Retirement on hold as outback jobs boom

Travelling and working was initially the plan for the Greg and Sam Watkins, but their fascination with Birdsville and the abundance of work means they will stay for three years.

Greg and Sam Watkins take a break from their work in outback Birdsville to enjoy the sunset on the Big Red sand dune west of the town. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/The Australian

When they retired in 2016, Victorian couple Greg and Sam ­Watkins were set for things to wind down and to find some tranquility after careers as a policeman and in event management.

They discovered the peace they were looking for in a far-flung outpost on the edge of the Simpson Desert, but they’re as busy as ever, thanks to an abundance of work in rural Australia.

Their main gig involves running the Birdsville service station and the attached post office, providing fuel for travellers as they venture in from across the desert, and sorting the mail for the locals who call the tiny town and its surrounding cattle stations home.

But such is the supply of work and shortage of workers in the outback that they have taken on a swag of paid and voluntary jobs as well.

Sometimes working 100 hours a week, Mr Watkins splits his time as an assistant at the local power station, running the town’s container recycling scheme, towing broken down vehicles, guiding tours, helping fix radio transmitters and working as a handyman for the health clinic.

Ms Watkins is also a swimming teacher, photographer and a member of the school’s parents association.

They both work as ground crew for the commercial flights that land at the adjacent airfield. “There’s no shortage of work,” Mr Watkins said.

During busy parts of the winter tourist season, they’ve enlisted the help of friends from their hometown of Rochester to lend a hand for a few weeks at a time.

“It’s been a way for us to show other people what it’s like to work here,” Ms Watkins said.

Sam and Greg Watkins. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/The Australian

According to the Regional Australia Institute, there were 87,600 jobs advertised online in regional areas in November.

Last year, the labour market in regional Australia grew faster than in metropolitan areas, continuing a decade-long trend.

The decrease in new job advertisements this year has been slower in rural areas, particularly outback Queensland, where there were 727 vacancies in November, up from 414 in 2017.

“Over the last 12 months, ­regional jobs numbers have continued to grow,” RAI chief executive Liz Ritchie said.

“Apart from the expected seasonal summer drop, vacancies have been around 90,000 or more each month. In comparison, metropolitan vacancies are down over 11 per cent.

“At the same time, the lure of a life in the regions is far from waning, with the latest data showing capital to regional migration levels are nearly 12 per cent above the pre-Covid average.”

Ms Ritchie said attracting city dwellers, as well as migrants, was one of the solutions to filling job vacancies. The number of readily available jobs in rural Australia has made it easy for couples, often in retirement, to travel and work as they go.

“There are a lot of people travelling, who go to a place for six weeks, do a bit of work and then move on to something else,” Mr Watkins said.

Travelling and working was initially the plan for the Watkins, but their fascination with Birdsville meant they agreed to stay on at the service station for a year. Shortly into that year, their love for the place had grown so much that they agreed to stay for three years, partly to give some certainty to the service station’s owner.

They fell in love with the flaming sunsets over the Big Red sand dune, the ever-changing landscape, the slower way of life and the quietness of the outback.

“It’s the peace, the tranquility, there’s no urgency, no rush,” Ms Watkins said.

The longer stay has unveiled facets of the town’s character they had never seen during their previous visits as tourists over the years. It has given them time to build relationships with the owners and managers of the surrounding cattle stations and to receive invitations to visit the vast properties and see how they work.

“There’s a lot more to the town if you want to stay and look,” Mr Watkins said.

“If you stay two or three days, you’ll see plenty, but you really experience more if you stay longer.”