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Mostly geography. RMO/HMO2/JHO/TMO all mean PGY2. SRMO/HMO3/SHO all mean PGY3+ and still supervised 12. PHO (QLD), SMR (WA), "service registrar" (SA) and "unaccredited trainee" (NSW) are one job under four names — the non-training registrar 235. The title tells you the award step, not the work.
The same ladder, eight vocabularies. PGY2 is RMO in NSW, WA, TAS and the ACT, HMO2 in Victoria, JHO in Queensland and TMO under SA's MDP2 classification 124. PGY3+ and still supervised is SRMO in NSW, HMO3 in Victoria and SHO in Queensland 12. NSW's own glossary defines the SRMO as someone "not in a specialty training program" working supervised, and — this is the part people miss — still paid on the Resident award classification, not a registrar one 1.
The non-training registrar is where the names diverge most. Queensland calls it Principal House Officer, and MOCA6 puts PHO at levels 4–7, the same band as an accredited registrar, so a PHO and a training registrar of the same level are paid identically 3. WA calls it Service Medical Registrar and says so plainly — "known by different titles in other states, such as unaccredited trainee" 4. SA calls it service registrar; NSW calls it "Trainee – Unaccredited Position", PGY4+, paid at Registrar 1. The peer-reviewed description of the role confirms these are synonyms, not grades 5.
What the title actually tells you. Two things: the award step you are paid on, and whether a college recognises the post. Not the work — an SRMO in one state is running the same list a registrar runs in another 6.
The cynical read, which is also the correct one. The community's verdict on "SRMO" is that it is a resident job with a better name, and the reason it exists is that it lets an employer staff a registrar slot at resident pay 6. Before you take a job because the title sounds senior, check the classification line in the contract and whether the term is accredited.
r/ausjdocs — community view, not policy; verbatim, cautionary beside positive where both exist, every quote linked to the comment.
HMO with a new paint job, chrome wheels, but same engine and price.
An excuse for admin to pay you resident pay for an uncredited registrar job
In NSW it basically means you are PGY3+ but still operating under supervision
When I locumed in regional NSW as a medical SRMO I was functioning in what every hospital in Qld would call a med reg position.
Asked 33 times on r/ausjdocs (title-regex count) · encoded by hand from the numbered sources, retrieved 12 Sept 2026; no AI wrote any of it. how the count was made
asked_count = posts in the 19,145-post r/ausjdocs dump (2022-09-13 to 2026-09-12) whose title matches /(what (is|are|does)|difference between|meaning of|explain).{0,45}(\bPHO\b|\bSHO\b|\bSRMO\b|\bSMR\b|\bJHO\b|\bTMO\b|\bCMO\b|\bRMO\b|\bHMO\b|registrar|senior resident)|(\bPHO\b|\bSHO\b|\bSRMO\b|\bSMR\b|\bJHO\b|\bTMO\b).{0,40}(mean|vs|versus|difference|equivalent|explain)/i. Quotes are the top-scoring comments in the 'What is a SRMO?' thread, keeping the descriptive answer next to the cynical one about pay classification.