. They're typically a very hard-working community and as a physician, the feeling of treating people you know is very nice.”
Dr McKee, a first-year doctor at Mount Isa Hospital, earns a base salary of $87,000 despite only working as a full-time doctor for six months.
But for residents doing rotations in emergency department, obstetrics, surgery and pediatrics, weekend premiums are added in and the salary increases to more than $100,000.
In addition, there are Queensland Government incentives available, including an inaccessibility allowance of $34,500.
Brooke McKee, 24, (pictured left with her fiancé Taylor Tomlinson) recently moved to Mount Isa in north-west Queensland after studying medicine at James Cook University in Townsville.
This will bring her salary to $134,500 and her job also includes free accommodation and relocation as Australia faces a housing and rental crisis.
From next year she will be eligible for a professional development allowance of $21,500 and a $40,000 cash incentive towards training to become a rural general practitioner.
But it's demanding, with some weeks Dr McKee working 11 days in a row.
Dr McKee grew up in the north Queensland mining towns of Weipa and Mackay, so Mount Isa isn't much different, except for the inland winter temperatures which can reach 4°C.
“It's pretty similar to a lot of the towns I grew up in, the difference is that it has both a Coles and a Woolies,” she said.
Dr McKee's dream is to become a hospital obstetrician, also working as a general practitioner, after mothers have had to travel long distances to give birth safely.
“There is a severe shortage of obstetricians in rural Queensland and with many birthing centres closed, women are having to travel hours to somewhere they can give birth,” she said.
“From an employment perspective, this is a really good thing. From a personal perspective, my mum, who lives in the country, had to travel hours to get me and my siblings here.”
“That's what interests me because being able to give birth where you live, where you have a support system, with prenatal care in your community, is so important.”
Dr McKee disputed the notion that there was nothing to do in Mount Isa, pointing out the area hosts rodeos and multicultural festivals and is close to campsites and great places for four-wheel drive driving.
“I'm definitely a country girl at heart,” she said.
Dr McKee, a first-year doctor at Mount Isa Hospital, earns a base salary of $87,000 after just six months of full-time medical practice, but this rises to $134,500 after penalty rates and absence pay are added.
“If people are worried about going out into the mountains, they might think, 'There's nothing to do,' but there's something going on to do almost every weekend.”
But she lamented that it was quite a long drive from her family, who live in Townsville, Brisbane and Gladstone.
“I think it's tough sometimes to want to see your family and have to pay a lot of money to fly,” she said.
Despite the distance, the young doctor is considering one day moving to a more remote part of Queensland, the Cape York Peninsula region, to treat Indigenous patients.
“There's a lot of different issues with Indigenous patients, like intergenerational trauma and distrust of Western medicine and white medicine, so dealing with all those social factors and really complex patients makes it really interesting medicine and a really great learning opportunity as a junior doctor,” she said.
Dr McKee's dream is to become a hospital obstetrician, also working as a general practitioner, seeing mothers forced to travel long distances to give birth safely.
Her fiancé, Taylor Tomlinson, works as a maths and physics teacher in Mount Isa.
Across Australia, the average salary for a general practitioner is $133,386, but the average taxable income is Government grant of $163,360.
Queensland is offering regional and remote benefits worth $187,000, including a $34,500 inaccessibility allowance, a $70,000 two-year workforce attraction incentive scheme, a $21,000 car allowance, a $21,500 professional development allowance and a $40,000 cash incentive for 500 junior doctors to undertake training to become GPs.
