If the prospect of winter sun is not enough to lure you north, what about the promise of six-figure salaries and cash to book your flight?
As the clock ticks towards the start of the northern tourist season, businesses are offering escalating wages and relocation payments as they jostle for staff.
"I've never seen anything like it," veteran Broome cameleer John Geappen said.
"Broome usually relies on the backpacker pool of workers, so without them there's been a big shift and it's the workers who are benefiting."
There's a $92,000 salary on offer to make coffees at a Broome cafe, and also $2,200 relocation payments for cooks and kitchen hands to move to Kununurra.
Supermarkets are offering $35 an hour to stack shelves, with one advertising $1,000 bonus payments to staff who stay more than a couple of weeks.
Stress for those who can't match wages
While the approach is allowing some businesses to shore up a workforce ahead of the peak season — which traditionally starts at Easter — it is causing anxiety among those who cannot afford to keep up.
Broome cafe owner Bikram Pradhan said he had a sinking feeling when he saw the $92,000 barista salary.
He is also trying to recruit staff but cannot match that.
"At the moment there are five of us pushing through to keep the cafe open, which is a bit crazy; ideally we'd have five more people," he said.
"It's right before the season starts so I don't know how we'll cope if we can't find the staff."
Like many small businesses across northern Australia, Mr Pradhan is pinning his hopes on the imminent return of the backpacker workforce.
Backpackers trickling back
During the pandemic the number of working holiday makers plunged from 141,000 to 2,000.
The latest federal government data suggests the number of backpackers is bouncing back but is still at just 10 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.
Since Australia reopened to international travellers in December, more than 14,000 backpackers have arrived, with another 41,000 granted visas and expected to arrive soon.
Many will receive a $495 refund on their applications costs as part of a Commonwealth scheme to attract travellers.
The absence of the fire-twirling backpackers and their minimum-wage work ethic has exposed a major fault line in the prospects for economic development in northern Australia.
Small business challenges 'unprecedented'
Economist Aaron Morey from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA says it is part of the unique set of challenges facing regional businesses.
"The inability to access workers both skilled and unskilled is quite unprecedented," he said.
"Along with international students, it's really laid bare the reliance we have on these people coming into the country."
He said the eye-catchingly high wages and signing bonuses might be a sign of what's to come as unemployment continued to drop and wage pressure grew.
"There is building pressure in the economy around boosting those base wages, and many businesses are trying not to bake in those permanent cost pressures on their business.
"A lot of them are using sign-on bonuses or retention bonuses and the like."
What happened to relocation schemes?
In recent years state and federal governments have launched subsidy schemes to encourage people to relocate to fill vacancies.
The federal program offers people $6,000 to move to a regional area experiencing worker shortages and $3,000 to a city with more available jobs.
The Department of Education, Skills and Employment says 3,939 people have so far received the payment.
A breakdown of applicants shows most people have used the money to move to Queensland and New South Wales.
With tens of thousands of holiday makers set to migrate north in coming months, it will be just a fraction of the workforce needed to keep the coffees flowing and the tours on time.
