Many people would think police officer Alex Sunderland was living the dream when he was stationed in beachside paradise at Byron Bay, on the New South Wales north coast.
But, with the cost of housing in the iconic region skyrocketing, Sunderland eventually knew it was time to move on.
I could just not sustain being up there in Byron Bay. The cost of living was out of this world, he said.
I was living in Kingscliff (a coastal town about 45 minutes north of Byron Bay) and I was lucky to be living with a mate from work, but to get my own place and have my dog with me, it would have been $800 a week, plus.
The senior constable made what turned out to be an easy decision last April, when he accepted a transfer to Broken Hill in western NSW - the same station where he began his policing career around five years earlier.
The move meant Sunderland was able to take advantage of lucrative salary incentives offered by NSW Police for officers working in remote regions.
In Sunderland's case, he will earn an extra $36,000 over five years due to the regional bonus.
The vastly lower cost of housing in Broken Hill, compared to the north coast of NSW, just added to the financial appeal, Sunderland said.
There are plenty of places that are amazing to rent around here. Or, if you didn't want to rent, it can actually be cheaper to purchase a house, he said.
Far from taking a backward step, Sunderland said his career had also benefitted from the extra learning experiences he was exposed to as a police officer in regional NSW.
Given it's a remote area, you don't have the benefit of having all the different units out here - so you're pretty much it, he said.
When you go to jobs, you get to do everything and you get to see all the bigger jobs through.
New research, released by the Regional Australian Institute (RAI) today, shows Sunderland is far from alone in benefiting from a higher income earned while working outside Australia's major cities.
In fact, workers in six out of eight major occupation groups - professionals, technicians and trades workers, community and personal service workers and clerical - enjoy a higher income in regional areas, the RAI report found.
General practitioners are among those to see the biggest salary bonus, with an earnings bump of almost 73 per cent for working in very remote areas and 27 per cent for remote locations.
Meanwhile, sports coaches, instructors and officials earn almost 44 per cent more in very remote areas, electrical engineers take home 34 per cent more and ambulance officers and paramedics typically earn 22 per cent above city salaries.
RAI CEO Liz Ritchie said the report busted the long-held myth that you have to live in a major city to earn a high income.
The truth is, there are high regional incomes available in many occupations for those who look beyond metropolitan boundaries – which means more money in the pockets of hardworking Australians, she said.
The Regional Australia Institute analysis used integrated Census and Australian Tax Office (ATO) data and deducted housing costs to calculate the comparisons.
Controlling for factors that could impact income - such as age, gender, education and industry type - the report found workers in very remote Australia earned around 13.6 per cent more than in major cities, and 12.8 per cent more in remote regions.
However, the financial advantages fall away in outer regional areas, such as Darwin in the Northern Territory or Cairns in Queensland, where workers earn about the same as in major cities.
In inner regional areas, such as Port Macquarie in NSW, workers earn 2.4 per cent less than in major cities.
Ritchie said there were persistent labour shortages across the regions.
More than 67,000 job vacancies in regional Australia were advertised online in January– a level 62.7 per cent higher than the five-year pre-COVID average, she said.
For Sunderland, the lifestyle benefits of living in Broken Hill have also added to the richness of his experience.
Living so close to nature offered up beautiful sights, such as a night sky without light pollution and sunsets better than anywhere else, he said.
There is plenty to do. If you're into 4WD driving or hiking, there are so many national parks out here, and they're rich with Aboriginal history as well.
https://www.9news.com.au/national/the-aussie-jobs-that-pay-more-in-regional-areas-than-cities/28fd1e1a-bbe7-4e47-bf36-fe78861824f3
