The lack of food choices is a major downside of the treechange/seachange. Just cannot get good sushi down here and oddly enough good farm produce, better off being in Melbourne for the Farmer's Markets there.
Saying that though I do not think it is that much of a downside so long as we educate our children that there is a different life outside of the country. Just as I would do the same if we were still in Melbourne, make them very aware that there is a life outside of Melbourne.
As for is there an exodus, I am not sure. In the past few years I have come across more people talking about a big move, but I think that is more the finally voicing their dreams.
I think the regional centres are becoming a much more viable option in terms of services and trade. I could live in Bairnsdale, for instance, if I only wanted a house block and not be short on shops, food variety and activities.
We nearly settled on a 115 acre lot a half hour drive from the nearest general store...I was freaking out a bit about that!
i could never live any closer to the cbd than what we are now (50kms). Personally i would love to move to a country town, but dh just wouldn't be able to find the same amount of work there as he can living within an hour of the city. sometimes we talk about moving out further- somewhere between healesville and lake eildon would be awesome i reckon, but i just don't think we'd be able to bring in the same amount of money.
DH and i have constantly dreamt of a tree/sea-change. we have only lived in melb for 2 and a bit years and although we love it (love the diversity of cuisine/shops/people etc) we are finding the traffic where we live becoming insane and like Fionas mentioned, the public transport is getting beyond a joke. when we lived in brunswick i didnt notice it all so much cause we lived opp. princes park (lovely big idyllic park near the zoo) and could walk everywhere for everything. but since moving to northcote we realise that Melb is a BIG city. we have to traverse st. georges road, struggle to find pavement space on high street and the housing affordability is just beyond insanity. for example, we bought in june last year and we thought it was bad then, UNTIL we went to an auction down the road (on a busy busy road) and the house was collapsing on one side (massive underpinning work needed), wooden (with cracks so big you could see INSIDE the house from the outside!) and had neither of the two rooms were doubles and the 'laundry' was a washing machine under the kitchen sink...it sold for JUST under $700,000!!!!!!!!!!! WTF?! are people insane?
DH and I are seriously considering a sea change to wollongong in a couple of years. we almost moved there last year but a good job offer came up here so we stayed, but man oh man, we have itchy feet to get there and have the chance to have a home near the beach and space and time for all of us to enjoy...so tired of commuting 2-3 hours a day to get to work/childcare etc etc.
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