Wages are so high in one part of Australia someone is considered poor if they are earning a six-figure salary.
Median pay in the Ashburton council area in Western Australia’s remote Pilbara region stands at $102,306 – by far the highest in the country.
This means more than half the workers there are earning a six-figure salary.
Median pay in the Ashburton council area in Western Australia’s Pilbara region stands at $102,306 – by far the highest in the country. The town has a median house price of $241,328 (pictured is a four-bedroom house selling for $315,000)
This vast area of WA includes Rio Tinto’s iron ore mine at Mount Tom Price (pictured). Mining engineers in the Pilbara are earning good money as wages growth stagnates in the rest of Australia, thanks to a soaring iron ore price
That kind of salary is also double Australia’s median salary of $55,432, Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed.
This vast area of WA includes Rio Tinto’s iron ore mine near Tom Price.
The town has a median house price of $241,328 which is less than a third of Sydney’s $900,017, CoreLogic data showed.
Even in Sydney’s wealthy eastern suburbs, median salaries in the Woollahra council area are a much more modest $64,623.
Someone on that kind of salary would have no chance of affording a house at Vaucluse, where median prices are a mere $4.66 million, unless they won the lottery or were left with a very generous inheritance.
Mining engineers earn more money in WA’s sparsely populated Pilbara, with Karratha having a median salary of $80,060 putting it slightly ahead of Port Hedland’s $79,423.
They are earning good money, as wages growth stagnates in the rest of Australia, thanks to soaring prices for iron ore, a material used to make steel in China.
In fact, people there earn more than the white collar professionals on Sydney’s lower North Shore near the harbour, which are the next richest places to earn a living.
North Sydney, on the northern side of the Harbour Bridge, has a median salary of $73,241, putting it ahead of nearby Mosman ($68,812), Lane Cove ($67,114) and Hunters Hill ($65,042).
Comparable wages exist in Palmerston, a satellite military city a short drive from Darwin, which has a median salary of $65,138.
Canberra, a city of federal public servants, is Australia’s ninth richest area, based on rubbish collection boundaries.
It has a mid-point salary of $64,872, putting it marginally ahead of Sydney’s eastern suburbs ($64,623), stretching from Paddington to Woollahra, Bellevue Hill and Vaucluse.
Residents of rural Darwin typically earn more money than workers living on Sydney’s middle-distance suburbs on the North Shore train line.
Even in Sydney’s wealthy eastern suburbs, median salaries in the Woollahra council area are a much more modest $64,623. Someone on that kind of salary would have no chance of affording a house at Vaucluse (pictured), where median prices are a mere $4.66 million, unless they won the lottery or were left with a very generous inheritance
Humpty Doo, where there are mango farms and larger blocks, has a median salary of $62,173, ranking ahead of the Willoughby council area taking in Chatswood ($60,273) and the Ku-ring-gai suburbs, including Killara and Turramurra ($60,024).
Areas west of Perth’s city centre also made the top 20 including Cambridge council ($62,589), Subiaco ($60,318), Cottesloe ($59,180) and Nedlands ($57,790), with East Fremantle ($59,823) on the other side of the Swan River beating Darwin’s city and suburbs ($58,585).
Melbourne doesn’t enter the list until No. 19, with the city’s Port Phillip council area taking in St Kilda, having a median salary of $57,800.
Brisbane and Adelaide had no local government areas with median salaries above the national median of $55,432.
North Sydney (Luna Park at Milson’s Ponit pictured), on the northern side of the Harbour Bridge, has a median salary of $73,241, putting it ahead of nearby Mosman ($68,812), Lane Cove ($67,114) and Hunters Hill ($65,042)