WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) 鈥� A remote town that will soon lose its only doctor is offering a salary of up to 680,000 Australian dollars ($428,000), plus free rent and a car, to attract a new candidate.
The remote Queensland town of Julia Creek, population 500, is offering about double the salary a family physician would earn in the state鈥檚 capital, Brisbane. The catch is that Brisbane is a 17-hour drive away. The closest major city, Townsville, is a seven-hour drive.
Prospective applicants must embrace searing heat and tropical insects, too.
But the town's outgoing medic, Dr. Adam Louws, says his replacement will also find a quieter pace of life and the chance to learn skills they鈥檝e never used before.
Louws was recruited from Brisbane in 2022, when Julia Creek drew national headlines for offering a salary of AU$500,000.
鈥淢y mother-in-law sent me a link to this news article saying, 鈥榯he half a million dollar job that no one wants,鈥欌�� Louws said. 鈥淢y first thought when I saw it and I looked at it was, where鈥檚 Julia Creek?鈥�
Luring doctors off the grid
Julia Creek is a sweeping, romantic slice of the Australian Outback with wide-open spaces and orange sunsets. Kids play sports and ride horses. But it鈥檚 remote 鈥� high school means boarding school in the city and the nearest hospital is nearly three hours鈥� drive away.
Before Louws arrived in 2022, the town hadn't had a permanent doctor for 15 years, with a roster of visiting physicians dropping in for short stays. It鈥檚 a problem that has vexed rural towns in Australia and for decades.
Australia has a shortfall of general practitioners of 2,500 doctors across the country, according to a 2024 government report, with the shortage worst in rural areas and expected to grow. Attracting doctors to rural Australia is made harder by the eye-watering distances between the most remote settlements; the vast country is one of the world鈥檚 least densely populated.
In neighboring New Zealand 鈥� where 5 million people live in a country the size of the United Kingdom 鈥� distances between far-flung towns have worsened health disparities. In the United States, 65% of rural areas had in 2023, official figures showed.
For Janene Fegan, the mayor of McKinlay Shire 鈥� which includes Julia Creek 鈥� that meant the town needed a good sales pitch. Fegan was involved in the local health service鈥檚 campaign that recruited Louws and offered to promote the town again when the job was advertised in March.
鈥淲e actually have a very, very good lifestyle and a very safe lifestyle,鈥� she said. 鈥淵es, there is distance to travel at times, but how many people do you hear now wanting to escape from that and go off-grid?鈥�
The town was not, she added, literally off the grid: Julia Creek has electricity and broadband internet.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 have to stay forever,鈥� Fegan said. 鈥淛ust give it a shot.鈥�
Knowing the whole town by name
When the job was advertised in 2022, some health care analysts said the bolstered salary still wasn鈥檛 enough to compensate for a solo doctor鈥檚 workload.
But Louws, the departing doctor, said working solo prompted him to learn medical skills that he would have sent patients 鈥渢wo minutes down the road鈥� for another practitioner to perform when he lived in the city. He also fulfilled a childhood dream of learning to milk dairy cows.
鈥淭he money is plenty. It is,鈥� Louws said. 鈥淥ne of the things that I think people don鈥檛 necessarily consider enough about this job is the other things that this town has to offer.鈥�
Louws applied for the job three days after first hearing about Julia Creek, following study on Wikipedia. Soon, he and his wife and four children were packing to move.
When he鈥檇 been in the job six months, Louws said, he knew 鈥渘ine out of 10鈥� people in the town by name. 鈥淚t feels kind of like stepping back in time about 60-odd years,鈥� he said. 鈥淓veryone knows everyone.鈥�
At the end of his two year contract in Julia Creek, however, the distance from his extended family had taken a toll and he plans to return to his practice in the city. Louws departs in May; applications for his post close Sunday.
He's sorry to be leaving the 鈥渋ncredible鈥� town.
鈥淚t feels a lot closer," the doctor said. "You get to really make a difference.鈥�
Charlotte Graham-mclay, The Associated Press
