Chapter 15
Planning Your Moves
In This Chapter
Why hard-working Aussies are leaving the cities
Achieving your seachange goals
Life in cities is becoming more stressful, expensive and dangerous. Increased property values and the risk of rising interest rates mean that the Great Australian Dream of owning a house on a quarter-acre block is becoming less and less achievable if you also want your work, schools, shops, recreation and health facilities of your choice close by.
Seachangers and treechangers are people who are choosing to leave the traffic, long working hours, crime, pollution and the lack of family time and community behind and instead gain more control in the way they live. Moving to coastal and rural locations helps seachangers establish a better work/life balance and enables them more say in the way they live — where they live, how much they spend on living, breathing fresh air and enjoying the countryside, more time with family and fun activities and a simpler, slower lifestyle.
The Swing to Seachange
Seachange means the migration of individuals, couples and families out of the cities and suburbs to rural coastal areas for a better life. Treechange means moving inland for the same reasons. For the purposes of this chapter, seachange, which is the better-known term represents both definitions.
In 2006, around 150,000 Australians moved from cities to the coast or to other country areas. According to the National Sea Change Taskforce, the rate of growth in rural coastal areas is 60 per cent higher than the national average with more than 5 million people already living in coastal areas outside the mainland capitals. A further 1 million are expected to make this migration by 2020.
The urge to seachange (no, I’m not making up verbs — this verb is now in popular usage in Australia) is not a trend for only well-funded retirees and baby-boomers with spare cash to buy a holiday or second home. White- and blue-collar workers in their 30s and 40s are also relocating, looking for different lifestyles. According to the Sydney University’s Planning Research Centre report, ‘Meeting the Sea Change Challenge’, 79 per cent of new residents in rural coastal areas are less than 50 years old.
Researchers and demographers report several different types of seachangers in Australia. Which group do you think you belong to?
Hobbyists: This group makes the seachange in order to more fully pursue their hobbies and interests — sometimes as a means of earning a living and sometimes for pleasure alone. The proliferation of surf shops, fishing stores and art galleries in lovingly restored seaside strips attests to this group’s presence. Others in this group include eco refugees, people who can afford to set up their own sustainable farm or home to avoid the worst of climate-change impacts. They aim to lessen their carbon-dioxide footprints and lower their consumption of material possessions.
Lifestylers: These people tend to be aged 30 and higher. Despite Australia’s enormous land mass, more than 80 per cent of Australians live on or within 50 kilometres of the coastline. Access to the ocean is obviously a huge drawcard for seachangers. However, lifestylers also require amenities. These consist of good schools, sports and recreational opportunities, cafes, organic produce and local produce and markets, as well as salaried employment and small business opportunities. Lifestylers want to be part of a smaller community and feel safer and healthier than they do in the city.
Real estate refugees: Property affordability attracts this group to seachange locations, as does the improvement in work/life balance opportunities. They seek work in regional centres for selected periods of time to reduce their living costs and save more money. This group incorporates all age ranges, including young graduates who take work in very remote locations due to attractive salary-packaging options on offer. Some of these refugees do return to the city after enjoying the advantages of a cheaper lifestyle and easier entry into home ownership.
Retirees: This grey-haired group is now starting to include some of the older baby-boomers, born after World War II, who have recently started seachanging their way into retirement. Baby-boomers don’t all want to stop working completely, but may be considering some part-time work or home-based work opportunities while also enjoying a more relaxed lifestyle.
Travellers: Australian backpackers and backpackers visiting Australia from other countries can be considered a seachange group. Backpackers take working holidays to experience life in coastal and rural Australia. Looking for casual work along the way helps pay for their travel, accommodation and living costs. Grey nomads may be several decades older, but they too travel on the lookout for adventures. Although the grey nomads may not necessarily be looking for much (if any) paid work, they enjoy exploring non-urban Australia and strongly contribute to local economies.
Searching for Seachange Heaven
No prizes for guessing that one of the biggest challenges involved in deciding to find a better work/life balance by seachanging is deciding where to live. Seachangers, who have the benefit of hindsight, recommend that you sit down with your partner and children and make a list of the most important goals that you each believe will give you a better lifestyle.
Don’t set your heart on just the one place, or the spot you visited during a relaxing stay several years ago. Do your homework. Your dream location may not have the employment and services you need as a permanent resident. Remember too that when you’re moving to a simpler lifestyle, the town may not be quite so simple or quiet when the holiday season means triple the population. Be prepared to compromise — even in sleepy communities the property values for prized ocean or forest views are expensive. You can move to a house outside the town where you can experience all the benefits of quiet country living and afford your mortgage, and at the same time avoid the worst of the holiday makers. Think about the weather — are you going to be comfortable in winter if you have snow or frosts, and are the summers too hot or too wet for your liking?
Take your list of locations and check out the real estate prices for a feel of what’s currently on offer and at what prices. Check out too the rental options so that you don’t feel rushed to buy a property before you try the location.
Holidaying for homework reasons
You took your car out for a test run before you bought it, so why shouldn’t you do the same for your seachange destination? You may have short-listed some places after enjoying a holiday there, or you may have found some ideal spots after clicking around on the Internet. Either way, you need to spend time in those locations with the possibility of living there entrenched in your mind. That’s not the worst research job you’ve ever been given as homework, is it?
Make sure that you visit your seachange choice(s) in the off seasons. You may be surprised at how different a cute little beach town can be during the darkest days of winter with closed cafes, empty shacks and freezing winds. Although seasons can be variable, knowing whether the climate, services and facilities suit you for at least two-thirds of the year is very important.
Knowing your needs
While you’re doing your homework on location, get out and about to check out the shops, services, recreational facilities and house prices. Chances are that the lifestyle and services are very different from your current environment (otherwise why would you be moving?). Think about which city comforts you can live without, what facilities you need to make you comfortable and how you can adapt to other differences in lifestyle. Questions you may want to ask yourself about your new location can range from ‘Can you order a pizza for delivery at midnight?’ or ‘Where do locals buy their clothes?’ to more important issues that can affect your work/life balance. Try these:
Are enough people living in the town who are of the same age group as you and who, like you, have children (or don’t have children)?
Are you a gourmet-food lover? Does your town have enough produce and deli-style groceries to make life tasty enough for you?
Are you and your family sports people? If yes, what sports do you like to play and does the community provide them? Alternatively, what sports would you like to start playing?
Are you comfortable with the educational options available to your children?
Are you prepared to get out and make friends?
Can you cope with shopping only on weekdays (not only to avoid tourist crowds but due to restricted hours) and having limited availability to extended shopping hours or a wide range of foods?
Can you get your hands dirty doing jobs yourself around the house and in the garden?
Do you rely on home-delivered fast foods? If the only takeaway option in the country is a service station that closes at 6 pm, will that be a problem for you and your family?
How far are you willing to live outside the town to commute for school and work?
How important is seeing the latest movies, trying the trendiest restaurants and attending plays and concerts in the city? Will you be able to commute to the city regularly enough to get your fill of affordable arts, culture and accommodation?
How important is shopping at boutiques and malls? Can you cope with only shopping in the city a couple of times a year or buying from the Internet?
Making your finances foolproof
The experiences of other seachangers, ‘how to’ articles and businesses that thrive on flexibility (such as home-based businesses) tell you that making the move from the city to the sea can save you money. The biggest expense in your present budget — accommodation — is where you can make the biggest savings. Many stories exist about families selling up their Sydney homes and being able to buy bigger and better in the country for half the price.
Be careful of real estate rip-offs. Some property sales outside of the cities are being labelled ‘heaven real estate’ because seachangers who are used to city prices think a country house price is a bargain when, in fact, it’s expensive in terms of the local market prices. Bear in mind too that — heaven forbid — if you end up returning to the city, you’re going to be selling a property of less value than what you can buy back in the city. You may have to borrow much more to re-establish yourself.
If you’re still determined to go for a seachange, the money and income issue is your biggest (and perhaps most complicated) hurdle to overcome. Many hidden expenses are involved in moving location, such as stamp duty, council rates, moving costs, house repairs (to the one you’re selling and the one you’re buying), travel costs (when you need to regularly travel back to the city) and any future educational costs should your children return to the city for secondary school or university.
Make sure that you appoint an experienced financial adviser to help you plan for your move. The first question a smart adviser asks is: ‘What are you going to live on when you arrive in the new location but haven’t yet found work or bought a business?’
A professionally prepared financial plan ensures you know how much income you need to live comfortably, what kind of house and property you can afford to buy or pay off and what luxuries you may have to live without. If, on the other hand, you’re heading towards retirement and don’t plan to seek paid employment, you’re going to need financial advice to make the most of your superannuation and savings.
Key finance Web sites you can investigate include
Australian Securities and Investments Commission (www.fido. asic.gov.au): Offers good financial tips, how to find a reputable adviser, safety checks and a list of banned people.
Australian Shareholders Association (www.asa.asn.au): Protects the interests of investors. The not-for-profit association regularly runs educational investment seminars and has a huge list of related investment Web sites.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (www.accc.gov.au): this is an independent statutory authority that has the power to investigate consumer rights and provides a lot of useful information on misleading conduct, pricing policies, pyramid selling schemes and professional services and standards.
Financial Planning Association (www.fpa.asn.au): Offers a search service to find the right financial planner for you, as well as publications and details on financial accreditation programs.
Investment and Financial Services Australia (IFSA) (www.ifsa.com.au): Represents retail and wholesale funds management, superannuation and life insurance industries. A not-for-profit organisation, IFSA provides information on industry standards and reports on related surveys and statistics.
National Information Centre on Retirement Investments (www.nicri.org.au): Provides an independent source of information on financial and investment services with fact sheets and publications.
For all the information you need to know about superannuation, read Superannuation: Choosing a Fund For Dummies by Trish Power.
Salaried seachangers
A very important step in making a seachange sustainable for you and your family is to decide what work or business you can do before you move. You need to research what locations can provide you with the income you need: moving to a gorgeous little village on a cliff top is pointless when the entire township flees back to the city during the week.
Write down a list of your work history and include specific job skills, life skills and experiences and see how they compare to the types of jobs available in the location where you’re planning to spend the next part of your life. Carefully consider whether you want to work for someone else and receive a regular salary, or whether you want to buy and run your own business. For information on how to look for employment, refer to Chapter 11.
If employment is your choice but you have highly specialised skills that aren’t likely to be needed in a small town, you may want to consider telecommuting — working from home (refer to Chapter 13 for more information on dealing with clients from a distance). Alternatively, if you’re willing to compromise a little, you may find work using your specific skills in a large regional centre but live further out in a smaller community. The drive may be a bit longer to work but traffic in the country is not like traffic in the city. A 30-kilometre drive on a country road can mean 20 minutes commuting time without traffic lights and parking hassles at the end.
If you’re interested in finding work and aren’t concerned about sticking rigidly to your area of expertise (refer to Chapter 14 for more on downshifting), keep your eyes open for employment opportunities by
Grabbing the Yellow Pages and checking local businesses in the area. Do they provide all the services that the location needs? Do they need additional help, such as specialised IT services, copywriting, sales, and so on?
Reading the local papers to check availabilities in the job market. Local businesses often prefer to advertise locally rather than post ads on Web sites or advertise in city newspapers. Linda found her job by subscribing to the local paper of the area where she wanted to live and reading it every week, even though she was still in Melbourne. ‘It didn’t take long for an office manager position to come up and it was only advertised in the local paper, not anywhere else. I got the job.’
Using your networks helps because if you have someone who knows someone in the area, you can get them to be a referee for you. As well, start your new network by writing an introductory letter to a leading employer or company you’re interested in and introduce yourself and your skills. (Refer to Chapter 11 for tips on cover letters.)
Visiting the local council for more links. Councils often have economic development officers who can highlight the leading industries and businesses and their employment needs in the area. And ask for details of the local Chamber of Commerce to help you sniff out any other developments.
Walking around the town and introducing yourself in shops, and so on. Country people love this informality. Also, visit the local Centrelink and employment agency to see what jobs are offering.
Being your own boss
If you think running your own business is what you’d like, make sure you research the economic environment of the location. Many attractive locations rely on the tourism industry and, as such, a tannery and welding works on the foreshore might not be the most sensible option. If you consider a business that’s tourism oriented or provides services to those businesses that cater exclusively to tourists, you may be more successful.
The tourism trade can be seasonal, or frantic on the weekends and dead during the week. If you’re considering opening a business, consider whether you’re the friendly type who wants to be at everyone’s beck and call running a cafe or a bed and breakfast. Or are you more comfortable behind the scenes working the financials? Before you do anything, make sure you do your homework. Running a small business can be risky. Seek expert advice before jumping in.
Here are some issues for you to consider thoroughly before making the big leap into small business:
Always factor in extra costs such as transport. The goods and services you plan to provide may take longer to be delivered and cost more with the lengthier postal or travel times. Services such as IT help-desk support may be hard to get or non-existent, so the extra times or delays of sending equipment away also need to be factored in. You may want to consider doing some extra training in maintenance so that you aren’t negatively affected by breakdowns and delays in getting equipment repaired.
Always remind yourself of the reasons for your seachange. If you want to escape the long hours and stress of your city job, then running a small business may not be for you. Many small business owners work extremely hard to get their customer base, income and ongoing trade established.
Be clear on your stock needs. What can you access locally? What’s selling the most? What are the region’s specialties? A friend worked during the summer in a cafe by the sea that shipped in kilogram after kilogram of grain-fed beef steaks at heavy cost. The patrons wanted fresh seafood by the sea — not red meat.
Consider what income you can realistically earn when the trade is largely weekday or weekend related. Is the income sufficient to cover your lifestyle needs? Consider also the hours you want to work. Do you want to be working on the weekends when your kids want to spend time with you?
Establish a support system. Can your partner find paid work to keep the home running while you’re establishing the business? Alternatively, are you working the business together to save employee costs? Do you have a back-up plan to sell and seek paid work if the business isn’t successful?
Talk to locals who run their own businesses for hints and tips. Don’t risk alienation by starting a competing business. Explain that you believe an opening for a different business type exists. Find out how other business owners started, how they built their businesses and what factors they suggest you consider.
Feathering your nest
Not all coastal and rural houses are cheap. You aren’t the only person thinking about seachanging, and whatever may appeal to you about a particular location is going to appeal to a lot of other city escapees as well. That’s not intended to sound harsh or to denigrate your plans. Instead, this advice is to encourage you to do your sums and look very carefully at what your budget is for buying a house and/or land. Although some real estate bargains exist in your seachange selection, you’re going to find some very expensive pieces of real estate there as well. However, if you’re prepared to live near Millionaire’s Row rather than in it, you may find that you have a sum of money left over after selling your home in the city and buying in a seachange area.
What size and type of home do you really need? Answer these questions:
Are you after a larger house with more bedrooms and mod cons than you can afford in the city?
Are you interested in finding a renovator’s delight as a project to challenge you outside of working hours?
Are you prepared to drive everywhere (public transport is very limited in most regional centres)?
Do you want a house in a quiet street, on the outskirts of town or surrounded by your own bushland?
Do you want to be within dog-walking distance of the main services?
Do you want to establish a pantry garden, fruit trees or have egg-laying chickens, as well as other pets?
Does the idea of a large house sit uncomfortably with you because you want to lessen maintenance and you want to consume less fossil fuel?
As with all major decisions, make a list of the things you want in your new home and why you want them. Are you interested in simplifying your life — owning less but feeling richer in experiences and work/life balance? Do you want to be able to afford a better house and lifestyle, and be willing to work hard at your own business or savings plan to achieve them?
When you’re at the stage where you want to do your homework from your laptop in the evenings, try the following Web sites:
Cracker (www.cracker.com.au): A free Web site community that advertises a range of products, services and industries, as well as hosting discussion forums. Their real estate section includes properties for sale, rent, share accommodation and businesses to purchase.
Domain (www.domain.com.au): Another large Web site that forms part of the Fairfax media group, including The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Financial Review newspapers. It has a detailed property search facility for houses and land from around Australia.
Property Look (www.propertylook.com.au): This site specialises in commercial real estate listings for Australia and New Zealand. The site offers a property search facility, Sydney auction results and other commercial real estate-related reports and statistics.
Real Commercial (www.realcommercial.com.au): This site also specialises in commercial property and businesses for sale around Australia.
Real Estate (www.realestate.com.au): The largest real estate Web site in Australia with properties listed by location, postcode, state or type of property (sale, rental, commercial, and so on). The site also has land, businesses for sale, agent listings and hints on home renovations.
Real Estate Guide (www.realestateguide.com.au): This site advertises property and businesses with agents’ listings from all over Australia.
Monitoring sales figures
Do your homework in two stages: First, pay attention to recent property sales and auctions in your current area to give you an idea of what equity you may have left after selling and paying off your city mortgage. Second, keep your eyes and ears open for property sales figures in your desired location.
Many banks and financial institutions have loan calculators on their Web sites that can give you an estimate of how much you can borrow and repay comfortably. From my past work as an assistant bank manager, in the bad old days of 17 per cent interest rates, I recommend that you borrow less than you think you can pay back to give you more leeway to cope with changes, such as loss or reduction of income due to redundancy, business establishment, maternity leave and increases in interest rates.
Relaxing your search and renting for a while
Many seachange experts suggest renting a house and/or property in or near your selected seachange town before committing to selling up your home and jumping into another mortgage. This experience gives you a better idea of property values and takes out the urgency of settling for the first house up for sale. Renting allows you to be selective.
Sussing out schools
Education for your children is a crucial part of your lifestyle planning. Australia is renowned for providing a good public education system, but, as in the city, reputations of public schools can vary markedly. If you prefer your child to attend a private school, then your seachange choice may be limited by the number of schools in the area and how far you’re willing to drive or whether you’re willing to have your child take the bus to attend.
Don’t forget children’s future educational needs — or those of you and your partner. Check whether your local town or regional centre has a TAFE college or adult education classes. If your child is ready to attend secondary school, check whether your area has a school that specialises in the subjects your child prefers. Consider whether you’re prepared to pay for a private school or send your child to a boarding school in another area. Have you planned for the cost of school fees? Always bear in mind that as your children get older, they may not necessarily want to study and work in your seachange location. See a financial adviser for ways you can plan effectively to fund any future studying away-from-home needs of your children.
Finding local parents and chatting to them about school options can be very helpful. School decisions also give you a reason to strike up a conversation with someone new. Other ways to find out more about what types of education are on offer include
Australian Council of State School Organisations (www.acsso.org.au): This organisation represents the interests of parents, families and school communities of more than two million children who attend public schools in Australia. They provide information on their research into issues facing education, continuing access and equity to good education, literacy and numeracy projects, government submissions and links to other agencies, such as fundraising directories.
Education Foundation (www.educationfoundation.org.au): This organisation provides funding support for public education in the form of grants, philanthropy, research and advice. The organisation’s current focus is on Year 5 to Year 9 and in creating communities to enhance learning.
Independent Schools Council of Australia (www.isca.edu.au): This organisation represents more than 1,000 private/independent schools that educate more than 13 per cent of school children in Australia. The council lists the state and territory organisations that in turn list private schools in the area you’re searching.
Rural Education Forum Australia (www.refa.edu.au): This organisation works in partnership with many other government agencies, education authorities and rural groups to develop ways to attract and retain highly skilled teachers to rural and remote schools.
White Pages (www.whitepages.com.au): This Web site has an easy-to-use search facility for state schools by state, location and postcode.
Heeding your health needs
If you or a member of your family has a health problem or disability that needs specialist medical care or quick access to medical treatment, these situations must be taken into consideration when choosing your seachange destination. You may already have health insurance, but if only one doctor practises in your town, and the nearest hospital or specialist is several hours away, seachanging is not going to make for an improved lifestyle for you.
The Australian Government’s Department of Health and Ageing (www.health.gov.au) provides a quick one-stop shop for information on age care and services, rural health issues and services, education and prevention programs, Indigenous health information and facts on health products and medicines, including complementary medicines (homeopathic, naturopathic, and so on).
To get more details about your seachange destination, the site has links to the various state government health departments. By clicking on the relevant state department, you can refine your search to the location you choose and the medical services you require, including where the nearest hospitals and specialists are located. The local council can also give you information on what general practitioners and allied health providers (physiotherapists, podiatrists and occupational therapists) are available in your area.
You may not want to think about ageing just yet, but you’re wise to include ageing considerations when deciding whether you’re going to seachange. Future issues to think about include what facilities support the elderly living at home, community services for special needs and how many aged-care facilities service the area. The Community Visitors Scheme has a helpful publication, Australian Government Directory of Services for Older People, where you can check your seachange area for aged-care services.
Finding friendships
Most seachanges involve moving away from your family and friends. Naturally, you’re going to miss them, even if you promise to stay in touch with regular emails, phone calls and text messages. Your family and friends are going to find your seachange difficult too, especially those who are used to having you living down the road. You have a lot to consider. Think about the time your children are going to lose with their grandparents after you move. Are you going to have enough room in your downshifted house to have your family and friends visit? You may like to map out a plan for how often you, as a family, can return to the Big Smoke to visit people who care about you.
Most seachangers find that when they move more than a couple of hours away from their old homes, friends’ and family’s visits tend to tail off. As Jenny from Darwin explains, ‘In our first couple of years up here, we had lots of visits from family and friends. However, later we saw hardly anybody from down south. Once people have made the big trip to the Northern Territory, they don’t want to spend the time and money repeating it every year. They
want holidays somewhere different.’ What Jenny, her husband Emilio and their three children do is save for a lengthy holiday down south every second year so that they can visit family, catch up with friends and, in Jenny’s words, ‘Remember how freezing it is down there.’
Understandably, friendships decline if not maintained and you need to be prepared to view this as a natural outcome of the seachange. For some people, friendships survive because they’re convenient, but saving up conversations for planned phone calls or trying to put a months worth of news into several lines of witty email isn’t the right solution for everyone.
You may find that you have to go to your friends rather than the other way around. And when you visit, your friends may expect you to slot back in rather than telling them about your new life. Try to accept and understand their reaction. By choosing to seachange to a more relaxed location for an improved work/life balance, you may find some friends think you’re rejecting them because of their choices to stay where they are.
Leaving a city can cause homesickness for you or someone in your family, even though you have all shared the decision to move. If the loss of friendships becomes too difficult to handle, don’t struggle on and stay miserable. If you feel you need help, contact an organisation, such as Relationships Australia, Lifeline or beyondblue for an understanding ear and advice on how to stay strong and enjoy the challenges in setting up your new life.
Making friends
Do you remember how your mum would grab you by the shoulder and propel you into a group of kids you didn’t know and say something utterly embarrassing like, ‘Look, here’s (insert your name). He wants to be friends with you.’ Even as an adult, striking up new friendships can be daunting. Establishing friendships from scratch is an important challenge in your seachange strategy and one that easily can be overlooked. Finding social networks is vital and forming friendships is necessary to feel more settled and part of your new community.
That’s not to say that you have to abandon your old friends and social networks. But new friends in your local area can enhance your life and help you make the most of your efforts to achieve a better work/life balance. As rural high school teacher, Brett explains, ‘It was only when I made friends with a couple of the other teachers that my social life opened up. They invited me to play for their local volleyball and football teams, which led to meeting more people and rekindling my interest in golf and camping, which eventually led to meeting my future wife.’
Work is often the first way to meet friends, especially in smaller areas where you’re not separated by which side of the city you live on, or what your postcode is. Small-town living means that you bump into your colleagues at sporting events, in the local shops and at the annual show day. For partners who aren’t in paid employment, checking the council for parenting and hobby groups is a good idea.
Lewis was completing his studies by correspondence when he moved to a coastal community with his wife, Marie, who found work as a town planner. ‘It felt a bit unusual being a stay-at-home dad in a small town. But then I met people through the local playground and being on the kindergarten management committee. Plus, whoever I met seemed to know Marie, or their partner or someone in their family knew Marie through her work. A lot of friendships can be made in a small town.’
Helping the community
One of the reasons that people choose seachanging is the larger role they can play in the community. Big-city living has lost its appeal for people who live in dormitory suburbs, communities whose streets are lifeless each day as dual-earner families go to work and leave empty houses behind them. Other people find that the demands and long hours at work mean that the little leisure time they have is spent working around the house or trying to recuperate and catch up.
In her book, The Labour Market Ate My Babies, Barbara Pocock highlights the declining participation rate in community life by pointing out that organisations, such as schools, that rely a great deal on volunteer work, find help hard to get when 70 per cent of parents work full time, compared to a community where only 10 per cent of children come from full-time, double-income families.
Seachangers want to change this skewed vision of lives spent on the career treadmill to the total exclusion of everything else.
Before you move to your seachange location, try visiting a few local sporting clubs there to introduce yourself and see what levels of skill, experience or equipment is needed to play. As Sonia found out when working as a podiatrist in the Riverland, ‘I had never played basketball in my life and didn’t have a clue about the game, but I found myself learning at age 25 and loved it. You tend to find in the country that you don’t have to be a star to play. You can just join in. Sport is the social life activity of the country.’
John met some friends through joining a bushwalking and bird-watching group and he and his wife, Pauline, are also involved in social gatherings at their church. Pauline visited the local dramatic society and offered her skills as a costume designer. ‘It was a lovely way to get to know people who had the same interests and they really appreciated my sewing and costuming skills.’ So much so that Pauline now dresses the cast in every production and can sometimes even be persuaded to get on stage and sing in the chorus.
Getting involved
Coastal and inland communities foster their sense of belonging through the contributions of volunteers. Volunteering to be part of a school working bee, running a fundraising stall, delivering meals on wheels to elderly residents or helping revegetate a conservation area is a great way to meet people and make a difference.
Volunteering is also an excellent way to increase your skills for other opportunities in paid employment. Rosemary told me, ‘I had previously worked as a nurse, but being involved in my son’s school fundraising committee and doing some work at the aged-care centre led to me being employed at the local council. My boss said he’d been impressed by my organisation, communication and public-speaking skills, all of which were developed and improved by my involvement in community volunteering.’
For further details on what volunteer work is available in your seachange destination, try contacting your local council, school or kindergarten for opportunities, and let them know what skills you offer and what hours you can spare. Also, visit the Web site www.govolunteer.com.au to search for other volunteer jobs available in your area.
Sue did that and found herself reading for the blind. ‘I was working full time, but still wanted to make a contribution and get to know more people at the same time,’ she said. ‘I was contacted by a community group that needed people to find and read non news stories onto tapes for blind people in an aged-care facility. It gave me all sorts of opportunities to be creative because the stories had to be positive, light-hearted and humorous. I did roving interviews with some of my work mates, other local characters and people with interesting hobbies. Volunteering is something I can do in the evenings outside of work hours. I’ve met and now visit some of my “listeners”.’
Pursuing a pastime
People often make friends through shared hobbies. A hobby can mean a lot more than collecting china kittens and tea cosies. These days, keen hobbyists use the Internet to find like-minded people to share views and
advice on their particular interests. Get on to your favourite search engine on the Internet and search for your hobby. You can find hundreds of sites to investigate. Here are a couple of hobby sites to get you on your way:
Getalife (www.getalife.com.au): Look for activities that interest you and find members that live near you. This site costs a small fee per month and can give you access to sports, lifestyle, arts and culture, wine, eating out, adventure activity and tours, as well as advice on how to set up your own community group.
Hobby net (www.hobby.net.au): Find something that interests you, as well as finding a contact group that’s accessible. Topics include do-it-yourself hobbies, arts and crafts, sports, genealogy, history, literature, animals, home-brewing and gardening.
Community groups can also provide a way to socialise with people in your postcode. Here are three Web sites that are very comprehensive:
Australian Government (www.community.gov.au): Provides an online search facility and links to community interest groups around Australia. As well, this site has tips on how to start up your own community group, training in how to set up a Web site, a list of financial tools needed and useful links to other organisations.
Community Guide (www.communityguide.com.au): This is a business site for advertising and commercial opportunities but it has a good community guide that can be sorted by category, title (A–Z) and location. A wide variety of hobby and interest groups are included here such as land care, leisure and fitness, theatre, welfare agencies, arts, media, animal rescue groups and tourism organisations.
Our Community (www.ourcommunity.com.au): Provides many different sections relating to fundraising, donations, obtaining grants, marketing and building capacity. This site claims to be Australia’s largest directory of non-profit and community organisations. Searches can be made by organisation name, organisation type, location, postcode and key words.
Finding entertainment
Think carefully about how you and your family entertain yourselves and do a test run for a few weekends to see whether you can cope without access to trendy restaurants, shopping centres and cinema complexes. You may daydream of long nights without the television on, playing board games or reading an engrossing book. But is that the type of cosy night your partner and children enjoy? Don’t discount the need to find suitable leisure activities for your family in your new seachange location so that the dreaded, ‘I’m bored’ from the kids doesn’t crop up too often.
Social life in most country towns revolves around local sporting clubs. My home town has the netball/tennis courts located next to the cricket/football oval. If people aren’t playing in the team, they umpire, coach, keep scores or help out in the clubhouse. No matter what your age, skill level or even interest in the sport, you’re likely to end up at the clubhouse after a game of whatever sport to socialise and discuss the day’s play.
If organised sport isn’t your cup of tea, in inland and coastal centres you can find outdoor activities, such as bushwalking, climbing, fishing, sailing or environmental activities. Participating in these groups enables you to see a lot more of your new environment and appreciate what the locality has to offer.
A seachange needs to be for the benefit of everyone in your family. Despite the fact that you and your partner know the reasons why you’re making the move to a slower, greener and less stressful environment, your children may be thinking about what they’re leaving behind.
Children don’t experience the reasons many adults yearn for a seachange — overtime at work, stress, poor health, long commuting times, and so on. Telling your children that moving to the country means having a more fulfilling lifestyle doesn’t mean much to them. They’re more likely to miss their friends, dread a new school and be confused about a lifestyle they don’t know. Making sure that your kids feel involved and that their concerns have been properly listened to and discussed helps them get ready to participate in your family’s new adventure.
Moving house is a very exhausting time. You’re in for a frantic few weeks or months of preparing for open inspections (and herding the family out), disconnecting services, cancelling and redirecting post and sorting out belongings. De-cluttering and deciding what furniture, clothing and household goods to take is a stressful task because everyone has different ideas. Travelling between the city and your new location to scout out a new home to rent or buy is also stressful, time consuming and tiring. You have to investigate kindergartens, schools, child care, health care, recreational facilities and local employment and business opportunities. And don’t forget the cat and the dog. Among all of that mayhem, your kids need to feel that they’re being consulted and their wishes are followed.
Enthusing teenagers for the move
Moving for teenagers can be especially difficult because peer groups, interests and friendships are established and most teenagers tend to know where they fit in their group. Some hints to consider to make the transition easier for your children include the following:
Allowing your kids to establish and continue long-distance friendships. Give the children their own address books and email addresses. With encouragement from you, they can maintain friendships so they don’t feel they’re leaving their friends forever. Arrange a farewell party for your children and their friends and arrange definite dates for the closest friends to visit. Don’t just promise visits one day.
Being patient and being prepared to answer a lot of questions. You may be very busy, but giving them the attention and discussion time they need to reassure themselves about the move will help them cope better. You and your partner are very likely the ones who made the decision to seachange and also chose the location, so allowing children to make a few less major choices will ease their anxieties and let them participate.
Caring about promises. If you can’t follow through on a promise, don’t make it. Deciding that you won’t be getting a pet or chickens after all can set your kids up to feeling betrayed and resentful, particularly if having chickens was something they were expecting.
Sticking to a regular routine. Seachanging is an extremely busy process. Try to keep meal times regular and healthy even though ordering a takeaway most nights is tempting. Put your children to bed at their normal times so that their sleep patterns also remain healthy. Having children who are on vegetable withdrawal and cranky because of late nights and bad food isn’t fun.
Talking about the new location. Don’t just tell the children about the fresh air, scenery and peaceful lifestyle because they’re thinking about losing their friends. Instead, talk about the types of sport they can enjoy, the freedom for activities, such as bike riding, camping and fishing, the security of a smaller school and a bigger house.
Visit the area with your children as much as possible. Drive and walk around the town, showing the kids the attractions of the place (from a kid’s perspective — swimming beaches or pools, skate parks, horse-riding paddocks, farm lands, motorbike tracks, and so on). Walk through the school grounds on the weekends to help make the place seem more familiar when the first day of school rolls around. Show the kids the key natural features of the area and be enthusiastic about why the move is going to benefit them. Your excitement can be contagious.
Arriving at the new location
The sooner children are involved in sporting activities, the sooner they adapt to their new location. Getting a part-time job at the local supermarket, the fish co-op or at the local wood mill also helps teenagers become a part of the community faster. But joining a sports club or getting a job takes time.
When you arrive at your destination, your kids are likely to be more terrified than excited, despite your efforts. This is perfectly normal. Here are some tips to make their experience a little easier:
Be prepared for your child’s grades to dip slightly while they settle into their new school, which may have different teaching methods, subjects, elective courses and social networks. Don’t allow your child to see you overreact but discuss the fact that it may take a few months to integrate. You can discuss any noticeable or continuing drop in grades and behaviour with their teacher or the principal.
Encourage interaction with other children, whether they attend the same school or not. Include the children in your activities with other parents to help them socialise and form friendships out of school.
Make sure you set up a good line of communication with the school principal and your child(ren)’s teacher. Ask them to keep a special eye on your children and to let you know as soon as possible when any issues arise. Show how much you value the input of the school by contributing your time to school activities, such as fundraising, helping out at sports days, listening to kids read or helping out in the canteen. Not only can you get to know other parents but you get to keep a bit of an eye on your kids as well.
Playing, watching or volunteering to help run a sporting event is a crucial social lifeline in country towns. Local communities use sports to socialise as well as to keep fit and are always looking for a deputy coach, new players or an extra car to transport kids to away games. At least you won’t have difficulty finding a car park or being caught in traffic. A school teacher friend of mine started playing basketball for the first time in his 40s when he moved to a small country town and his wife played evening tennis. Mandy recalls, ‘I was hopeless at tennis, but I enjoyed the camaraderie and was made to feel very welcome.
It wasn’t meant to be competitive, just fun and I really looked forward to attending every week. These tennis players have been my friends ever since.’
Send your children to the school you think suits them best and involve the children in the decision. Take them with you to visit the schools and see which one appeals to them. Find out what they like and dislike about each of the schools and find out what extracurricular activities at each school interests them.
You can encourage your children to invite friends to stay in the holidays or for a weekend. The friendships either are picked up where they left off or have faded a bit (as friendships do in the tumultuous teen years). If your teenager has left a girlfriend or boyfriend behind in the city, be sensitive to their feelings of sadness and longing. Allow them to stay in touch via phone and email (budget permitting) and a few months down the track (if they are still together), invite the partner to stay for a few days.