You can keep your Cities!

[netwolf]

I would love to live out Country under dark skies. Build a place with a flat roof like we build em in India (concrete not timber), so you can sleep on it under the stars. But then i think what will i do for work? Still dreaming.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Originally Posted by netwolf

I would love to live out Country under dark skies. Build a place with a flat roof like we build em in India (concrete not timber), so you can sleep on it under the stars. But then i think what will i do for work? Still dreaming.

Why do so many people think work is hard to find out in the rural areas? How long does it take you to travel to work where you are now? Many people can spend 1 - 1.5 hours travelling to work each day. I can drive or catch a train to Inner City Melbourne in 1.5 hours from here! Ballarat is only 20 minutes away, Geelong is only 40 mins away.

Start a business at home, or open a business in the country town. If you really want to go rural, you'll find a way. But to be fair, many people like cities. Or are scared to leave the convenience of cities. They do have almost everything close at hand. It does take getting used to the fact that 7/11 isn't 100m away, and McDonalds is 20 mins away.

[fringe_dweller]

thats true Ken, i was thinking of most of rural south australia i guess. yes variety of food is important to me, specially plenty of fresh vegies
I have one mate who's been in the bush a long time, he's thinking oif doing ok with ebay, get the right area I spose?

[OneOfOne (Trevor)]

Originally Posted by rogerg

[snip]

I do worry though, if we all hate the city, so we all move to the country, how long before the country is too over populated to be pleasant? ..

[snip]

Roger.

I think one of the worries is that as people have their "sea change" they take their "city" values, attitudes etc to the country. I remember seeing something on TV some time ago about this phenomenon where some country towns have become so popular with the sea changers that the place ceases to be "country" anymore. Some of the locals were complaining how they can no longer go out and leave the house or car unlocked and are having problems usually associated with the cities, like fights at night, graffiti etc. Maybe if you want to move into a rural area you should have an interview or at least take a test to see if you would fit in.

As for the trouble makers being "older" I am surprised (it is usually restricted to males with too much testosterone flowing through their veins) and disapointed (they are old enough to know better). I would also not be surprised if the majority were "city slickers", lack of consideration seems to be a more common city value.

Hopefully, they woke next morning with a throbbing headache and a few broken bones!

[Glenhuon (Bill)]

Quote
Maybe if you want to move into a rural area you should have an interview or at least take a test to see if you would fit in.

I believe its like that on Norfolk Island and it is the case on Fair Isle, a little island between Orkney and Shetland. If the existing residents don't think you'll fit in, no go. Other places I've been don't vet incomers, but if your a pain in the butt, the local shops ignore you (no service), the mail man doesn't deliver and the garbage man leaves your bin alone etc.
I think the Amish call it "shunning" .

Bill

[KG8]

Originally Posted by ballaratdragons

I can almost garantee these were the racing crowd from Melbourne. 90% of the crowd at the Ballarat Cup comes up from Melbourne.
The whole Spring Carnival up here is mostly Melbournites

Then I guess it was all the riff raff concentrated in one little place. Sort of what like you get when you cram a lot of enriched uranium into a small place.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

LOL
It's the same here in Kilcoy.
You can't get a tradesman to come, but if you get an outsider to come and do the work, your the worst in the world.
Don't gossip. You don't know who you're talking to. You only have to go back a few generations and they're mostly all from the same family. Sad but true enough.
If you want to be accepted as an outsider, (you'll never be accepted as a local unless you are 2nd generation), you have to get involved in the community. So unless you go to church, that means joining committees and clubs.

[Ric]

I've noticed that some people who want the quiet rural life are deterred when they see the reality of living away from cities.

One hurdle is a deposit to get the loan in the beginning, when I first started researching I assumed a 10% deposit like other loans but every bank/society came back a standard 30% deposit. Their reason is that rural land is risky. The fact that you might own a business or have a stable Govt job means nothing.

You have to plan things a lot more becuse you just run up to the corner shop if you run out of milk and bread. There is also no home delivery from the Pizza shop.

Then there's snakes, spiders and vege eating Roos, lack of water, telephone drops out, power disruptions, fire etc.

Despite these minor diversions, it's a great life but I do hear of a lot of properties being bought and sold in the first year.

Cheers

[cahullian]

I lived in a NSW country town for 4 1/2 years and they seemed like the longers two decades of my life. Boring, boring, boring. Give me a city any day. I live in the suburbs and my neighbours are all nice and friendly, I can't remember the last time a house was broken into on our street. I work in the city and it takes me 20 mins to get there. I love going to the movies, football to watch my beloved Jets and I also play and referee.Living in the city I also know where to good quiet restaurants are where the best pubs and clubs are. My kids and I all like to drink and we have never gotten into a fight. The city centre here in Newcastle is where all the rowdies go, so if you are the kind of person who likes a fight that's where you go and drink ,if not ,you stay away. I don't like sheep or horses and couldn't care less about frogs croaking or hoons burning rubber it's all just noise anyway. so keep your rural/bush living I love the city and if it means I don't have as dark a night sky, so be it, I wll happily give up dark sky for a lifestyle that suits me down to the ground. I think the rural life might sound good to people who are getting on in years as the peace and quiet may seem appealing, but all you hear from the youngsters in those areas is I'm bored , there is nothing to do (except get drunk or get into drugs) some of the worst pub brawls I have ever seen have been in country pubs and drugs among the young people in the rural community is rife.,we can't get decent jobs (which is very true) none of these things would ever endear me be part of that. I'll keep to the city and enjoy the dirt,pollution,grafitti,noise,cramp ed and light filled nights thank you.

Gazz (I just love to stir)

[tileys]

Haha...Gaz...don't think you needed to add the bit in brackets...

Thought I'd throw in my 2 bobs worth...

As an ex-pom I'd say that Australians are heavily concentrated in the big cities due to history. The rural villages of Europe developed pre-industrial revolution - you lived where you could walk to work and once a week you'd go to the nearest big town (probably not much further away than 10-15 miles) to the market to stock up. The cities saw their growth with the workhouses and factories of the industrial revolution. They built it and people came... Work became more specialised as a rule and people lost touch with their previous lives, they saw more possibility for development in the cities and larger towns and only recently have started to realise what they've lost and the frustration and alienation that comes from that finds release in all kinds of unpleasant ways (I'm in my 30s by the way, even though I may sound like an old fogey)

As Australians we're overwhelmingly crammed into the cities that were originally built around (apart from Canberra - an experiment) and broadly speaking unless you are e.g. a teacher, doctor, mechanic i.e. someone with broad skills that are universally locally needed it's hard to leave the larger population centres behind because that's where the bulk of the work and opportunities are.

I work in IT - implementing and customising enterprise level information systems using software, hardware and services that only larger companies can afford. I'd have to really think outside the square to transfer my skills to country NSW (I can't repair PCs - maybe I could start an internet cafe - if there's a decent infrastructure). I grew up in a small town (30k people) in England - I could be in open fields and woodland in 5 minutes walk. The work in Europe is more decentralised because the people are - I found myself working all over the country there but I'm still happy here.

As far as cities go Sydney is a very pleasant one but the value of it is being eroded over time through lack of vision and lack of will and my worry is that within a generation people won't know any different to sitting alone in their car for 3 hours each day and working 10 hours once they get to the office.

Gee...thanks...that's really depressed me now...

...it's the clouds...they do that to you

Steve

[fringe_dweller]

hehe thats right JJ, i have a mate who moved 2 or so hours away to mid north town here, for health reasons, he had originally already moved from melbourne to here, coz he couldnt handle the pace anymore, then eventually even adelaide was too hectic for him! lol
he's been there 10 or 11 yrs or so now, and tried to fit in with locals, volunteer at old peoples home lots of stuff like that. he says it is common wisdom/knowledge that it takes about 20 years for outsiders to be accepted as part of the community where he is. of course he makes friends with all the other outsiders/blow-ins no problem. only 10 years to go! friendly country people my arse.
hmmm methinks city is a MUCH friendlier place.
they suspicous you're on the run or something, or something to hide, to move out there lol
of course thats outback type cockie towns, not the cosmopoliton places like snake valley
and whats the other common warning, dont go near towns at the end of a rail line?

[fringe_dweller]

also coupla years ago, as he has ongoing serious health problems, he got really sick, and the local typical fascist MD was misdiagnosing him and treating him like a hyperchondriac troublemaker (sp), due to lack of CHOICE, luckily another blow-in who was a nurse saw what was going on, and rushed him down to adelaide, were he was immediatly given a kidney transplant after being put on dialysis, another day or two and he would of been dead or in a coma at least! yikes, don't move to country if you plan to get sick!

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

all good arguments.

Like I said, some people like cities. Each to their own.

If everyone moved the the country, it wouldn't be the country any more!

[leon]

And Ken, It would get to light at night.

Leon

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Originally Posted by leon

And Ken, It would get to light at night.

Leon

Yep!

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Nhulunbuy NT.
- Nearest Macdonalds 10hrs drive
-1 hrs drive No power let alone lights
- Want a beach to yourself, no problems, take your pick.
- An Island to yourself perhaps? OK
- As it is all aboriginal land, so no Alcohol outside the town boundary.
(Since the federal intervention)

So if you want to get away from drunks in town (yes we have em too !)
-Don't go to the pub
-Take a 10 minute drive

That said we have Woolies, Mitre10, specialty shops etc 3 minutes from anywhere in town.
Then Beautiful white sandy beaches 5 minutes away.

No wonder I am still here 11 years later

[sailormoon]

The city aint that bad. We have all the great services and a better life than country towns. If it aint so then why are people flocking to the cities to live while many country towns are rotting to death?