Work alongside Central West Queensland’s top rural generalist doctors in a unique health setting that links primary care with hospital practice.

Training in the Central West region

Longreach Hospital is the training hub of a skilled, collaborative medical community caring for the people of the Central West.  

Central West Hospital and Health Service (CWHHS) consists of five hospitals – Alpha, Barcaldine, Blackall, Longreach and Winton – and 10 satellite primary health clinics. Serving communities of remote central western Queensland from Tambo in the south-east to Boulia in the north-west, CHHS covers a large geographic footprint and population of 12,400.

Longreach Hospital is the region’s major hospital. It is an 18-bed facility providing acute care, general surgery, emergency, medical, paediatrics, gynaecology, obstetrics, ophthalmology, outpatient and elective health services as well as a retrieval and transfer service. The Central West’s team of rural generalist doctors work across the district’s hospitals and general practice.

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Research facilities

Murtupuni Centre for Rural & Remote Health (MCRRH)

Murtupuni Centre for Rural & Remote Health (MCRRH) aims to build a healthy community and a skilled workforce in and for rural and remote Queensland through education and research. It is the foundation University Department of Rural Health in Queensland and spans more than half of Queensland, including the Central West.

Tropical Australian Academic Health Centre (TAAHC) 

Tropical Australian Academic Health Centre (TAAHC) is a collaboration between northern Queensland’s five hospital and health services, the Northern Queensland Primary Health Network, JCU and the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine.

Incentives

• Relocation costs assistance
• Rent free accommodation, subsidised utilities
• Inaccessibility allowance for Longreach, Barcaldine, Blackall and Winton of $41,400 per year (50% paid after 6 months, 25% thereafter in 3-monthly instalments
• SMOs receive 10% base salary as a Regional and Rural Attraction Allowance for working in Central West HHS

Specialties in the Central West

Living in the Central West region

Longreach and its surrounding Outback communities boast a relaxed country lifestyle with an array of big social events. Longreach, population 3,500, is home to the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame and Qantas Outback Founders Museum. It relies on the sheep and cattle grazing and tourism industries.  

Daily flights connect Longreach and Brisbane, while twice-weekly flights operate to Townsville. Brisbane can be reached by air from Barcaldine and Blackall three times a week. Longreach has a public secondary school, and public and Catholic primary schools.

Winter is a busy social season in the Central West, with country race meetings, festivals and sporting events on the calendar as visitors swell the population. There’s everything from the Boulia Camel Races to the Better in Blackall Festival, Winton Outback Film Festival, Birdsville Big Red Bash and Tambo Teddy Bears Picnic.  

The Thomson River, 4.5km north-west of Longreach on the road to Winton, is great for camping, hiking, swimming, kayaking and water-skiing or fishing for yellow belly and red claw crayfish under the red river gums.

Near Winton, birthplace of Qantas and Waltzing Matilda, are the Lark Quarry Dinosaur Trackways, where the footprints of a stampeding herd of dinosaurs are preserved in what was a muddy river plain 95 million years ago. Barcaldine’s Tree of Knowledge, Blackall’s Black Stump and the 200km-long Lake Dunn Sculpture Trail are just a few of the many attractions to explore in the Central West.

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