Tasmania

The island where the wilderness starts at the end of the street

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

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15 chapters Updated August 2026 Free

Welcome

The island that trades scale for life.

Tasmania is the deliberate choice: an island of 570,000 people with the cleanest air on record, a 1,271-metre mountain standing over its capital, and forty per cent of its land in parks and reserves. Nobody drifts here — you choose it.

The health system is a single statewide service — four principal hospitals rather than a metropolis full — which makes careers broad, colleagues neighbours, and new arrivals looked after. Hobart carries the depth; Launceston and the north-west coast carry lives of their own.

The costs are the smallest job markets in the country, winters that are cold in draughty housing, and an island premium on everything that crosses Bass Strait. This guide prices all three plainly — alongside the life that makes people stay anyway.

Welcome to the island state.

Warm regards — the Ethicare team

Tasmania, in short

The five-second version

~570K

People on the island

Principal public hospitals

~40%

Parks & reserves

75 min

Flight to Melbourne

Where

An island the size of Ireland, 240 km across Bass Strait from Melbourne

Climate

Cool temperate — four real seasons, mild summers, snow on the mountain in winter

The system

A single statewide service — the capital, the north and the north-west coast

Getting home

Melbourne 75 minutes from two airports — and the Spirit ferry for the car

Contents

What’s inside

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

Part one · Deciding

01 Welcome to TasmaniaThe island state in nine numbers — and six things you only learn once you’re here Read now → 02 Why TasmaniaWhat the island gives back, a typical week, and when the mainland is the better call Read now → 03 Tasmania at a glanceThe three Tasmanias — and what four real seasons and a ferry line mean Read now →

Part two · The island

04 Healthcare in TasmaniaA single statewide service, four principal hospitals, and what to ask at interview Read now → 05 Where clinicians liveHobart’s villages, the beach south, the Huon, Launceston and the coast towns, compared Read now → 06 Getting aroundA car island with among the shortest commutes in the country — and one essential ferry Read now →

Part three · Money & home

07 Cost of livingGentler than the mainland, audited — including the heating and the island premium 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, produce & the everydaySalamanca, the farm gates, Hill Street and the scallop pie Read now → 11 Wilderness, coast & the seasonsCradle Mountain, Wineglass Bay, the Bay of Fires and Dark Mofo 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

Clear water and granite boulders at Honeymoon Bay, Freycinet National Park — Freycinet — the east coast, two hours from either city

Sophie’s insight

Tasmania is the move I tell people to make on purpose, never by default — it is the smallest market and the coldest winter, and the clinicians who choose it for the life it offers are among the happiest placements I have anywhere. If the island pull is real, weigh the north as seriously as Hobart: Launceston is the quiet bargain.

Sophie Careem

Founder, Ethicare Resourcing

When you’re ready

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