appreciate the replies, what you have all said is true. this does appear to be a fact of life for the young guys aspiring to end up in an airline position.
my opinion is just that conditions are below what they should be. sure the award is $38,000 per year for a s/e aeroplane pilot, but that is for a full time position. most pilots in their first 'up north' job are being paid on a casual basis for the number of flying hours they do which ends up being well below the $38,000 p/a. and plenty of operators dont even pay the award.
and i appreciate that the harsh conditions weed out the guys who dont want to do the hard yards, but the yards are arguably harder than they should be. conditions are so bad because pilots are prepared to work for nothing to get their first 1000 flying hours. i really dont understand how it got to the point of having to actually head there to ask for a job.
in most other industries where you apply for a job far away from home, you will still need to make the treck to wherever that position is, but the employer will have contacted you in response to a resume. the fact that pilots have to move away from home to work at woolworths really shows how bad things are for low time pilots. you should be able to work at the woolworths in your home city and receive a call from an operator in kununurra to be invited up for an interview rather than moving up there hoping for a job which may never come...