Fact is there are hundreds of dudes handing in a resume to Darwin / Kunnurra / Broome, even making the 100km trek off the main road out to Will Creek, each year. Every dude who was successful and found work will tell you to "keep persistent", almost with the idea in their head that it is impossible to not find a job, and that there is actually a match between people moving up north and people getting hired. There is no match. There are plenty that move up, hang round, or do a big drive, and do not find work. If you handed in a resume and got a job a month later you have no idea how hard it can be to find a job. If you headed down the pub and got lucky talking to some pilots, you have no idea how hard it can be to find work.
Some dudes are just in the right place at the right time. Like one I talked to who started their 6 month stint on the ground by asking if some dude outside the office was the chief pilot... he was... and he had two pilots leave the week before.
It was said to me once that a person I knew didn't get a look in with an operator "because he had kids, on the east coast". What?? Doesn't that indicate he likely would be a good candidate, because he is sacrificing quite a bit to try and get a job? Doesn't that speak to his "attitude"?? Hiring is unfair.
20- year old chief pilots want to hire dudes they can be friends with, being able to do the job is not enough.
Want to find a job as a pilot up north? Go to the pub. Go to Monsoons. Chief pilots are 20- year old kids who love to drink and party. Top tip: the way to get a job up north is to make friends with the 20 year old pilots and chief pilots. Every other bit of advice is BS.
The old fellas on here who have endless amounts of advice to give regarding resumes etc seem to have no experience of what it's like post VSL and now HELP. The job market is absolutely saturated and as others have stated, the big dogs running flights schools are the winners. They do not care about training standards. They don't have any f*cking idea of what flying in the top end is like. Instructors do all their training from 0 to FIR at one school, then start instructing at the same school. There are no strong beliefs in these organisations. No strong convictions. When something is taught, no one has any real idea or appreciation for why it is taught like that. Tisdall, Tim from the Sunny Coast, the SFC mob, Airwork, just a few that come to mind that, post-COVID, have expanded like a CB in the build up, with fancy new buildings and huge fleets. I now sympathise with people who live near Archerfield, Bankstown etc and complain about planes doing circuits all day. WTF are you training for? Why are you pushing through 12 dudes every month on a new intake??? Entry level GA does not need that many people.
I have flown during the build up and the very start of the wet season in the top end. Despite how ever much you want to parrot PPPPPP, it will not stop a 20- year old from not prior planning... having my IR (with a current IPC) and a machine that was IFR capable gave me a lot more options and confidence. Never did go IFR but was more willing to send it because I had flown in proper IMC a lot during my IR training. My IPC has expired now but I can start up my home sim and fly an approach pretty well and there's an IFR cheat sheet hanging around to refresh on al the regs. Going up with a bare CPL is a sound decision but I don't get what's wrong with going up with your MEA IR as well. If you drink with the right pilots you could even be on a twin straight away. Bonus points if you're drinking with blokes on the east coast. Big brained dudes don't even need to go up north to get a job.