Town offering a FREE four-bedroom house, no rent, a job with a £460,000 wage – would you qualify? | The Sun
A TOWN has offered a four-bedroom house rent free and a salary package of £460,000 in a desperate bid to fill a much needed role.
The council in Quairading, Western Australia, came up with the tantalising proposal to draw in a local doctor as the rural town grappled with a skilled worker shortage.
The farming community located about 100 miles east of the capital, Perth, has always struggled to attract keen workers due to its remoteness.
It had a general practitioner contracted until March 14 but the council was scrambling to find a replacement as regional WA faced a shortage of doctors.
With more 600 residents in need of basic healthcare, Shire President Peter Smith had to come up with a lucrative deal too good not to be refused.
He proposed a package worth £460,000 that included a full-time job at a maintained and stocked medical clinic, a four-bedroom family home with no rent and a yearly salary with added benefits.
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Since putting out the job offer in January, the council was inundated with applicants.
However, after sorting through hundreds of resumes, councillor Smith told The Sun Online the council has finally filled the role.
The old town is part of the Wheatbelt in Noongar Ballardong country and is known for its classic pub and proximity to the Pink Lake and Mount Stirling.
At the time of the desperate search, councillor Smith told The West Australian: "I will not stand by idle when the community has such a critical need.
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"If we don’t have a doctor, we won’t have a medical clinic, then we won’t have a hospital, we won’t have a chemist and so the demise will begin."
Australia is expected to face a shortage of more than 10,600 GPs in the next decade according to the Australian Medical Association.
Between 2009 and 2019, the demand for doctors already surged by 58 per cent.
Steve Robson, president of the AMA, said the issues were "unimaginable" and that their evidence showed the pressures on GPs would not ease.
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