Crocodiles, cyclones and … client meetings? An accountant’s tree change to Darwin

When an unexpected opportunity to work in KPMG’s Darwin office came across Anna Menton’s desk, she first thought it sounded like a “really good challenge.”

The associate director, who had spent the past 3 years working at the firm’s Parramatta office, said the idea was first pitched to her as a “free holiday” – a three-month secondment to help out at KPMG’s Darwin office, which was in need of a manager.

“I thought, all right, why not? And then within five days, I was on a plane up there for three months,” she said.

After her three-month secondment, Menton found she “absolutely loved it” and extended her stay by another six months; according to her, the dry season weather was “just the perfect summer’s day for six months straight.” Over a year and a half later, she hasn’t looked back.

“I really didn’t know what to expect moving to Darwin … I kind of expected it’d be like small clients, a small office, not really moving in the way that we would in major cities. And maybe that was a stereotype, but [I was] very quickly proven wrong,” she recalled.

Contrary to her expectations, Menton found herself straight in the deep end, liaising with clients, CEOs and founders within her first week – even meeting the Northern Territory’s Chief Minister, Lia Finocchiaro, in her second week.

“These clients were enormous. And then from there it was just like all the opportunities just kind of kept coming,” she recalled.

Reflecting on the differences in her work life between Sydney and Darwin, Menton said that one of the largest day-to-day changes she had noticed was in the way she engaged with clients.

“The thing about the territory is everyone wants face-to-face. Everyone wants a relationship and wants to build trust. You still have that in Sydney as an accountant, but people are [also] okay with emails. People are okay with Teams meetings, especially post-COVID,” she said.

“On a day-to-day basis, I will see at least two to three clients at the moment. [Managing partner] Derek [Campbell] probably sees eight to 10, because people just drop by for a chat. But that’s probably the biggest change, … the relationships up there, it’s just a little bit more hands-on.”

Another big change from Sydney? The traffic.

“I don’t even have to think about peak hour in the morning when I leave for work. And I’m probably the same distance [as I was] to Parramatta, where I live in Darwin at the moment, from where I was in Sydney, and it takes me a quarter of the time,” she said.

Living in Darwin, Menton added that she’d picked up some new hobbies, making the most of the access to the surrounding outdoors.

“I’ve done a bit of fishing up there, going out to national parks, going to the watering holes out there. I’ve gone camping a few times, long road trips,” she said.

“You end up in the most beautiful places that you would never have expected.”

However, Menton noted, the regional city wasn’t always for the faint-hearted. Since moving up north, she’d grappled with the worst wet season in the past 30 years, sweltering humidity, and her first cyclone. The remoteness of Darwin could also be a challenge, she said; not to mention the crocodiles.

“It’s actually kind of terrifying ... Particularly at the moment, just coming out of a really wet season, they’re in all the watering holes everywhere. Like you cannot swim in any of those water holes at the moment,” she said.

Despite facing challenges that would make the average city dweller think twice, Menton said she didn’t regret her move to Darwin one bit.

“It was a terrifying decision, because I was leaving what I still knew back in Parramatta, but I haven’t really looked back, to be honest,” she said.

Menton added that the relatively small size of the city made the community networks feel much stronger, something that made her job all the more rewarding.

“It’s a small town at the end of the day, our population is only 150,000; so if you know someone who knows someone, they’re gonna know you.”

“It’s nice to walk around and be able to say, oh, I know who owns that business, or walk past people in the street … Especially as an accountant, you know where your clients’ buildings are, you walk into their offices, and they know you, and it’s just that sense of community there. It’s really nice.”