As a new med-school graduate, doctor Gabrielle Keating planned to do a placement in the Queensland outback town of Mt Isa for just six weeks.
But she unexpectedly found a spark with a local cowboy — and fell in love with the town because of the social and financial benefits it offered her.
The Emergency Department principal house officer at Mt Isa Hospital is one of several graduates now encouraging students to take up regional work opportunities.
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Dr Keating was working at Mt Isa Hospital during her final year of university, when she took up a job to be a nanny on a station during the study break.
In a collective effort, some prominent locals helped set her up on a date with a station manager.
The pair has now been a couple for five years and Keating one day hopes to be married.
“I think he was probably the only eligible bachelor in a few hundred kilometre radius, and they were pretty desperate for a doctor,” Keating said.
“My boss, along with his boss, a couple of locals — even the mayor — had a word to him, and next thing you know we were together.
“It was pretty cute.”
Through her placement and job after graduating, Keating’s accommodation has been paid for through James Cook University and then Queensland’s North West Hospital and Health Service.
It saved her thousands on rent.
Her starting salary as a graduate was more than $100,000 before tax.
She said if she were to move to the city, she would be taking a pay cut of about 20 to 30 per cent.
Keating, originally from the coastal Queensland town of Yeppoon, says on top of the financial benefits, regional communities should promote the unique social life connected to small towns.
“(They should) encourage (people) to go to the rodeos, to go to the campgrounds, to have that day off to explore,” she said.
“If I wasn’t welcomed into the community as well as I was from an early med student age, I don’t think I would have stayed as long.”
She says her workplace has an eight-day-on, six-day-off roster, giving people a decent amount of time to travel on their time off.
Dr Vidushan Paheerathan, 27, is also loving the benefits of living regionally, compared to his home in Sydney.
While it takes his friends one or two hours to get to work or uni, it takes him an easy five minutes to arrive for his shift at Mt Isa Hospital.
“Some hospitals in Sydney, the waitlist is like 10 years to get a carpark,” Paheerathan said.
“Here you don’t pay for parking, there’s parking all the time.
“It takes all that unnecessary stress out of your daily life and you can wake up and enjoy life.”
His accommodation has also been provided as an intern and graduate.
After a busy day at work, he has enough time to kayak at Lake Moondara or see the sunset at The Granites.
During his time off, he also gets to try his hand at activities such as camel tagging or fishing.
Working with a small team, the 27-year-old is able to negotiate his roster for extended time off a lot more easily than he probably could have in a city hospital.
He also says he has greater chances of progressing in his career because there is less competition.
Keating says she enjoys working in a regional town because of the wide variety of cases and patients she is able to treat.
“You get such a wide exposure,” she said.
“There are no subspecialties, there’s no specific kids hospital.
“So you’ve got to be able to have such a breadth of knowledge and exposure and know where to point the right people in the right direction.”
Both young doctors are encouraging more people to consider trying a rural placement with an open mind.
Paheerathan said he wanted to move regionally because he realised he could make a real difference to a community.
“Me realising as a migrant I have better health care in Sydney compared to the traditional owners of the country … I saw the need to come out,” he said.
“I knew I was going to find it more rewarding.”
Paheerathan soon realised his regional community was much friendlier.
“If your car breaks down, people stop for you. That didn’t happen for me when I was in Sydney,” he said.
North West Hospital and Health Service is currently seeking various medial professionals to fill positions.
The base salary for some roles is $182,000.
The Queensland government has been offering grants of up to $70,000 since 2023 to medical staff who take up regional work.
On top of this, health staff can receive an inaccessibility allowance, motor vehicle allowance and professional development allowance.
Despite the incentives, the health system in Mt Isa is still stretched for staff.
“It is quite full on. It does feel very busy,” Keating said.
“We need a lot more manpower to see the patients and do a good job because of the lack of other resources and primary care.”
The young doctors are encouraging the government to improve access to childcare and staffing at schools to retain older staff with families.
Paheerathan suggested more financial support be given to rural workers to be able to more frequently visit their families outside the towns.