I knew a guy who was in his mid to late 30s while we were in training who was in the same situation as you. He got in as a flight instructor (1st job) and stayed on that route before getting hired into an East Coast regional.
Currently Captain at said regional and by all accounts has a pretty good "balance".
IMHO the major thing your gonna run into is trying to make decent scratch the first 5 or so years of your career.
As I said the instructing deal can give you a base in a larger city if that's what your after but there are still options. I would think with 1200 hrs you'd probably be able to get a go in Darwin or similar where you could have a decent career progression from singles to twins to turbine in the one spot.
I also think your age, life experience etc is a definite advantage in the employment search.
-Dux