80% of flying in that part of the world don't be belonging in tourism my friend as you must well know having spent years around such a crowd!
Why doth the locals love the airyplane? Because it's damn well the only way you get out of the bush in any reasonable time. Dirt cheap out that way as well. Sorry, but I was out there in the early 90s and to me, things only got better out there during the recession... **** knows why, I aint an economyisty! This is why our friend the OP is on here guns blazing ready to throw in the towel on a job flying caravoons at 20S! Very easy to forget what's going on in the rest of the world because in essence you live a very separated existence and is easy to lose touch with reality.
But what the hell do I know, right?
edit - bla etc... my area was medical, similar analogy to your firefighting example. I assumed this was what the OP was on about.