After two years and a salary package that made headlines, the remote community of Julia Creek in north-west Queensland has finally recruited a locally-based doctor.
It was an off-hand text message from Adam Louws's mother-in-law that ultimately saw the young doctor pick up his life in Brisbane and move nearly 2,000 kilometres into the land of dirt and dust.
"We had been looking at buying a property in Brisbane but it was just too expensive," he said.
"My mother-in-law sent me a link to a news article about this job, joking that 'this could be how you save up for one of those properties'.
"We were living on a postage stamp in Brisbane and I thought 'hang on'.
"Three days later my application was in."
Now, a community that Dr Louws "hadn't even heard of before" has become a home to him and his wife as well as their four young children.
After two weeks of running his practice serving Julia Creek's 500 residents, Dr Louws said his family had "fallen in love with the town".
"We fit in really well. The locals here are so grateful to have a doctor in town," he said.
"The hospital staff have been helping me to set up my little GP practice. The council has moved heaven and Earth to make our house really nice and comfortable."
While an attractive salary package sweetened the deal, Dr Louws said it was the country lifestyle that sold him.
"There's a well-stocked gym in town and it's like half the price of any gym in Brisbane," he said.
"We've had rain and floods that remind me of something out of a Dorothea Mackellar poem. It's been amazing."
More on offer for outback GPs
As well as his practice, Dr Louws services the aged care home and hospital with two inpatient beds and three emergency department beds.
He shot down views that rural work was burdensome.
"I halved my patient load which actually gives me a bit of time to do some extra study on the side," he said.
"Yes, things do get hectic, but overall it's a lot less pressure than people expect."
Dr Louws encouraged more young GPs to go bush.
"A lot of the people going into medical school don't have any genuine experience of living in the country," he said.
"There's also not a lot of value placed on GPs in general, and certainly country GPs, within the culture of medicine.
"That's something that I'd like to change.
"Out here you can really get a sense of meaning. Being one of 100 doctors in a city hospital doesn't really always give you that feeling that what you're doing matters."
"The country has more to offer doctors than money."
