[applepie83]

Hi everyone,

I was just wondering if there is anyone else out there who disliked living in Sydney and made the move to somewhere quieter ?

I would love to hear about your experiences. Did you regret the move? What do you miss about Syd? What don't you miss?

Thanks so much for you time - I am writing this as I get ready to go out 'garden' my pot plants on my apartment balcony, romantically dreaming of a life in the country. I plan on making the move out of Syd in 2 years - at the moment my partner & I am tied to Syd due to work commitments.

I love gardening but due to expensive real estate here, could only afford to buy an apartment, hence my 'garden' is limited.

[Foogle]

We did applepie. We ended up going South when we had convinced ourselves that we were going North.

Basically, we decided when DS was 2 and the girls (DSD's were in their teens) that the time was right that we needed to move out of Sydney itself for various reasons.

We were convinced that the Northern Beaches of Sydney was were we wanted to be (DH grew up on the lower North Shore and I had only lived in the lower North Shore since moving to Aust in '88) so the Northern Beaches was where we were going.

We had a long settlement agreement on the property that we had sold which gave us 3-4 months to find a place. We investigated the Beaches area, decided yep, and we even rented a property in Whale Beach to test the area.

We had a light-bulb moment when driving down here one afternoon to visit MIL (she has lived in the Wollondilly for 25 years), DH pulled over to side of the road and said to me 'what are we doing? - Look at these acreages - what do you think?'. It was that quick OP. On the side of the road, we made the decision to move South and not North.

We ended up buying 5 acres down here and have never regretted the decision.

We love where we are and laugh about the Northern Beaches idea we had. Life is relaxed, schools are good (The girls started at an Independent Anglican school here for their senior years (they of course are long finished school now) and DS has followed and is currently in Y3), shopping is close, neighbours are fab.

We live a very relaxed life overall - we work from home so that is a big factor. As for Sydney, we don't go there very often

[applepie83]

Thanks Foogle. I am very jealous and happy for you regarding your 5 acres!! So much land, so many vegie patches and fruit trees

This post has been edited by applepie83: 08/12/2012, 05:51 PM

[LynnyP]

I think the Northern Beaches is country! This is as far out as I want to be.

[Nora.]

We kind of did. We lived in Stanmore/Surry Hills/Camperdown & moved an hour south of Sydney. I hated it down here for 10 years. Urgh. Small town. Everybody knows your business. No restaurants, shops etc. But now I love it. I rarely lock the house, kids leave skateboards out the front, nobody steals them. You can go to the butcher & forget your purse, they will say "don't worry *Nora*, just pay us next time". Because we are only an hour from the CBD we can still enjoy the fun stuff Sydney has to offer but come back to our quiet town.

[Foogle]

Thanks Foogle. I am very jealous and happy for you regarding your 5 acres!! So much land, so many vegie patches and fruit trees

Yeah land is good - water is an issue though when considering trees and such like though. It's not that simple.

We are not on town water. We have a 105,000 litre tank which gets it water from the house roof, garage roof and pergola areas and DH has a 10,000 litre tank attached to the barn which gives him water for his bird aviaries and kitchen he has in the barn for the birds.

The Bio-Septic is the only water supply that we have for trees, gardens etc. 5 acres is a lot of land to distribute this water and there really is not enough to go around. So close to the house yes, I have my rose garden and vege garden.

Basically, the acreage doesn't get watered from the Bio - it can't and when considering where to put say a new lemon or mandarin tree for example, we have to take into consideration the water supply.

We could spend thousands of dollars on trenches, ag pipe and sprinklers but our ability to get water to plants dug into those areas is limited by the capacity and output of our Bio-Septic and ultimately by the capacity of our overall water storage. The Bio will only distribute what comes to it via our tanks.

What that means is we have most of the areas just grass and not planted. Suits DS as far as having a soccer/rugby oval but as far as planted out, manicured, lovely gardens - no. We don't have the water supply to do that.

[farmgal]

DH and I did the tree change over ten years ago. We found a house on ten acres and initially we loved it. But after a few years, kids came along and we did not have the time to mow all the land and care for the animals.

I grew up on acreage, so knew what it was all about, but still after a while I was over it. The high number of snakes were also off putting for me. The last straw was the brown snake in the kitchen.

Farm life is not all fruit trees, vegetable gardens etc. There is the problem of not being on town water. It is expensive to use tank water, each time you turn on a tap the pump starts, and that means money, more and more as electricity prices increase. Solar panels are a great idea!

You also need to maintain the property to prevent fires and growth of thistles etc. This can be hard work if your land is not all flat and accessible to a ride on or tractor. Animals will eat some weeds, but not all types.

So yes farm life is lovely, however it can be hard work and expensive too.

We have since moved to the coast and we are loving our small lawn, being able to walk to the beach and only having a short drive t the shops.

All the best with your decision.

[Mianta]

We did. We lived in the eastern suburbs and now live in Northern NSW. I only miss the people and not the city. Life is good up here.

[Madnesscraves]

I did. I moved from concord to the blue mountains.

I wanted to be close to shops and transport but not too close that I was in the city. So I live in the upper mountains. Weather is perfect. I have a garden and trees to keep me cool in summer. I have amazing neighbours and we have annual BBQ on our street. Local markets and great schools.

I'd suggest checking out the website evocities. They had great incentives for ppl moving there.

[lisles]

We left Sydney 15 years ago as we simply couldn't afford to buy anything we were willing to live in.

I miss the multicultural aspect of Sydney - we now live on a small acreage in a regional centre and it is very much a monoculture.
Good restaurants and cafes are hard to find, the bakeries do 26 varieties of white bread but no sourdough, and there is no decent bookshop! We only get mainstream movies, whereas in Sydney we used to enjoy the arthouse type cinemas such as the Dendy.

Bookdepository.com and online movies take care of a couple of those issues, and we tend not to eat out much these days anyway. I've never been one for clothes shopping, so don't miss that aspect of city living.

On a positive note, we love having the bush around us, the beaches are uncrowded and yes it is lovely having a garden. We have solar power, tank water, our own fruit and veges and several chooks. Our kids spend hours outside chasing the chooks, making cubbies in the garden or raiding the mulberry and blueberry bushes. They can walk or ride their bikes to friends' houses on their own as the roads are quiet and all the neighbours look out for each other.

We are lucky to have good schools, but if our girls go to university they will probably have to leave home. We'll worry about that in a couple of years...

For us the tree change has been great. I rarely go to the city, and when I do I can't wait to get out of there!