A 1985 mail survey of 97 rural schools and 53 coastal (urban/suburban) schools in Queensland, Australia, investigated teacher characteristics, problems, and needs. Respondents included 504 rural teachers, 215 rural parents, 405 coastal teachers, and 179 coastal parents. The results confirm many previous findings about teaching in rural Australia. Compared to coastal teachers, rural teachers were younger, less experienced, more mobile, and less satisfied with their teaching appointments. Greater proportions of rural teachers taught in multigrade classrooms and perceived their students to be poorly motivated and low achievers. The difficulties of teaching and living in rural areas included inadequate knowledge of the local situation, inadequate resources, professional isolation, social and cultural isolation, being more in the public eye, and being expected to participate in community activities. Almost all respondents saw a need for special in-service and induction programs for rural teachers; about 25% of rural teachers felt that such programs currently available were not in touch with reality. This report contains 41 references and 80 data tables. Appendices include the questionnaires used, lists of participating schools, and 40 additional tables that break down rural teachers' responses by gender, marital status, primary versus secondary level, government versus private school, years in present school, and school size. (SV)