“I don’t think anyone comes to Australia and goes back”

Six months ago, Temi was working as a GP in Lincoln, waking up most mornings dreading the day ahead. Today, he’s driving along the beach to a clinic in Adelaide, and he’s not planning on coming home.

In our latest podcast episode, Thomas sits down with Temi, a UK-trained GP who relocated to Adelaide, South Australia, to talk honestly about what life was actually like before and after the move. No polished sales pitch, just one GP’s own experience of both systems.

Here’s a flavour of what’s covered. For the full story, listen to the episode in full, linked below!

Life as a GP in Lincoln

Temi finished his GP training in August 2024. He worked salaried for a while before moving into full-time locum work, doing the sort of day most UK GPs will recognise: starting around 9am, finishing around 6pm, seeing 28 to 30 patients, with home visits on top when on call.

What struck him hardest wasn’t the workload itself, it was the compliance culture around it. He described writing formal responses to complaints for things he hadn’t actually done wrong, and said that reflecting on these took time away from clinical work. In his words, at one point he was “dreading going to work every day.”

He’s also clear that it wasn’t all bad. He talks about patients who were well informed about their care, and the ones who’d bring in chocolates or a card to say thank you. But on the whole, he felt he was heading towards burnout.

Why Australia

Temi started thinking seriously about moving during his ST3 training, after older colleagues told him the best time to move is early in your career, before it gets harder to uproot a family. He looked at a few options before settling on Australia, partly because the system is structurally similar to the NHS, and partly, he’s honest about this, because of the weather.

The conversation with his wife and the research process took time. Their biggest concerns weren’t about the job itself but about the family: new schools for the kids, a new job for his wife, and leaving their community and his role as a trainer behind. First conversations with Thomas started in June 2024. It was around March 2025 before they were speaking to clinics, and Temi didn’t actually make the move until January 2026, so this was closer to eighteen months from first thinking about it to landing in Adelaide, not an overnight decision.

The day-to-day difference

Temi doesn’t hold back on this one. His new commute is 40 minutes along the coast with little traffic, compared with the drive into Lincoln before. His housing description is a genuine contrast too: a four-bedroom duplex with a two-car garage, two separate lounges, a lake view, and a four-minute walk to the beach. He compares this directly with the smaller, more uniform housing he and his family had in the UK.

There’s a lighter moment in the episode where Temi says the local Adelaide “winter” (around 15 to 18°C) is warmer than a UK summer, and that he still doesn’t understand why anyone calls it winter at all!

Settling into Australia life as a GP

Temi and his family are currently renting, as is common in Australia, while they wait to become eligible to buy on their visa pathway. His daughters have settled into school and are being signed up for local sports. He went through the RACGP pathway rather than the newer expedited APRA route, and notes that the expedited pathway, now more commonly used, is considerably more straightforward.

He came back to the UK for two weeks in March, booked a couple of locum shifts, and ended up doing just one. His own words: “I can’t wait to go back to Australia.”

His advice to UK GPs thinking about making the move to Australia

Asked what he’d say to a UK GP considering the move, Temi’s answer was simple: give it a shot. He doesn’t think anyone regrets moving to Australia, and points out that if it doesn’t work out, you can always come back. He also mentions moving without knowing anyone in Adelaide, which might resonate with anyone worried about starting from scratch.

Listen to the full episode to hear Temi’s complete story, including more detail on the visa process, what his wife thinks of the move, and life with two young children in Adelaide.

If you’re a UK GP considering a move to Australia, Canada or New Zealand, get in touch with the Menlo Park Recruitment team to talk through your options.