Where to Base Yourself in Australia as a Digital Nomad

Australia’s biggest city wraps around one of the world’s great harbours, with Bondi, Coogee and Manly beaches inside the city, coastal walks and ferries as everyday transport. Most remote workers live in Surry Hills and Darlinghurst for cafes and coworking, Bondi for the beach, the Inner West for value and character, or Manly for surf. It has the biggest startup scene and the most coworking spaces, but also the highest rents and fierce competition for flats. See the Sydney digital nomad guide.

Melbourne is the country’s capital of coffee, food, art and sport, with laneway cafes, trams, live music and big festivals, and the Great Ocean Road and wine regions within a short drive. Remote workers favour the inner north (Fitzroy, Collingwood, Brunswick) or the inner south (South Yarra, St Kilda). Its cafe culture is ideal for laptop workers. The weather is famously changeable and winters are grey and cool. See the Melbourne digital nomad guide.

Queensland’s capital is sunny, relaxed and a little cheaper than Sydney or Melbourne, with riverside parks, CityCat ferries, and the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast beaches about an hour away. Fortitude Valley, West End, South Brisbane and New Farm are the popular areas. Queensland has no daylight saving, so in summer Brisbane is an hour behind Sydney. Summers are hot, humid and stormy; winters are warm and dry. See the Brisbane digital nomad guide.

A 50-kilometre strip of surf beaches and high-rises south of Brisbane, with a sporty outdoor lifestyle and a rainforest hinterland. The remote-work scene centres on laid-back Burleigh Heads, with Broadbeach and the southern beaches as alternatives. It is a little cheaper than Sydney and sunny most of the year, but car-friendly rather than walkable, with limited culture. See the Gold Coast digital nomad guide.

A small surf-and-wellness town on the far north coast of New South Wales, with a lighthouse walk, a creative, health-conscious crowd and a green hinterland of villages and waterfalls. Most people live in town or in Suffolk Park. It has a small but active coworking scene, and many remote workers come for a season. It is very expensive for its size, rentals are scarce, and summer holidays are packed. See the Byron Bay digital nomad guide.

One of the sunniest and most isolated big cities in the world, with long white Indian Ocean beaches and historic Fremantle nearby. Remote workers live in Fremantle, Northbridge, Leederville or Mount Lawley. It runs on UTC+8 all year, the same as Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, which makes it Australia’s best base for working with Asia, and it overlaps a little more with European mornings than the east coast does. It is far from everywhere and life is spread out. See the Perth digital nomad guide.

A compact, affordable city ringed by parklands, between the beaches of Gulf St Vincent and the Barossa, McLaren Vale and Adelaide Hills wine regions. Remote workers live in the CBD, North Adelaide, Glenelg or Norwood. February and March bring a big festival season. It is quieter than the east-coast cities and the nomad community is small. See the Adelaide digital nomad guide.

Tasmania’s small, historic harbour capital sits below kunanyi/Mount Wellington, with sandstone warehouses, the Salamanca Market, the MONA museum and wilderness on its doorstep. Battery Point, North Hobart and the CBD are the places to live. Summers are mild and long, making it a good escape from mainland heat, but winters are cold and the nomad community is tiny. See the Hobart digital nomad guide.

• Think about time zones first. Perth suits Asia and is the least painful for Europe; the east coast suits New Zealand and the Pacific; nowhere suits US hours.
• Follow the seasons. Head north to Brisbane or the Gold Coast in the southern winter, and south to Melbourne or Hobart in summer.
• Book rooms early in Sydney, Melbourne and Byron Bay, and avoid arriving in the December and January school holidays.
• Plan around three months. On an ETA or eVisitor, each stay is limited to three months, so a trip to New Zealand or Bali is a common break between bases.