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Geriatric Medicine Training Pathway

How to become a geriatrician in Australia — RACP Basic Physician Training, the Divisional exams, the comparatively attainable jump onto Geriatric Medicine Advanced Training, and what geriatricians earn.

The wall is the exams, not the geriatrics post. Getting onto Basic Physician Training and passing both Divisional exams is the grind; once through, accredited geriatric medicine posts are among the easier physician subspecialties to secure. Selection is hospital-run with no national rubric, so spend your effort on the exams and a department with accredited posts.

Why geriatric medicine

A mix of acute aged-care wards, geriatric rehabilitation, orthogeriatrics (co-managing the post-hip-fracture patient with the orthopaedic team), perioperative/peri-procedural assessment, ambulatory clinics (falls, memory, continence, syncope), and community/home-based care. The currency is the comprehensive geriatric assessment and the multidisciplinary team meeting, not a procedure list. You spend a lot of time on cognition, function, mobility, medication rationalisation, and goals-of-care conversations with patients and families. On-call exists but is materially lighter than the procedural physician specialties and the surgical fields — there is no overnight cath lab or scope list pulling you back in.

✓ Draws
  • One of the more attainable physician subspecialties to get an Advanced Training post in once you have passed the Divisional exams
  • Strong and growing workforce demand driven by population ageing — consultant jobs are not hard to find, including in regional centres
  • Comparatively benign lifestyle and on-call for a hospital-based physician specialty; minimal procedural commitment
  • Broad, transferable general-medicine skill set; natural overlap with general medicine, rehab, and palliative care
  • Deeply relational, high-impact work for doctors who value continuity and whole-person care
⚖ Trade-offs
  • You still have to clear the BPT bottleneck and the two Divisional exams — the hardest, most failure-prone part of the journey
  • Among the lower-earning physician fields (geriatricians are not separately reported by the ATO and sit within the lower half of the internal-medicine income spread)
  • Heavy load of complex discharge planning, social/family complexity, and systems frustration (aged-care interface, bed pressure)
  • Limited procedural variety — a turn-off if you want hands-on technical work
  • Emotionally demanding: frequent death, dying, dementia, and difficult family dynamics

Subspecialties

Orthogeriatrics / perioperative medicine of the older patientGeriatric and stroke rehabilitationCognitive / memory and behavioural disorders (dementia, delirium)Falls, syncope and movement disorders in older peopleCommunity, home-based and residential aged-care medicineGeriatric oncology and frailty in surgeryOld-age medicine research and academic geriatrics

The training pathway

The same fellowship, two very different timelines. The fast route assumes everything goes right; most people land on the realistic one.

Fastest route
~9 years post-graduation (structural floor)
The absolute structural minimum if nothing goes wrong: straight onto BPT in PGY2, both Divisional exams passed first attempt, and an accredited geriatric medicine post secured immediately. Few people hit every gate this cleanly.
Internship (PGY1)
1 yr
General registration with the Medical Board of Australia. Med-school entry is out of scope here — this clock starts at internship.
Start Basic Physician Training (BPT)
from PGY2
Earliest entry is PGY2; you must have secured a BPT-accredited hospital job through your state/network. Competitive.
BPT (Adult Internal Medicine) + Divisional exams
3 yrs
Minimum 3 yrs FTE. Divisional Written then Divisional Clinical exams sat near the end — the genuine bottleneck.
Advanced Training in Geriatric Medicine
3 yrs
36 months FTE: min 24 months core under geriatrician supervision + max 12 non-core; plus an Advanced Training Research Project.
FRACP (Geriatric Medicine) + consultant
—
Fellowship admitted on committee sign-off of all requirements; no separate exit exam.
Realistic route
~10–12 years post-graduation
What it actually looks like for most: a residency year or two before BPT, very often a Divisional exam re-sit, and frequently an unaccredited registrar year or interrupted training before everything lines up. Geriatrics itself is the easy part to secure.
Internship + RMO years
2–3 yrs
Most do at least one PGY2/PGY3 resident year building a competitive CV before BPT; some states explicitly prefer applicants with experience beyond internship.
Get onto BPT
PGY2–PGY4
Selection run by states/networks, not the RACP. Highly competitive; many apply more than once.
BPT + Divisional Written + Divisional Clinical
3–4 yrs
Allow for a re-sit: the Written has run anywhere from ~46% to ~87% pass by sitting (45.7% Oct 2021 up to 86.9% in 2018), the Clinical ~71–84%. Re-sits add a year. This is where the journey most often stretches.
Advanced Training in Geriatric Medicine
3 yrs
Comparatively achievable to secure an accredited post once you have passed the exams. 36 months FTE across ≥2 settings; complete the Advanced Training Research Project and (from 2023) the cultural safety course.
FRACP + consultant / fellowship
—
Some add a post-Fellowship year in a special interest (orthogeriatrics, stroke rehab, cognitive disorders) or research, but it is not required to be a consultant geriatrician.

How competitive is it?

Geriatric medicine is one of the more attainable RACP Advanced Training programs to secure a post in — the competitive crunch is getting onto BPT and clearing the two Divisional exams, not landing the geriatrics job afterwards. The RACP does not run selection or publish a national applicant-to-offer ratio for geriatric medicine, so no precise national success rate exists. The objective hard numbers are the exam pass rates: the Divisional Written (Adult Medicine, Australia + Aotearoa NZ) was 73.8% overall in Feb 2026 but has swung as low as 45.7% (Oct 2021) and 46.0% (Oct 2022) and as high as 86.9% (2018); the Divisional Clinical (Adult Medicine) was 84.0% in 2025 and has generally sat around 71–84%. Workforce signals point the right way: demand is rising with population ageing and NSW modelling judged trainee supply adequate to 2035, so consultant jobs are not the problem — getting through the physician exams is.

Unaccredited time: No formal unaccredited-registrar requirement (this is a physician, not a surgical, pathway). In practice many do one or more RMO/resident years before BPT and some do service-registrar time, but there is no surgical-style unaccredited year built into the program.

Sources: RACP — past Divisional Written Examination results, RACP — past Divisional Clinical Examination results, RACP — Advanced Training in Geriatric Medicine, NSW Health — geriatric medicine workforce modelling.

Selection criteria & how to apply

There is no national scored selection rubric for geriatric medicine. The RACP is explicit that it is not involved in recruiting or selecting trainees — it sets and monitors standards and advises selection committees, but you must secure employment at an accredited setting yourself before your training is approved. Two distinct gates exist: (1) competitive selection into BPT, run by each state/network; and (2) securing an accredited Advanced Training post in geriatric medicine, run by hospitals/health services. The components below are what selectors assess; none carry a published national percentage weighting, so treat weights as qualitative.

Eligibility (registration & postgraduate experience)Eligibility
AMC-accredited medical degree, general registration with the Medical Board of Australia, and at least 2 years FTE postgraduate clinical experience by the start of the contract for BPT entry (PGY2+). For Advanced Training you must already be through BPT with both Divisional exams passed.
Curriculum vitae & clinical experienceAssessed
Relevant rotations (general/acute medicine, geriatrics, rehab), references, and demonstrated commitment to the specialty. No published percentage weighting; selectors weigh it at interview/shortlisting.
Structured interviewAssessed
Most states use a structured panel interview, and WA uses a multiple mini-interview (MMI) format with five stations (10 marks per station). Format and weighting are set locally, not nationally.
Referee reports / supervisor supportAssessed
Strong supervisor and DPE support carries real weight, particularly for Advanced Training where you are effectively being recruited into a department you may already work in.
Divisional exam progress (for Advanced Training)Eligibility
You cannot start Advanced Training until you have passed the Divisional Written and Divisional Clinical exams. These are the genuine selection filter for the specialty.
Research / academic recordAssessed
Helpful but not a hard gate for entry; an Advanced Training Research Project is a requirement of the program itself, not of selection. No published weighting exists.

Key documents: RACP — entry into Basic Training, RACP — Advanced Training in Geriatric Medicine, RACP — Advanced Training accredited settings, RACP — overseas-trained physicians (specialist assessment).

How training is organised in each state and territory

Basic Physician Training (and therefore your route into geriatric medicine) is recruited at the state/network level, not by the RACP. Each jurisdiction runs its own BPT selection; geriatric medicine Advanced Training posts are then secured at accredited hospitals within that system. Where a per-state figure (positions, ratios) is not published, that is stated plainly.
NSW

Who runs selection: Entry is via Basic Physician Training, run collaboratively by NSW Ministry of Health, HETI, the RACP and Local Health Districts across multiple BPT networks (metropolitan, regional and rural accredited sites). Note: geriatric medicine Advanced Training itself is not delivered through HETI training networks — accredited posts sit at individual NSW hospitals and are secured directly.

Where to apply: HETI — Basic Physician Training in NSW — application portal.

Positions: Per-network BPT and geriatric medicine Advanced Training position counts are not published nationally. NSW workforce modelling (2019 data) recorded about 89 geriatric medicine advanced trainees and ~30 new Fellows in 2018.

Worth knowing: BPT applications open around July and close August in the Annual Medical Recruitment campaign (July–October); a preference-matching process means a successful applicant receives only one offer. Earliest entry is PGY2.

Links: HETI — Basic Physician Training in NSW, RACP — NSW entry into Basic Training (AIM), NSW Health — geriatric medicine workforce modelling.

VIC

Who runs selection: Basic Physician Training is delivered through cluster/consortia groups of metropolitan, urban and rural hospitals and recruited via the Postgraduate Medical Council of Victoria (PMCV) matching service. Geriatric medicine Advanced Training posts are then secured at accredited Victorian health services, with a statewide training program (VGMTP) supporting trainees.

Where to apply: PMCV BPT (Adult Internal Medicine) match — application portal.

Positions: Total BPT and geriatric medicine Advanced Training position counts are not published nationally.

Worth knowing: You apply both to PMCV and to your chosen accredited health service; you must hold an appointment at an accredited training site as part of eligibility. Victoria runs a dedicated state-wide Victorian Geriatric Medicine Training Program (VGMTP), established in 2005, for advanced trainees.

Links: PMCV — BPT (Adult Internal Medicine) pathway, PMCV — homepage, Victorian Geriatric Medicine Training Program (VGMTP).

QLD

Who runs selection: Basic Physician Training is run as a statewide Queensland Basic Physician Training (Adult Medicine) Network, with applications made through the Queensland Health RMO and Registrar campaign. Geriatric medicine Advanced Training posts are secured at accredited Queensland hospitals.

Where to apply: Queensland Health RMO & Registrar campaign — application portal.

Positions: Statewide network and per-hospital position counts are not published nationally.

Worth knowing: Apply via the RMO campaign and flag 'yes' to the Queensland Basic Physician Network (Adult Medicine). You must be eligible for RACP basic-trainee registration, have completed internship by RMO term 1, hold general unconditional MBA registration by the following February, and discuss your training plan with an RACP Educational Supervisor or DPE.

Links: Queensland Health — Adult Medicine BPT, Queensland Health — geriatric medicine careers (Medi-Nav).

SA

Who runs selection: Basic Physician Training in Adult Medicine is selected via a central statewide process coordinated by SA Medical Education and Training (SA MET), spanning the metropolitan LHNs (CALHN, NALHN, SALHN). Geriatric medicine Advanced Training posts are then secured at accredited SA hospitals.

Where to apply: SA MET — PGY2+ Statewide BPT (Adult Medicine) — application portal.

Positions: The SA MET BPT (Adult Medicine) information pack publishes per-network numbers — for the 2027 clinical year, CALHN 25, NALHN 24 and SALHN 18 positions (about 67 statewide); a single statewide BPT figure is not separately published. Geriatric medicine Advanced Training counts are not published.

Worth knowing: Selection is statewide and run to RACP policy. Interns may apply to start BPT the year after internship, but the process favours applicants with extra experience (e.g. a general training year). By agreement, no pre-application meetings with DPEs are offered, to keep selection fair.

Links: SA MET — PGY2+ BPT (Adult Medicine), SA Health — SA Medical Education and Training (SA MET).

WA

Who runs selection: Basic Physician Training in Adult Internal Medicine is offered through four WA networks — South (South Metropolitan Health Service, incl. Fiona Stanley Fremantle), East (East Metropolitan Health Service, incl. Royal Perth Bentley), North (North Metropolitan Health Service, incl. Sir Charles Gairdner Osborne Park) and the Rural Network (WA Country Health Service / WA Rural Physician Training Pathway) — with selection overseen by the WA Adult Medicine BPT Network Committee. Geriatric medicine Advanced Training posts follow at accredited WA hospitals.

Where to apply: MedCareersWA / WA Health BPT — application portal.

Positions: Per-network BPT and geriatric medicine Advanced Training position counts are not published nationally.

Worth knowing: You must first secure (or be deemed suitable for) a 12-month RMO or Service Medical Registrar job at an eligible hospital in your network, then apply for BPT. Selection uses a written application plus a multiple mini-interview (MMI) format of five stations (10 marks per station, 50 marks total), combined with the written application for final ranking. Applicants need 2+ years postgraduate experience.

Links: MedCareersWA — Basic Physician Training, Postgraduate Medical Council of WA — careers portal.

TAS

Who runs selection: Basic Physician Training is recruited through the Tasmanian Department of Health Doctors in Training campaign, with posts at the Royal Hobart Hospital and Launceston General Hospital. Tasmania historically shares some physician training arrangements interstate, and geriatric medicine Advanced Training posts are secured at accredited Tasmanian sites.

Where to apply: Tasmanian Government careers (Doctors in Training) — application portal.

Positions: BPT and geriatric medicine Advanced Training position counts are not published nationally.

Worth knowing: Applications run through the annual Doctors in Training recruitment campaign on the Tasmanian Government careers portal (e.g. 2027 applications closed 31 July 2026). Exam preparation is supported by weekly BPT tutorials, grand rounds, journal club and practice exams.

Links: Tasmanian Department of Health — Doctors in Training, Tasmanian Government — DiT recruitment campaigns.

ACT

Who runs selection: Basic Physician Training is delivered through the Canberra Physician Training Network, centred on the Canberra Hospital with North Canberra Hospital and regional placements at Goulburn and Bega (South-East Regional) hospitals. Geriatric medicine Advanced Training posts are secured at accredited ACT sites.

Where to apply: Canberra Health Services / ACT Physician Training Network — application portal.

Positions: BPT and geriatric medicine Advanced Training position counts are not published nationally.

Worth knowing: Positions are typically advertised at two entry levels — a PGY3 Senior RMO post and a PGY4+ Registrar post (the latter for those with prior internal-medicine training). The network is RACP-accredited and runs the well-regarded Canberra Clinical Course, with a large cohort of national examiners on staff.

Links: Canberra Physician Training Network, Canberra Health Services — BPT Registrar position description.

NT

Who runs selection: Basic Physician Training is delivered through Royal Darwin Hospital and its networked sites, with Palmerston and Katherine District hospitals used as secondment sites for general-medicine core training. Geriatric medicine Advanced Training posts are secured at accredited NT settings.

Where to apply: Health Jobs NT — application portal.

Positions: BPT and geriatric medicine Advanced Training position counts are not published nationally.

Worth knowing: Royal Darwin Hospital is a level 3 teaching hospital; the BPT program is best suited to PGY3+ applicants and can be entered at RMO or registrar level, covering general and specialty rotations plus RACP exam preparation.

Links: Health Jobs NT — Basic Physician Training, RACP — Northern Territory entry into Basic Training.

How to optimise your application

The honest read: Because the RACP does not run a national scored selection for geriatric medicine and accredited posts are relatively available, there is no selection rubric to game. Your odds of becoming a geriatrician are determined almost entirely by (a) getting onto BPT and (b) passing the two Divisional exams. Time and energy spent there beats chasing imaginary selection points. Once you are a physician trainee with the exams behind you, geriatrics is one of the more welcoming departments to land in.
  • Treat the Divisional Written as the real wall (tied to Divisional exam progress (for Advanced Training), start From the start of BPT) — The Written has dipped below 50% pass in some sittings (45.7% in Oct 2021, 46.0% in Oct 2022). Start structured exam prep early, sit it when genuinely ready, and use a recognised question bank and your network's tutorial program — a failed first attempt typically adds a year.
  • Get onto BPT efficiently (tied to Eligibility (registration & postgraduate experience), start PGY1–PGY2) — Build a clean CV with relevant medical rotations and strong references, apply through your state's process the moment you are eligible (PGY2+), and apply broadly across networks/states since selection is local and competitive.
  • Embed in a department with accredited geriatric posts (tied to Referee reports / supervisor support, start Late BPT) — Do a geriatrics/rehab/general-medicine rotation at a hospital with accredited Advanced Training posts, impress the consultants, and let the relationship carry you into the post. Securing the job is largely about being known and supported locally.
  • Knock over the program requirements early (tied to Research / academic record, start Early Advanced Training) — Start the Advanced Training Research Project and (from 2023) the Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Māori cultural safety course early so they don't bottleneck your Fellowship sign-off, since there is no exit exam — completion of requirements is what gets you across the line.

Key documents & official links

FAQ

Is geriatric medicine hard to get into?
The honest answer: the hard part is becoming a physician, not becoming a geriatrician. Getting onto Basic Physician Training is competitive, and passing the two Divisional exams is the genuine bottleneck — the Divisional Written (Adult Medicine) has dropped below 50% pass in some sittings (45.7% in Oct 2021, 46.0% in Oct 2022) though it was 73.8% overall in Feb 2026. Once you are through that, securing an accredited geriatric medicine Advanced Training post is comparatively achievable — it is one of the friendlier physician subspecialties for landing a job. The RACP does not publish a national applicant-to-offer ratio for geriatric medicine, so no exact success rate exists.
How long does it take to become a geriatrician in Australia?
At least 6 years of vocational training after internship: a minimum of 3 years FTE Basic Physician Training (with the Divisional Written and Clinical exams) plus 3 years (36 months FTE) of Advanced Training in Geriatric Medicine. The realistic figure is usually 10–12 years post-graduation once you account for resident years before BPT and the very common exam re-sit.
Is there an exam at the end of Advanced Training in geriatric medicine?
No. The big exams — the Divisional Written and Divisional Clinical — are sat at the end of Basic Physician Training. Advanced Training in geriatric medicine has no separate exit exam; Fellowship (FRACP) is granted when the Training Program Committee signs off that you have completed all requirements, including the Advanced Training Research Project and (from 2023) the Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Māori cultural safety course.
What does the Advanced Training actually involve?
Three years (36 months FTE): a minimum of 24 months core training under the supervision of a geriatrician who is an RACP Fellow, plus up to 12 months non-core. Core rotations span acute aged care, ambulatory care, community care, geriatric emergency medicine, geriatric rehabilitation, orthogeriatrics, perioperative medicine and stroke rehabilitation. The RACP recommends you train across more than one accredited setting (there are around 56 accredited sites in Australia) and you must complete an Advanced Training Research Project.
How much do geriatricians earn in Australia?
There is no geriatrician-specific income figure published. Geriatricians have no distinct ATO/ANZSCO occupation code — they fall under ANZSCO 253399 'Specialist Physicians nec' and are aggregated into the broad 'internal medicine specialist' group, which was the fourth-highest-earning broad occupation group in 2022–23 (behind surgeons at $472,475, anaesthetists at $447,193 and financial dealers at $355,233). Within internal medicine, geriatrics sits toward the lower end of the income spread (procedural fields like cardiology and gastroenterology earn far more). Any single dollar figure for 'geriatrician' would be an estimate, and the ATO does not publish one — these are taxable-income proxies for gross earnings, not salaries.
Is geriatric medicine a good lifestyle specialty?
Comparatively, yes — for a hospital-based physician specialty. The work is cognitive and multidisciplinary rather than procedural, on-call is materially lighter than the procedural medical and surgical fields, and there is no overnight cath lab or scope list. The trade-offs are the complexity of discharge planning and family/social dynamics, frequent end-of-life care, and a lower income ceiling than the proceduralists.
Will there be jobs for geriatricians?
The demographics strongly favour it. Australia had about 619 geriatricians in the 2016 workforce data and roughly 874 by 2019, and demand is rising with population ageing. NSW workforce modelling (2019) concluded the state would have enough new Fellows per annum to meet community need to 2035 across both low and high demand scenarios — so the consultant job market is healthy, including in regional centres, even though that means trainee numbers are considered adequate rather than expanding.
I trained overseas as a geriatrician — how do I get recognised?
Apply to the RACP for specialist assessment. Most overseas-trained physicians use the Standard Specialist Assessment Pathway; if you trained in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, India, Hong Kong or Sri Lanka and hold a substantially comparable specialist qualification, you may be eligible for the faster Accelerated Specialist Pathway (which usually skips the interview and can deliver a decision in about six weeks). The RACP compares your training and experience against the Australian geriatric medicine program and decides whether you are substantially comparable or partially comparable (or, rarely, not comparable), then issues a roadmap to Fellowship. You will also need appropriate AHPRA registration through the Medical Board of Australia.

Trained overseas? (IMG pathway)

How overseas-trained geriatric medicine doctors get recognised

Geriatric medicine is reached through the RACP physician pathway: complete Basic Physician Training (BPT) in Adult Internal Medicine and pass the Divisional Written and Divisional Clinical examinations, then undertake 3 years (36 months FTE) of Advanced Training in Geriatric Medicine across at least two accredited settings, including an Advanced Training Research Project. Fellowship (FRACP) is granted on completion — there is no separate Advanced Training exit exam. The RACP sets the standards but does not recruit; you secure each training job through a hospital or state network.

See the RACP Advanced Training in Geriatric Medicine and our IMG internship guide.

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Last reviewed 2026-06-01.

AussieClinicians is an independent Australian pay calculator built by Jacob Stretton (RN; final-year medical student). Estimates only — verify with your payslip, payroll, and the linked award/EBA + ATO sources. Not financial or tax advice.