Queensland

Winter sun, the arithmetic, and the reef as a day trip

A guide to living, working and settling in Australia’s most decentralised state — written for healthcare professionals, by the team who help them move.

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15 chapters Updated August 2026 Free

Welcome

The state people move to on purpose.

Queensland is where Australians themselves relocate: winter sun, beaches that work all year, and housing that still lets an ordinary salary buy an ordinary house. Brisbane has grown into a confident river city with the 2032 Olympics ahead of it, and the two coasts either side hold the country’s fastest-growing corridor.

The public system runs as sixteen hospital and health services across the most decentralised state in the country — and uniquely, tertiary-level medicine exists far outside the capital: Townsville and Cairns anchor the tropical north a two-hour flight from Brisbane. Registration is national; hiring is service by service.

The costs are summer — humid in the corner, monsoonal in the north, with a real cyclone season — and distances that make the far postings far. This guide prices both plainly, and takes the north as seriously as the corner.

Welcome to the sunshine state.

Warm regards — the Ethicare team

Waterfront houses with several swimming pools and private landings in coastal Queensland — The waterfront ordinary · Queensland’s housing argument

Queensland, in short

The five-second version

~5.6M

People in the state

120+

Public hospitals

300+

Days of sunshine a year

~7,000 km

Of coastline, reef offshore

Where

The north-east — Brisbane and two coasts in the corner, the tropics and outback beyond

Climate

Subtropical corner, monsoonal north: humid summers, and the winter the state is famous for

The system

Sixteen hospital and health services — with tertiary medicine in the north as well as the capital

Getting home

Brisbane is the third gateway, and Cairns flies direct to Asia — one stop from most of the world

Contents

What’s inside

Fifteen chapters in five parts. Nine are written for Queensland; the rest are national and live once in Moving to Australia, so you only read them once.

Part one · Deciding

01 Welcome to QueenslandThe sunshine state in nine numbers — and six things you only learn once you’re here Read now → 02 Why QueenslandThe arithmetic, a typical week, and where else we might point you Read now → 03 The state at a glanceThe three Queenslands — and what storm season, the wet and no daylight saving mean Read now →

Part two · The state

04 Healthcare in QueenslandSixteen health services, tertiary medicine in the north, and what to ask at interview Read now → 05 Where clinicians liveBrisbane, the two coasts, the regional cities and the tropical north — fifteen places compared Read now → 06 Getting aroundTrains, busways and river ferries in the corner — and a state that otherwise flies Read now →

Part three · Money & home

07 Cost of livingThe value state audited — and the costs the sunshine hides Read now → 08 Living in AustraliaRenting, utilities, banking and the practical first months — the national playbook Shared · national 09 Pay & conditionsHow awards, allowances and salary packaging work — and what to verify before signing Shared · national

Part four · Everyday life

10 Food, shopping & the everydayThe early-start operating system, the markets and the surf-club institution Read now → 11 Reef, rainforest & the coastThe reef as a day trip, the bay islands, the hinterlands and K’gari Read now → 12 Schools & educationHow Australian schooling works — and the visa fee question every family must read Shared · national

Part five · Belonging

13 Finding your feet & your peopleCommunities, faith, sport and how friendship works here Shared · national 14 Eligibility & registrationAhpra, English evidence and assessment — the national process, once Shared · national 15 Visas & the moveWhich visa, in what order, and how the timeline runs Shared · national

A street of houses in Ipswich, Queensland — Suburban Queensland from above — pools, solar and a carport each

Sophie’s insight

Queensland is where I place the most families, and the pattern is always the same: they come for the winter and stay for the mortgage. My advice is to take the north seriously — Townsville and Cairns offer careers the southern capitals can’t, and the clinicians who try them almost never come back early.

Sophie Careem

Founder, Ethicare Resourcing

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