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A median of $15,320 a year, per AusDoc's survey of 660 doctors — most between $10,000 and $25,000, full-timers $18,200 and part-timers $12,500 10. Registration alone was $1,027 for 2024-25 1. That is before college training fees, which run $2,350–$6,787 a year on their own 23.
The one real dataset. AusDoc surveyed 660 doctors on what it costs simply to keep practising — registration, indemnity, college and CPD home memberships, CPD activities, and union or association fees. Median $15,320 a year, with most respondents between $10,000 and $25,000; full-timers $18,200 (n=407), part-timers $12,500 (n=246) 10. The right tail is driven by indemnity for people doing surgery or obstetrics 10.
The fixed floor. Medical Board registration renewal was set at $1,027 for 2024-25 1 — four figures for the privilege of being on the register, and the same for a part-time PGY2 as for a private surgeon. Add an annual college training fee once you are on a program: CICM $2,350, ANZCA $3,930, RACP $4,230, RANZCOG $5,756, RANZCO $6,787 23456. Add indemnity, which scales with your specialty and procedural load.
What the survey does not count. Exam fees, and they are the big ones — an ANZCA primary is $6,590, a RANZCR OSCER $6,519, a GSSE attempt A$4,850 378. Nor does it count courses, conferences, interstate travel for interviews and vivas, relocation between rotations, or parking.
Why it bites harder early. These are flat costs on a junior salary. On a NSW Resident Year 1 base of $94,521 9, a $15,320 year is over 15% of gross before tax deductions are considered, and the sub's arithmetic of "more than 10% of income going to maintenance" is if anything conservative 11.
The counter-argument. Most of it is tax-deductible, and junior doctors are not poorly paid against the Australian median — the honest framing is that the costs are front-loaded onto the years when you earn least and move most 11. The larger cost, as older doctors point out, is the decade of deferred earning, mortgage and super 11.
r/ausjdocs — community view, not policy; verbatim, cautionary beside positive where both exist, every quote linked to the comment.
Not minimising your concerns and struggles, but this is what always gets me. If doctors struggle, who aren't poorly paid if we're being honest, how the hell does the median income earner (or less) cope?
Should be said that these costs also apply to junior doctors who are earning $100-150k /year. So more than 10% of their total income is going to maintenance
The median cost for part-timers (n=246): $12,500
As I approach my 50s the years of lost earning is where I see the real cost of doing medicine.
The overall median cost for the 660 doctors who took part was $15,320.
Asked 6 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 r_ausjdocs_posts.jsonl (19,145 posts, 2022-09-13 to 2026-09-12) whose title matches /(cost|expense|spend|spent|\$).{0,40}(each year|per year|annually|being a doctor|to work as|training)/i. Quotes come from the AusDoc account posting its own survey breakdown in-thread plus the highest-scoring responses, with the 'how does everyone else cope' counter-argument included deliberately.