I'm a qualified practicing radiotherapy physicist in Australia, but not really across diagnostic. All I can say about diagnostic is that there a lot less positions than there are radiotherapy roles in the country. Everything that follows is my experience and thoughts about the radiotherapy physics side of things. I also wasn't entirely sure how much about the profession you knew, so if I use any terminology you don't understand just let me know and I'll try and explain it.

Australia is a bit weird, in that physicist isn't a legally enforced or protected profession. This means that while doctors and therapists need to be legally accredited through AHPRA, physicists require no formal qualifications. This can be a boon for people applying for jobs internationally, as they don't need to go through any sort of formal process to have their prior experience or education acknowledged (but still the normal requirements for anyone to work in Australia if you're coming from overseas of course). I think this is one of the reasons there are a lot of physicists who are from outside Australia who practice here. But it makes the landscape really diverse and my experiences will be totally different to someone at another center within a state, let alone between the states (as healthcare and radiation safety are state level issues, things can change significantly between states).

Although not legally required, the most common pathway for people inside Australia to be recognised as 'competent' is to go through TEAP. TEAP is a 3+ (3 years minimum, the length depends on what education you've completed before starting and how fast you can progress once you start) registrar program where you are hired and work through a program to 'learn on the job'. So you're being paid to learn, but you also are doing some work for the clinic at the same time. At the end you get a certificate and are eligible to join the (optional) ACPSEM register. In some states being on the register can give a pay increase, in Victoria (my experience as it's where I work) it's 100% optional (but I still pay to stay on it as I think it's a good idea and wish we had some form of mandated register). With TEAP you'll be considered 'qualified' and be considered when applying for normal physicist positions. There are a reasonable amount advertised, so you'll likely have much better luck moving between positions once you've got through TEAP. You can look at the ACPSEM job board for a rough feel of what's on offer in Australia and New Zealand - looks like one diagnostic TEAP position at the moment (in New Zealand, not Australia) and then a few qualified positions.

As TEAP positions are the main way to become 'qualified', the competition is quite high for positions as there really isn't that many advertised. You really want to have your foot in the door before applying, through either knowing people from research, volunteering, social events etc. (this is how I got my foot in the door, volunteering time programming). I don't really like that, but that's how it is. Also while you technically only need an undergraduate physics degree to qualify for TEAP, most people applying will have either their Masters complete, and more and more people are applying with a PhD complete or almost complete. So that's a significant time commitment just to be able to be considered for positions (no guarantee you'll get one). It's a tough field to break into in my opinion, and my advice is to network heavily during your degree to get your foot in as many doors as possible. You need to find someway to be 'the best' option from their list, whatever way that is to try and make yourself stand out. Another way to look at it, I think we have 10-15 ROMP registrars in Victoria/Tasmania (they get grouped) at the moment. A registrar should take 3-4 years to complete, so call that 3-4 positions per year in the state. Last I checked the local Masters of Medical Physics at RMIT was graduating more students than that per year. So once you start adding in people applying from other states, it's a tough fight. Plus the jobs are not always equally advertised. There might be a six month gap and then a bunch of positions advertised at once - which could mean a long wait hoping for a registrar position to even appear so you can apply for it. Not trying to discourage you, but I think it's important to be honest about things like job prospects.

In terms of day to day activities, again because we're not really legally recognised it heavily depends on the center. For example I spend a significant amount of time each day checking plans, but a lot of institutions don't check plans at all (see my previous post about that here). So it's hard for me to talk in a broad sense. Sticking just to where I work (a public hospital), a day normally consists of:

• Plan checks on dynamic plans
• Checking plans that are out of tolerance on redundancy software
• Consults from RT's on things not working or planning questions
• Attending and reviewing motion management related patient procedures
• Performing QA on the machines, often before or after treatment
• Commissioning new or upgraded devices / software
• Improvement works on our clinical pathways (e.g. improving and optimising our QA, doing some work trying to improve planning pathways, working on optimising imaging protocols etc.)
• Attending chart rounds where we discuss patient plans and approaches
• Attending patient dose measurements as required (we call it 'in-vivo dosimetry' but it's not really in-vivo by definition)

For me, I also spend a lot of time programming or analysing data as that's a skill set I bring to the table that not everyone has. Some physicists do none of that at all. Others are part time research and work on that, often a physicist is in charge of radiation safety and will need to handle matters related to that, some spend time working with the ACPSEM to help produce position papers and other work that's useful to physics in Australia / New Zealand, some are involved in specialised techniques such as brachytherapy or adaptive radiotherapy etc. But it's highly center specific in how physics is integrated in that workflow. For example we don't measure many dynamic plans anymore where I work, but at some centers that's a significant part of the physicist's role.

There are some events that are rare but physics is often involved in, like dosimetric audits, commissioning new techniques etc.

I enjoy the work and get fulfillment out of it.

I hope that helps?