Beat Medical Blog

Living tropical - an alternative lifestyle as a GP

Posted by Beat Medical

There are so many options for where to live and work as a doctor in Australia that it can be a bit of an overwhelming choice.

As an overseas trained general practitioner, you are generally restricted to working in a regional or rural area of Australia. Although this might mean being some distance from a capital city like Sydney or Melbourne, it opens the door to a much higher quality of living.

In this article, I am going to focus on Townsville - which is in Queensland. Although there are some similar cities around Australia, Townsville has the enviable quality of having over 300 days of sunshine in the year, and is directly across from Magnetic Island, one of the most spectacular natural retreats in Australia.

Being in a regional area doesn't mean that you have to sacrifice education and lifestyle- with the best in public and private schools, a large international university (which has an excellent medical school and world-class school of tropical medicine), amazing sporting facilities, and easy childcare it is truly the best of both worlds. If you do need a fix of the 'big city', there are regular flights to Brisbane and Sydney, as well as flights north to Cairns which go onward to Bali and beyond.

In comparison to the larger cities, drive time to work is a maximum of 30 minutes (the more common average being 5-15 minutes), crime rates are relatively low, and you get a sense of being part of a community. The best part is you can enjoy your time away from work with proximity to the coastline (within sailing distance of the Great Barrier Reef), and myriad sporting and recreational facilities.

If you don't enjoy warm weather, and a relaxed lifestyle, Townsville is most likely not for you. Otherwise, consider going tropical!


At the moment, we have a number of GP positions available in a rapidly growing area of Townsville.