The rise of the sea-changer

More and more people now want a piece of “God’s own country”.

As one of the most popular sea change destinations in Australia, you’ve got to wonder why people choose to move to the Northern Rivers, why some stay, and why some return to the city. And if you do stay, how long do you have to live here to be a ‘local’?

So how do ‘locals’ feel about the sea change invasion? Firstly, most believe you need to be born here to really call yourself local. Bill Nardi is one such local; he was born in Nimbin 67 years ago. Bill is so local Mount Nardi was named after his father. An eye surgeon and farmer, Bill spent 11 years living in Sydney as a university student and as a young doctor. Bill then returned to the region where he has since practised as an eye surgeon.

Bill sees the increase in population in the region as inevitable.

“This is God’s own country,” Bill said. “We have a desirable climate and great facilities here. Whether you like it or not it’s inevitable that people are going to want to come and live here. “The positive features that a growing population brings include an increase in services that are available. But one of the difficulties, as I see it, is that infrastructure doesn’t usually keep up with the growth – for instance the roads are not as good as they need to be.”

Bill believes much changed in the region after the 1973 Aquarius Festival in Nimbin.

“Depending on your point of view, the whole hippie influx has had both good and bad features on the way it has shaped the region. One of the more obvious negative impacts is the whole drug thing. The region gained a reputation early on that you could get whatever drugs you wanted to here. So sadly, drugs have been a major health issue for us in the region.”

But are there many locals like Bill left in the region?

“A lot of those who I went to school with moved away. There’s not all that many left in the area from when I was a boy. But over the years, you meet other people and some come back to the area when they retire. It really is a special place to live, so I can completely understand why more and more people want to live here,” Bill says with a good-humoured laugh.

But not all locals have such a generous point of view.

There’s the issue of ‘locals’ versus ‘blow-ins’ to the whole sea change story. Phil Parr and his partner Carla moved to the region three years ago. Phil has noticed that ‘locals’, those who were born in the region, can sometimes be overly proud of the fact, to the point of rudeness. When Phil’s partner, Carla, questioned the advice a local mechanic gave her, the mechanic snarled at her, “What would you know, I’ve been here for 30 years, and you’ve only been here for five minutes.”

Not exactly the welcome mat.

The Northern Rivers holds a special place for many to holiday and unwind from the pressures of city living or to escape from the heat of the country’s interior. No longer content to merely holiday, many Australians are now choosing to call the Northern Rivers home.

This population drift can be somewhat attributed to retirees, however statistics show that four out of five people who have recently relocated to a coastal region were under the age of 50 at the time of the move.

When it comes to relocating, most of us decide to move to a new region for myriad reasons. The motivation can vary from the desire for a more comfortable climate, to find more affordable housing, looking for work or retiring from work, disenchantment with city living, wanting to provide a better environment for a growing family, or moving to be closer to family and friends.

Michael Parnell, a stockbroker aged 46, moved to the Northern Rivers, “because I could”.

Michael can now trade shares online, in real time.

“My clients couldn’t care less where I’m based,” Michael said. “I had been working from my home office in Sydney for a few years, so it wasn’t a stretch for me to move here, thanks to the availability of high-speed internet. I have always loved this area, there’s a lot of creative and interesting

people here and a lot of access to diversity.

“So far, I have loved living here, it helps that it’s so easy to get to Sydney, as flights are now cheap. I don’t know how long I will be here, but for now it’s still working for me. The only thing that would take me back would be work – you’ve got to be able to find an income living here, and that’s not always as easy as it is in the city.”

Jacinta Mason represents another type of sea-changer. Aged 38, Jacinta moved to the region six years ago to create a rural life with her partner and provide a healthy country life for their one-year-old son. The marriage broke down – considered by many to be a regional curse – but Jacinta remains committed to living in the region.

“Never say never, but my child has started school here, and I probably have more friends in the region now than I do in Melbourne, so I can’t imagine I would leave here in a hurry. I find having friends and family come up here for holidays is a great bonus; you get to spend quality time as they tend to stay with you for several days at least. In Melbourne you would be lucky to just have a meal with them.”

And then there are those that move here and return to the city. Elly Bradbury moved to the region in 2003, calling the relocation “a divine accident – completely unexpected and unplanned”.

“I came up from Sydney to stay at a friend’s place for a weekend. I had never been to the Northern Rivers before. My partner and I saw a dodgy picture of a cottage in a real estate window, and within a week, we had bought the place. We did absolutely no research at all; it was a very spontaneous decision,” she said. “Neither my partner nor I had nine-to-five jobs, so we could jump on a plane and literally move up here. The week we got here, I had a phone call from World Vision offering me an executive position. They didn’t care where I was based, as they have staff all over the world. So I arrived up here and got an amazing job. I like to say, ‘I traded my Cabcharge account for a rainforest’. We loved it here for years, for all the obvious reasons – the space, the freedom and the time to develop real friendships.

“Our son started day care here, then kindergarten and onto school. I got used to parking where I wanted, the fact that there’s little or no traffic, all the great things you take for granted when you live here, like the markets and organic produce. It’s been very healing for both my partner and I living in the region. But, because of my work, I was spending more and more time on planes, missing out on time with my son and missing my family in Sydney. Also my husband is an actor and his work prospects are much better in Sydney, so we decided to go back to the city and that’s been a great decision for us. On saying that, we’ve kept our house here, so who knows, we may be back. There’s definitely a part of us that will always be connected to the area.”