Of course they won't, more often than not it's because the pay is shit and the work is terrible. I know that because I grew up in Tamworth. I earn three times as much in the city what I would have been paid had I remained in rural NSW; even accounting for taxes and cost of living and the general misery that comes with city living, that's still an enormous gap. No point blaming professionals & tradespeople for taking the better paying jobs in the city; the unemployment rate is at 5% so it's not like there are many people choosing to sit at home and pull dick instead of moving to the bush.
The best employers and the ones that have the most success in the bush know what it takes to get people to uproot themselves and move. The bigger regional councils are one good example. Bendigo & Adelaide Bank is another. Qantas & Virgin with their new regional pilot schools will probably get it right as well. The government at local, state and federal levels need to put in a good investment to get decent employers to relocate to the country, get regional employees to actually put attractive offers on the table and then campaigners like myself will consider coming back to God's Country.
Not so sure about the pay being terrible and the work being shit in a lot of cases.
I have a mate who owns a big steel fabricating business in Griffith and he pays tradesmen $45 an hour for a 10 hour working day, plus a ute and various performance bonuses. That's pretty decent coin, but he can't get good workers. He's now looking towards skilled immigrants.
I pay my workman $58,000pa, plus they get a ute, a bloody nice 3 brm home with free power and water and free meat. 5 days a week. If I need him on the weekend he gets paid overtime.
The Filipino's I mentioned earlier are all getting in excess of $60k, plus free housing for unskilled labor. The Maintenance Manger is on $100K+. They work a 10 on 4 off roster. Plus the company pays for all of the fees associated with their visas and PR applications.
Admin staff at the same facility get well in excess of $60k for 8 hour, 5 day a week roster, plus overtime as required.
The perception that the bush doesn't pay and that conditions are terrible is a furphy and based on historical rhetoric. We are bound by the same wage market and workplace standards as everyone else.