// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
Why does Australia want Brits to swap Sydney for the outback?
Paige Tomlinson from Barnsley loves the "chilled" lifestyle of Cairns in northern Australia
In a Mexican restaurant in north-east Australia, the nacho bowls are served by staff from France, Italy, Ireland and Argentina.
Cairns has long attracted a young and transient international crowd, who enjoy the tropical lifestyle while earning money for travel.
But one nationality is in shorter supply than it used to be.
"You get far fewer British backpackers looking for jobs here these days," says Mexicairns owner Peter McLeay.
It's a trend McLeay has noticed since mid-2023, when a free trade deal between the UK and Australia kicked in.
That agreement - as well as tariff-free trade in Tim Tams and Penguins - included special treatment for Brits on working holiday visas: exemption from having to find jobs in regional or remote places if they wanted to remain beyond a year.
That, along with an increase in the age limit from 30 to 35 saw backpacker visas issued to Brits surging from 47,200 in 2023-24 to just over 77,000 in 2025-26, according to the latest Australian government data.
Without the incentive to go regional, many are choosing to base themselves in the big cities, or, according to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, "Bondi or Coogee" - two of Sydney's most famous beachside suburbs.
Now though, with Brits making up almost a quarter of all 323,000 backpacker visas issued last year, his government wants the free trade deal to be revisited.