Remote and regional teaching in the Northern Territory: every incentive

The Northern Territory has the most remote schools in Australia and the most developed package for the teachers who work in them. Most of it sits in the NT Public Sector Educators' 2024-2027 Enterprise Agreement; housing and some travel benefits are department policy, described on the Teach in the Territory site.

Many remote NT schools serve Aboriginal communities and homelands, where English may be a second or third language for students. Teaching there means working alongside Aboriginal Assistant Teachers and Aboriginal Team Teachers, families and Elders, on their Country. The money is good, but the teachers who do well tend to be the ones who arrive to listen and learn, and who stay long enough to build relationships.

Every NT rural, remote and recruitment incentive

Remote Incentive Allowance by category (2026)

Each school's category depends on its locality. We don't publish a school-by-school list because it changes; ask the department or use its remote allowance calculator for the school you're offered.

Housing, flights and other remote benefits

• 100% rental concession on department-supplied housing in remote localities. The department also supplies electricity in Category 2 and 3 areas (policy, not an EA right), and there is an electricity subsidy at Borroloola.
• Fares Out of Isolated Locality (FOIL): 2 or 3 free return airfares a year to Darwin or Alice Springs, depending on where you are. A kilometre allowance applies if you drive instead.
• End of half-semester travel help for approved localities more than 90 km from Darwin or Alice Springs (cl. 55).
• Up to $500 towards satellite TV or internet.
• Special study leave points: 2 a year in Category 1, 3 in Category 2 and 5 in Category 3. 20 points gives a semester on full pay or two on half pay.
• Up to 4 business days a year to travel to access services.
• Guaranteed transfer: after 3 years remote, classroom teachers can move to a school in Darwin, Palmerston, Katherine or Alice Springs.
• Homeland learning centre allowance: $1,769 a year, and a designated school allowance of $3,634 a year where it applies.

Worked example: graduate in a Category 3 community

Katherine and Alice Springs

Regional towns get their own incentives. Teachers at Katherine schools get an Attraction and Retention Allowance of $4,500 a year, paid $2,250 a semester (cl. 42). Teachers at listed Alice Springs urban schools also get $4,500 a year, paid $1,500 in Term 1 and $3,000 in Term 4 (cl. 43). Relocation help is up to 15 fortnightly payments in Katherine or 10 in Alice Springs. The Katherine allowance isn't paid to teachers on the old grand-parented Katherine Teacher Housing Subsidy, and neither allowance is paid to casuals. A CT1 graduate in Katherine earns $100,680 with the allowance, taking home about $77,942 a year.

HELP debt help

• NT HELP reimbursement: new recruits can get up to $3,000 towards their HELP debt, at the CEO's discretion (cl. 49).
• Federal Very Remote HELP reduction: teachers in an ABS Very Remote area for 4 years full-time within 6 years can have HELP from their teaching degree wiped, with indexation waived while they teach there. Much of the remote NT is classed as Very Remote. Check the start-date and eligibility rules with the Department of Education before relying on it. See HECS debt relief for remote teachers.

Before you go, read teaching in remote communities and teacher housing in rural and remote areas. You'll need an NT Ochre Card and TRB NT registration; see NT teacher registration.