In short:
As interest in sustainable living rises, suburban families are abandoning cities in search of a new lifestyle in the country.
Some families retain a ‘foot in each place’ as they transition to a life in a rural locality.
What’s next?
Recent data suggests a surge in those looking to head out of the city and into the regions.
They call it a tree change, city-dwellers upping stumps and heading out bush.
But these couples who are ditching suburbia in pursuit of a different lifestyle in Tasmania have taken that literally, as they embark on new careers managing groves of trees.
After living in Perth and Melbourne, Ian and Katherine St Jack were keen to abandon their cosmopolitan lifestyle to escape to a peaceful rural locality in Tasmania’s north.
“We really wanted to live on 80 to 100 acres and … eat our own produce, make money off the farm, go for walks on the farm, just enjoy ourselves,” Mr St Jack said.
“And here we are in Piper’s Brook, living the dream to be honest.”
That dream now includes about 600 French oak trees and a couple of truffle-sniffing dogs.
Harder than it looks
“[Truffles] seemed like a good idea at the time. I didn’t think there would be much work in it,” he laughed.
“There’s a lot more work than I thought. It’s actually relentless, to be honest.”
In addition to working as a paediatrician and an electrician, raising small children and running a truffle business, the couple now fatten their own steers to eat, as well as harvest produce from their 300-square-metre vegetable garden and small orchard.
“We’re really just creating that produce for us to eat and live off and raise a young family, and try to do it in the best way we can,” Mr St Jack said.
Walking the sustainable talk
After working nonstop from her early 20s, most recently for tech-monolith Apple in Singapore and Australia, Sydney-sider Katherine Corrie happily retired from corporate life in 2022.
“COVID was a transition of sorts … it was a nice way for me to get ready for what lay ahead,” she said.
That future included a “serendipitous” romance with her now husband, Digby Hall and beginning the slow process of moving their blended lives down to a picturesque organic hazelnut orchard, about 260 kilometres north of Hobart.
While the couple still live between states to allow Mr Hall’s sons to finish school, the property, named ‘Nemoto’, has already become an integral part of their lives.
For Mr Hall, an architect who advises government and private clients on climate adaptation, Nemoto was about “walking the walk” when it came to the regenerative farming practices he’d so long been advocating for.
“It’s not really a stepping away from the corporate world … it’s more a logical next step for what we think is the right way to live,” he explained.
“The long-term future is about the way that we live, the legacy we leave for our boys … literally every project here on the property, we’re asking ourselves, ‘how does this help our boys and potentially their children?’.”
Back to basics and the search for sufficiency
The couples are not alone in their search for a different lifestyle.
A recent report from independent think tank the Regional Australia Institute suggests the number of tree changers in Australia hit a 12-month high, sitting at 20 per cent above the pre-COVID average.
Analysing data from more than 16 million Commonwealth bank customers, the Institute found people living in metro “commuter belts” were leaving to live in regional centres such as the Gold Coast, Wollongong and Launceston.
Online, a slew of creators promoting an aesthetic, curated vision of self-sufficient living in rural and semi-rural areas has gained popularity; and inspired an internet subculture.
“I think the cool kids are calling it homesteading at the moment, but my grandparents back in the day called it survival,” Mr St Jack quipped.
“At the end of the day … raising a young family where we have some acreage and some beautiful quality produce, there’s nothing better in the world to be honest.”
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