It is not uncommon for beginning teachers in Queensland (Australia) to be assigned their first teaching placement in a rural area. Many of these teachers stay there for the minimum time that they must, then seek to relocate to a coastal city. The literature and interviews with beginning rural teachers suggest that those who view the experience positively have their roots in the community, or a similar one, and those with negative views experience a multifaceted sense of isolation-- physical, interpersonal, cultural, intellectual, and personal. These considerations are bound together in notions of identity and community. Identity is a social phenomenon bound up in the people and community with whom a person feels comfortable; but it also tends to be associated with the physical place occupied by the community. Applying this to beginning teachers, several aspects of identity emerge: personal and social identity, focusing particularly upon the immediate family group and the place where one grew up; professional identity, focusing on the preservice community, university, and current school placement; and desired future social and professional identity. If the teaching situation provides a mismatch with an aspect of the teacher's identity, then a sense of isolation is felt. Although isolation may be real in a geographic sense, identity mismatch amplifies perceived isolation and the urge to move to a place that more closely matches the teacher's identity. (TD)