The Case for Perth — Livability, GP Shortage, and More Central DPA Locations
Perth is an excellent place to build both a GP career and a life. The lifestyle case stands on its own. For GPs restricted to Distribution Priority Areas (DPA), Perth also has a geographic feature that many other capitals do not: you often do not have to give up a liveable suburb in order to work where you are allowed to bill Medicare. This article sets out both sides of that case.
Part 1: Why Perth Works as a Place to Live
Western Australia currently leads Australia’s state economies. WA’s economy grew 3.2% in the year to March 2026, nearly 30% over five years, and it is the only state with two triple-A credit ratings. That strength is funding a record $44.3 billion infrastructure program over four years, including a $1.5 billion boost to the Building Hospitals Fund (900+ new beds), a new comprehensive cancer centre, and a $414 million lift to mental health services — alongside major transport, energy and port investment. Moving to Perth is not a bet on a stagnant system. It is joining a city and a health sector that are expanding.
Perth is Australia’s sunniest capital, averaging about 8.8 hours of sunshine a day (around 3,200 hours a year and 138.7 clear days), well ahead of Melbourne’s roughly 2,200 hours. It has a true Mediterranean climate: hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters.
The coastal and green-space offer is unusually close-in. The metro area has around 50 miles of coastline; Cottesloe, Scarborough and City Beach are suburbs, not day trips. Kings Park, on the edge of the CBD, covers 400 hectares — larger than New York’s Central Park and London’s Hyde Park combined. Monocle’s 2026 Quality of Life survey placed Perth among the world’s 20 most liveable cities, citing lifestyle, work-life balance and outdoor access.
Education is a further draw. The University of Western Australia is a Group of Eight member and ranked 77th in the QS World University Rankings 2026. Curtin University ranks fourth in the world for mineral and mining engineering. About one in three Western Australians were born overseas — the highest share of any state or territory (national average 27.6%). Perth’s metro area is around 40% overseas-born, similar to Sydney and above Melbourne. WA is home to people from more than 200 countries, speaking over 270 languages.
Part 2: Why Perth DPA Locations Needs GPs — and Will for Years: this GP-Short population is continuing to grow and age
Western Australia has fewer GPs per capita than almost anywhere else in the country. RACGP’s Health of the Nation 2024 reported 99 FTE GPs per 100,000 people in WA, below Queensland (115), Victoria (116), NSW (116) and the national average of 112.
That gap sits inside fast population growth. WA is forecast to be Australia’s fastest-growing state or territory in the coming years. Planning projections put the population at about 3.57 million by 2036 — an extra 55,400 people a year. The share of residents aged 65+ is expected to rise from 16% in 2022 to 19.5% by 2036. Older Australians use GP services most intensively: nationally, people 65+ account for around 30% of Medicare-subsidised GP attendances while making up roughly 17% of the population. Visit rates rise sharply with age (about 17.3 GP visits a year for those 85+, versus 3.5 for 10–14 year-olds).
Modelling focused on urban WA has projected a shortfall of 493 FTE GPs in metropolitan Perth by 2033 — a city shortage, not only a remote one. More recent WAPHA and Rural Health West material still points to structural gaps, including in specific outer-metropolitan parts of Perth.
Capacity is also under pressure because GPs are working fewer hours on average. FTE per GP fell from 0.79 (2018) to 0.74 (2023) and is expected to keep declining, so headcount overstates real supply. Even a record WA AGPT intake (251 registrars in 2026) takes years to translate into independent consulting hours. Training growth helps; it does not close the gap on its own.
Part 3: The Perth-Specific Point — Restricted GPs Can Work closer to the centre of the City
New Fellows and many Expedited Pathway (partially comparable) doctors must work in a DPA locations for up to 10 years under Section 19AB. In most other capitals, DPA-eligible all suburbs sit over and hour from the inner and middle-ring areas doctors often want to live in. The choice becomes a long commute or a less preferred suburb.
Perth’s DPA map is drawn differently. A GP can live in a desirable, non-DPA suburb such as Willetton, Applecross or Shelley and work a short drive away in DPA catchments such as Canning Vale, Armadale, Kewdale or Cockburn.
That is a different proposition from Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane, where DPA pockets are often much further from the suburbs many doctors prefer. In Perth, a restricted GP can frequently meet the compliance rule and still live in a high-amenity suburb in the sunniest capital, with coastal access and a strong state economy behind the health system.
How Doctor Connect Helps
Your Doctor Connect consultant has an extensive network that comes from working with with GPs and practices across Perth and Western Australia for over 10 years, and continues to actively match restricted and unrestricted doctors with current DPA-eligible roles, realistic contracts, and support through AHPRA, Medicare provider numbers and visas. The aim is not only to find a compliant address, but a practice and suburb combination that works for work and family.
Final Thought
Perth’s case is not either lifestyle or workforce need. It is both — plus a DPA map that, in many cases, lets restricted GPs live centrally enough to enjoy the city while working where they are allowed and needed. That mix is the distinctive reason many New Fellows compare Perth favourably with equivalent DPA roles in other capitals.
Considering Perth?
Contact Doctor Connect. We can check current DPA catchments, talk through liveable-suburb plus DPA-practice combinations, and help you plan the move.
