UK to Australia for doctors — the questions everyone asks

For most trainees, meaningfully more — but the honest answer depends on grade, state and rota, and our figures are indicative, not gospel. A UK registrar typically takes home £15,000–£25,000 more per year in Australia before salary packaging and penalty rates are counted, and those extras usually push the real gap higher. Consultants are harder to compare because Australian consultant contracts vary widely by state and specialty. We're aiming to make all of this easier with the calculator — and if our numbers look wildly out, please tell us: hello@nomedic.co.uk.

No. Three structural differences matter more than FX, and a gross-to-gross comparison at any exchange rate misses all of them:

Pension vs super. Australian employers pay 12% superannuation on top of salary; the NHS pension comes out of yours.

Salary packaging. Public hospital doctors can package up to A$11,660 a year of living costs essentially tax-free — there is no NHS equivalent.

You're paid for every hour. Australian rosters run on timesheets — every hour worked is paid, with penalty rates and out-of-hours multiples applied, rather than NHS-style banding folded into basic pay.

An Australian public-hospital perk that lets you pay up to A$9,010 of everyday living costs plus A$2,650 of meal entertainment per FBT year out of pre-tax salary. It is the closest thing to free money in the system and almost nobody explains it to doctors before they arrive. It's one of the main reasons simple calculators understate Australian take-home pay.

Yes. Plan 2 (and postgraduate) loans follow you overseas — you are required to register as an overseas repayer with the Student Loans Company, and repayments are assessed against Australian income thresholds. Budget for it.

If you leave Australia permanently on a temporary visa you can withdraw your super as a Departing Australia Superannuation Payment (DASP) — but it is taxed at around 35% on the way out, which cuts the effective benefit from 12% to roughly 7.8%. If you stay (or become a permanent resident), you keep the lot. Our advanced calculator has a toggle for exactly this scenario.

Most UK-trained doctors use the competent authority pathway (GMC registration plus an accepted primary qualification gets you provisional then general AHPRA registration), while specialists apply for comparability through the relevant college. Since late 2024 AHPRA has also run an expedited pathway for specialists in selected specialties — it launched with general practice, anaesthetics and psychiatry, and the list has been expanding, so check AHPRA's current list for your specialty. Registration is a long process, but doable — and we're building tools to help with it; unlock the calculator to join the list and hear first.

They're recognised differently, and the distinction matters. If you're coming to work (not train), Australia pays you by your postgraduate year — states credit comparable overseas service, so UK doctors rarely lose pay seniority. If you want to enter Australian specialty training, that's a separate process: recognition of prior learning (RPL) through the relevant college — doable in many specialties, but outcomes vary sharply by college and are assessed case by case.

Some do — and pretending otherwise would make every number on this site less believable. This site only covers the financial side of the decision, and money is rarely the whole story. Plenty of doctors move for a year or two and come home — the move itself is expensive, and that belongs in any honest calculation. Nomedic will shortly be sharing stories of doctors who've moved all over the world — including those who came back.

No. This is a tool for doctors, made by doctors — we don't sell or pass your details to recruiters or agencies. Joining the email list gets you the calculator, the tools we build next, and occasional updates if you opt in — nothing else, from us only. If we ever run anything involving third parties (like workshops or events), it will be separately invited and strictly opt-in. You will never get recruiter spam from this list.

By a doctor, for doctors. The founder moved from the NHS to Adelaide in 2026 and built the first version to answer his own question. UK figures come from the current NHS pay circular; Australian figures from each state's published enterprise agreement; tax from ATO 2025–26 rates. It's a side project with one goal: accurate information for doctors making a big decision — and we want your help making it better. Spot anything off? hello@nomedic.co.uk.

As accurate as published agreements allow — and we're explicit about confidence. South Australia is verified against real payslips (the founder's own); QLD, WA, NSW and VIC use current published agreements; where something is an estimate, the tool says so. This is a beta. Help us make it bulletproof: if a number doesn't match your payslip, email hello@nomedic.co.uk — even better, send a redacted payslip from any state or grade. Corrections from real doctors are how this tool got built, and how every state gets to payslip-verified.