Entry is employer-based and the state decides the shape: Victoria's VBPTC is the only PGY2 door in the country (RCH JRMO, apply as an intern, no paeds needed); NSW is one application across three networks to start PGY3;…
Typical start years; people vary by a year or two. Diamonds are exams. Stage list and sources in the pathway tab.
Report scores it 3.5/5: genuinely more competitive than adult BPT for entry, nowhere near surgical-subspecialty territory, much easier than adult medicine at the AT end. Ratings are the encoder's 1–5 call from college numbers and r/ausjdocs; applicant-to-place ratios double-count people who apply in several states. Evidence rows are in getting selected.
Queensland is the biggest intake (~60) via the June RMO campaign at PGY3+; WA and Tasmania require you to hold a paeds job first. Harder than adult BPT to get into, nowhere near surgical territory, and the real bottleneck is subspecialty Advanced Training.
People with sick kids don’t have money.
I had an interview two weeks ago and got an offer last week, but this was for Paeds - not sure if it’s different for other specialties!
I had an abdominal examination station where I could not feel any enlarged organs despite repeated examination; the only comment I could make was that the child had a gastrostomy tube in situ. Feedback was that I identified clinical signs that were not present.
In WA everyone who applies for an RMO position can get onto basic training if they want; but many choose to do GP or ED instead.
All 57 curated quotes by topic, trajectories and threads.
racp.edu.au for the facts and summary · rating and pathway encoded by hand from the same sources · quotes are verbatim r/ausjdocs comments, community view not policy
Number = distinct authors who said it; dashed chips are single reports (under three authors). Hover or long-press a chip for the why.
Stages: rch.org.au, racp.edu.au, reddit.com · terms: r/ausjdocs term-strategy collection, counted by distinct author, community view not policy
"Mandatory" is the college's word. Amber "community" rows are what the sub says panels actually want.
Level 3 minimum is stated as 6 months in the RACP handbook and 9 months in an RACP accreditation consultation document.
Canberra Health Services / Centenary Hospital for Women and Children within the Canberra Physician Training Network. A recent CHS paediatric basic trainee ad specified PGY4+ - ACT tends to take more senior applicants.
HETI Paediatric Physician Training: three networks (Greater Eastern - SCH Randwick; Western - CHW; Northern - John Hunter). One application, preference all three, one virtual interview; apply in PGY2 to start PGY3; 3-year joint training-and-employment contract. Advertised in the NSW Annual Medical Recruitment main round as 'Paediatric Physician Basic Trainee'. The May-June 'early round' paediatrics window is for Provisional Fellow posts only, not BPT.
No standalone program. Royal Darwin is a secondment from the Townsville/QLD network; Alice Springs from WCH/SA. Apply via QLD or SA.
Queensland Basic Paediatric Training Network: QCH, Townsville (incl. Darwin secondment), Gold Coast; mandatory 12-month outer-metro/regional rotation; ~60 positions for 2027 - the largest single-jurisdiction intake. Eligibility: general registration, completed PGY2, commencing PGY3+. Scoring: CV + short statement 35%, clinical experience 5%, 7-station virtual MMI 60%; 2 named referees = shortlisting gate; no rurality or publications criterion. ATSI applicants shortlisted for interview and, if suitable, given first rotation/hospital preference.
WCHN statewide: ~20 FTE first-year BTs per year; all three years of rotations allocated up front; sites WCH, Flinders, Lyell McEwin, Port Augusta, Mount Gambier, Alice Springs. Entry job 'Paediatric 1st Year Trainee' usually opens in May, separate from the centralised PGY2+ EOI; targets PGY3+; panel interview. The WCH Prevocational Resident Program (6 months paeds + 6 months O&G) is the feeder. Community lore: the softest entry in the country.
Royal Hobart Hospital, 1-2 BT stream positions annually; expected to have worked as a paediatric SRMO first, then apply via the local DPE; three consultant-level referees; jobs.tas.gov.au.
VBPTC central recruitment run by RCH and Monash Children's for 21 sites across 19 health services (2 tertiary, 9 outer-metro, 10 rural). Three entry levels: JRMO (PGY2, apply as intern), SRMO (>=12 months paeds), Registrar (>=24 months paeds incl 6 months NICU). Application = RCH careers portal + VBPTC form + 3 references (2 consultants + 1 senior nurse); CV max 4 pages, no photo; online MMI. Extended Rural Stream: 6 positions, rural-background ranking bonus, 5% boost for preferencing, offers before metro. Indigenous candidates who meet employment criteria and are 'considered likely to succeed... will be accepted' at JRMO level. General HMO2 jobs with paeds rotations go through the PMCV PGY2 Match instead.
Two-step: first secure 12 months as an RMO/registrar at Perth Children's Hospital (or a paediatric/neonatal registrar post at Fiona Stanley) via the WA centralised RMO/SMR campaign; PCH Postgraduate Medical Education then runs BPT selection internally.
Dates drift a week or two each year; the calendar has confirmed vs expected windows.
QLD: CV + short statement bucket VIC/VBPTC: no published rubric - online MMI; 'Full details of the process will be made available to all applicants scheduled for interview'; no CV template, no preference for paediatric referees, no university/intern-hospital preference NSW/SA/WA/TAS/ACT/NT: no published numeric rubric QLD: 2 named referees QLD Affirmative Pathway: eligible ATSI applicants shortlisted for interview and, if suitable, allocated first rotation and hospital prefe…
Requirements and rubric: vbptc.com.au, elearning.racp.edu.au, racp.edu.au +4 · state mechanics: canberrahealthservices.act.gov.au, heti.nsw.gov.au, racp.edu.au +2 · community rows from r/ausjdocs
Dots are sittings the college has dated; "approx." means only a month was published.
Hollow dots are hearsay — the poster was not citing a figure. A bar spans the components or years quoted; hover for the exact words.
"Cost to get on" is a name-based pick of the one-off fees paid before or at selection. The college schedule is a lifetime-of-training list at each item's own year, not one bill; community amounts overlap it and are never summed. Courses, travel and repeat sittings are the part the sub complains about.
Not shown: 1 paid product under three independent authors; 2 paid with no free alternative.
Exams and fees: racp.edu.au, medicalboard.gov.au · claims, prep and costs quoted: r/ausjdocs exams-and-costs collection, community view not policy · paid prep products need three independent non-suspect authors and a free alternative to appear
Scored by the Paediatrics (Basic Training in Paediatrics & Child Health) rules — whether or not the title names the specialty — highest first, closing soonest next.
"Has anyone heard back?" reports on r/ausjdocs, 2023–2026 folded onto one calendar year; dashed line is the official date for the 2027 intake where published.
8 dated reports, weekly bins
6 dated reports, weekly bins
4 dated reports, weekly bins
Jobs: last night's scrape, scored by hand-written rules (no AI) · units and offer reports: r/ausjdocs, counted by distinct author · campaign windows: canberrahealthservices.act.gov.au, health.nsw.gov.au, healthjobs.nt.gov.au +4
Verbatim, one caution beside one encouragement per topic where both exist, the rest folded. Every quote links to the comment.
The DCH (now GDCH) is something many of my colleagues have, but by the end of basic training it does nothing to distinguish you from your cohort. It might be useful to get you “on” to the program (it will certainly help with the pseudo-clinical interview questions) and it will be a useful foundation of information for…
Not really, at least in my experience and in what I have seen around me (trainees and SMOs alike). Paeds is actually quite good for having a reasonably varied demopgraphic getting on. It is not infrequent to see people who have started down GP (or finished) come to do Paeds, or those who have finished Medical school as…
Use the first half of the year in paediatrics as your extended skills term for GP, then take a term of leave from GP for the second half of the year. That'll let you continue with paediatric training for an entire year. The year after reverse the process and see if you can take a whole year off from your paeds training…
overall pass rate for exams is about 80% nationally. It differs per state and also impacted by how supportive your work environment around exam time is. Eg: some units have 95% clinical pass rate due to excellent consultant coaching and culture of supporting those sitting (ie: clinics and not night's when preparing).…
RCH preferentially hires PGY2s onto the RMO program. You need to have your referees write sentences and mark you highly. Monash takes people with 12+ months of paeds experience (not mixed ED). This can be achieved with a mercy RMO job potentially. APLS & SCHP help (even if RCH info nights say they don't) FYI Adelaide…
I don't think you'll regret becoming a GP. I've been a GP for 12 years. If you want to know what my days look like, I work 4 long days a week (8am to 6pm), and have worked 4 days a week since my late 30s. Appointments are booked at 15 minute intervals. Mostly private billing although I bulk bill young children and…
Thank you for your advice. I have decided to go with GP! Ultimately two very good options and would be happy doing either. Appreciate your response!
NZ might not pay AT ALL for overtime - check. I found Westmead Kids great.
Randwick (Eastern): 2nd busiest paediatric hospital. Bigger catchment, with more training secondments than Westmead. This is good and bad. It is definitely good for your skill set as a doctor to work in different areas with different resourcing. Also good for future boss jobs as you are known at lots of hospitals. But…
HNE is a big regional LHD, so struggles to fill all its spots for some of the less competitive training pathways like BPT/paeds BPT. It’s not the red flag it would be if a Metro hospital couldn’t fill its positions by this time, IMO. People are just less inclined to move to Newcastle if they can stay in Sydney/their…
- your first year in both states is mainly spent as a resident but the amount of responsibility varies considerably depending on the complexity/workload of the job (eg peripheral gen paeds where you likely will go to lots of deliveries on your own & might manage postnatal reviews semi-independently once you’ve got a…
The GDCH is the equivalent of the SCHP/DCH which is what you're referring to. /u/Familiar-Reason-4734 is correct the target audience is mainly GPs and the content focuses heavily on primary care. Nevertheless, (clearly as you have heard) prospective paeds trainees have been known to sometimes do the GDCH…
I would say the bottle neck is still very much getting onto AT that you want (noting that they have made entering BPT a little more competitive in recent years, with one of the reasons being the AT bottle neck and lack of SMO jobs at the end of it all). For example doing Gen Paeds, Community Paeds - they are fairly…
The Paeds program accepts plenty of people who apply post PGY3. There are plenty of people who have done a career change or were even already finished training overseas who started the program this year in NSW. And not having any paeds research won't be a big disadvantage :) Ive also heard of at least 1 person get…
Apply interstate/NZ as well then. Some of the paeds BPT1s I’ve run across seem barely capable of breathing so I suspect you’ll be fine if you apply widely
It's fairly reasonable here in QLD, based on my and peers experiences on the whole. The vast majority get on within 1 - 3 attempts. Many peripheral hospitals have dedicated paeds RMO jobs that are supportive of applying to the program. Also a fairly transparent recruitment process. Overall a good place to do…
Getting a job on Paeds BPT (on the whole) is more competitive than adults BPT (on the whole) because in adult land there’s so many networks and many networks are under subscribed. Paeds is most competitive in VIC (for PGY2+) because of their absolutely bonkers hiring policy of 2/3 of jobs going to interns. The…
In WA everyone who applies for an RMO position can get onto basic training if they want; but many choose to do GP or ED instead.
It very much depends on which state you are in. Some (like Victoria) are very competitive, partly due to the number of interstate applicants (possibly due to perceptions of a hospital - though I wouldn't worry about this, you will get high quality training no matter where you are). Though I think like most…
I wouldnt say it's the most competitive program, especially compared to any surgical subspecialty. It seems a bit more competitive than psych or GP (from what I hear anecdotally), but majority of colleages I knew who applied to paeds received an offer (though this may not be a universal thing). Research and multiple…
"As an indicative number, 52 applicants were accepted for General Paediatrics Training in Queensland in 2021 out of 117 eligible applications received." https://www.nqrth.edu.au/general-paediatrics/
I don't know anything about other programs nor do I have particular information but taking an educated guess there seem to be a few factors: 1. ratio of positions to population and local grads > 2 unis in Adelaide of 30-50 students, 3 (and a bit) unis in Victoria with up to 350 students > 20 paeds training places for…
1stly, continue looking for swaps.
I had an interview two weeks ago and got an offer last week, but this was for Paeds - not sure if it’s different for other specialties!
Nothing yet for me too. Interestingly I know of someone who applied to rural JRMO and they received an email offer (and phone call!) on Monday. Which has raised A LOT of questions for me haha
Just heard back for JRMO unaccredited Goodluck guys
Woah, that is interesting. I got an offer (accredited) but I believe it’s staggered. Hopefully see you guys at RCH next year!!
Applications open today in NSW
Suspect I might know the answer but have applicants heard back yet from RCH regarding Victorian paeds training offers?
answering my own question for those who upvoted - got an email this arvo shortlisting for interview and asking for my preferred date
I had an abdominal examination station where I could not feel any enlarged organs despite repeated examination; the only comment I could make was that the child had a gastrostomy tube in situ. Feedback was that I identified clinical signs that were not present.
I failed the written Paediatric RACP paper twice. I went through the crisis of what now? What if I can’t do Paediatrics, what do I do instead? So, I sat down and worked out why I failed twice- turns out it was not a lack of knowledge, but that I suck at MCQ exams- my problem was I second guess a lot of my answers,…
58% for paeds
Congrats fellow paeds passer! Yep paeds had a lower pass rate than adults this year (57.5% overall, 52.5% in aus)
I passed paeds
Diploma of Child Health (Western Sydney University x Sydney Children’s Hospital) is $750/unit ($6k for the course) and done online.
It is tricky to get a public appointment at the big tertiary hospitals, and even then most would be fractional. Many I've worked with do a mix of public/private, and paediatrics is very in demand meaning you will quickly fill books once you open. Me personally, I decided to go rural to keep up a sub interest whilst…
Junior consultant (Gen Paeds). Finish paeds. I'm not sure what you mean by 'no jobs at the end of this'. It's literally one of the most in demand specialities! As someone who had 2 children during AT I am acutely aware of the family pressures but once you are working as a consultant the flexibility is so much better…
Almost impossible to get a paediatric term as a PGY1, I've worked throughout NSW and it has always been PGY2 and above
There is at present a really large shortage of Paediatricians, mainly in the Public. In some places it is taking 1-2years to get in and be seen in a Paediatric clinic - that is how bad the wait list is! And looking at the data by births per hospital just in QLD ([2025 Births by Hospital - Births by Hospital - Open…
Terms that are difficult to get or rate limiting stepping stones to training programs. Paeds since it’s mandatory for anyone wanting to do GP or Paeds, Anaesthetics if it’s offered, radiology, surg subspecs, med subspecs.
It does depend on a lot of factors. One, being the rotations you are going to get Two, the set up of the department / hospital. If you have specialty rotations, you there is no really shift works per se. You may have weekend shifts however. If you are looking the Gen Paeds / Gen Med / admitting shift, if split evenly,…
The biggest issue with BPT is that a lot of RMO roles are basically being a glorified intern. The step up to a “trainee” is significantly less impactful than in almost any other specialty stream. Look to the AT side of things and try to position yourself for some of the more senior roles in BPT3 as they’re markedly…
Are you at a tertiary centre/have you rotated to a peripheral centre? It's partly the nature of tertiary hospital paediatrics (ED and after hours excepted) - things are pretty top-heavy and specialist-heavy so there is not much "meat" left for the resident. My peripheral gen paeds terms were quite different even as a…
Im a Paediatric Reg and have done all my training in QLD. Tbh there is more shift work than I anticipated and definitely more than our adult med colleagues (especially in AT). Of the 3 years of BPT, I had 3 terms that were day shifts only, the remainder through BPT were all shift work (that's across QCH and outer…
In BPT there is more shift work than you realise. Most of BPT will be general paeds/ED/maybe NICU or PICU depending on where you are. All that is shift work. You will have a term or two of subspec which will be days only. Personally, I did 28 months shift working, 8 months not. TLDR at least 2-2.5 of the 3 years will…
A few advantages too: You’re all but guaranteed a paeds term at QCH which is fun; plus they don’t put interns on ward call.
The Paeds term at Maitland is adequate for GP training but the medical terms are terrible as someone has mentioned.
Best advice is to try get a paeds rotation early - St Vs has a paeds rotation through RCH which is very popular.
Lots of med students wonder if they need to intern at St Vincent's because they offer an intern rotation to RCH - the vast majority of paediatric trainees did not intern at St Vincent's or do the paeds rotation there.
Other hospitals apart from POW and JHH will run mixed EDs and you may get some paeds exposure that way as an RMO
highly recommend bankstown paeds + O&G in your rmo year.
QCH has a dedicated paed surg sho role which is very good.
Haha all jokes aside, there’s quite a few Paeds terms for PGY1 at many of the hospitals, I think all 3 tertiaries in WA offer a Paeds secondment term, RPH defintely offers a few different matrixes with Paeds terms so there’s lots on offer
For context, I applied for an RMO general rotations position and I am paeds keen so I’m still aiming for Westmead in the long run, however would just like to prepare myself if I ever get accepted to know what I’m getting myself into.
Try reaching out to the paediatric department at JHC if it isn’t too far as they might be hiring within their actual department, or just take up paeds locum gigs if they’re supportive!
People with sick kids don’t have money.
3 people, counts not rates; median 0.5 yr to getting on from the 1 whose start and outcome both fell inside the dump.
I'm 36 in first year BPT (paeds) as PGY4. One of the prevocational paeds surg regs at my hospital is also PGY4 and in her 30s having had another career first. I intend to dual quality in paeds rehab…comment ↗
Now pgy4 on my first choice of training program and bought a house. In my previous career I never would have gotten a mortgage with current house prices by myself.comment ↗
I'm BT2 paeds reg and did my grad dip in child health prior to getting on the program. It was just this guy selling himself as so much more experienced than me and so much wider for having finished h…comment ↗
I'm PGY5 Paeds BT2 with a baby. It's possible to follow whatever path you want but there are costs. I expect to be doing nights for many more years.comment ↗
I'm a paeds reg. BT3 (pre exams). 38 years old. PGY6ish, on mat leave currently, planning for a second baby sooner rather than later. I might be a consultant when I'm 50. In the mean time I have a jo…comment ↗
I am pgy2 starting paeds training next year, didn't do it myself but know other trainees who did and found it reasonable from work load perspective.comment ↗
Right now I don't have a choice as a bpt1 in paeds, but as soon as I'm a consultant I never intend to work full time again. Medicine is something I always want to be a part of my life but not my whol…comment ↗
Sure training is still faster over there but I'm working much less hours as a 2nd year reg and making as much money even after the conversion rate as he is as a qualified paediatrician post residency…comment ↗
That being said, as a pgy4 reg now even including my intern year I think there have only been like 5-6 days as a doctor where I have worn anything other than scrubs. Also, you can use scrubs as a ta…comment ↗
I'm a paeds trainee. Doing paeds is helpful, especially if you're able to get a good reference from rotation (which is time of year dependent though). Not the end of the world if you don't and rememb…comment ↗
Started training 4 years ago in Vic, applied twice and got on my second time. The CV is marked but they don't share the criteria. If you get an interview it is more heavily weighted so highly recomme…comment ↗
Reconstructed from what people said about themselves on a public forum. Self-report only; no verification against any register. Survivorship and self-selection are severe (people post when things go wrong and when they get on, rarely in between). Handles are public usernames; nothing here is combined with any off-platform data.
r/ausjdocs comments and posts, hand-curated from the physician-paediatrics, term-strategy, employers, paediatric-emergency, state-campaigns, exams-and-costs collections; scores as at the dump · community view, not policy
Knowledge rows last loaded 13 Sept 2026, encoded by hand from the sources linked on each panel; no AI wrote any of it. Compare specialties · calendar · all guides.