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Comment by Andaith | Hacker News Reader

Which is crazy, because you would think that Australia was mostly Flatland! It's the size of the continental US, with a population lower than Texas.

Everyone here lives in the capital cities, and last I looked there were almost no tech jobs at all further up the coast between Sydney and Brisbane.

I wonder if pandemic working from home is going to change this, some of our devs have already moved up the coast...

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> some of our devs have already moved up the coast...

How do they do this and stay connected? I remember seeing a guy that did this in a van while subscribing to multiple wireless providers. But as far as I am aware Australia still doesn't have the best coverage, service and technology. Moreover, if you're going out more remote locations, I'm sure your connection options start to dwindle.

I'm sure Starlink (maybe oneweb too?) and the WFH movement is going to change this equation quite drastically.

Here's an interesting RV internet set up.

https://wa9ace.net/2021/08/01/rv-internet.html

Probably because it's mostly desert

It is, and yet we still only really live in three cities (150km in length along a 26000km long coastline)

Three cities (presumably Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane) is a weird way to describe Australia's population distribution. Perth is basically the same size as Brisbane. "We still only really live in two/four/five cities" all would be more accurate.

No. The non-desert land per capita in Australia is more than twice that in the US.

Its not just desert, it about water as well. If I not mistaken large parts of Australia had drought in the last couple of years.

So is California. And Texas.

In Cal it's an infrastructure issue - how to get roads and utilities (sewer, water, gas, electric) to relatively remote areas, how that is organized (incorporated/unincorporated areas) before even thinking about building structures

There used to be an IBM office in Gold Coast, many moons ago. No idea if it's still there.

That stretch of coast has been seeing massive house price inflation recently as well, IIRC.

You can buy remote country houses for around 100k ..

Flatland is a state of mind where the state government try not to interfere too much and people in general have a less nimby attitude, Australia is the opposite of it.

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