What I learned from a tree change

In 2012 we moved our family from the inner west in Sydney to a small village in the Southern Tablelands of NSW, around 35 minutes from the Australian Capital Territory.

My husband had been offered a position in Canberra. It was great timing as we had just finished renovating our 1908 workers cottage in Sydney and I was ready to sit back and enjoy our revamped home 🙁. We had also moved eight times in the previous nine years - that’s a long story.

I was supportive of the move on the condition that we look at a tree change. The priority for me and our family was a rural lifestyle that included being part of a community. For this reason I started Googling options for small villages within commuting distance to Canberra and that had a school, church, and pub, what I considered essential to community.

And so we moved to Gundaroo.

What did I learn?

You become very familiar with the ‘circle of life’

If your chicken starts walking funny, and then stops moving, it’s your job to put it out of its misery. You may prefer a large knife or to get hands on. Whatever you do, don’t make the mistake of taking the chicken to the vet. I have still not lived this down!

A lot of people are there to live 'paddock to plate' so putting a couple of sheep or a cow in the freezer is business as usual. Our school’s annual quiz night actually auctions a live lamb. The winner gets to visit a paddock, pick out the lamb they want and then personally transport that lamb to a local butcher who has agreed to turn it into lamb chops. I’ve toughened up but still do not bid on that item - however would not think twice about going to a BBQ with that lamb on the menu.

Don’t get me started on mice, although am very proud of my mouse death tally this year!

Someone has to be handy - and that turned out to be me

Things go wrong and you need to be able to fix it. We collect water off our roof (no mains water). Water is pumped from a tank into the house, so if you lose power then you don’t have any water, and Murphy’s Law is that you lose power right at dinner time and when you are trying to get three children bathed.

Because things go wrong and rural properties require a fair bit of maintenance I can now do plumbing repairs, drive a bad-ass ride on mower, am familiar with all kinds of power tools, can identify noxious weeds and what poison kills them, can chop wood, have removed a dead kangaroo from our fence (note, you need a saw), can set up the fire pump at our dam, and that’s just the beginning.

So if you don’t want to get your hands dirty and spend your weekends spraying weeds, a tree change with a lot of land may be a challenge.

You do actually slow down and smell the roses, and then the kids hit high school

On the upside we do enjoy a slower pace of life. There is nothing like hot chocolate in front of the fire on a winter’s night, the kids noisily zooming past on motorbikes, canoeing on our dam, the dogs chasing kangaroos (which they never catch), and just literally smelling the roses (I do have some and they smell amazing).

I feel blessed when I look out the window at green, now (in 2019 it was grim with the drought and fires), trees, sky, kangaroos and birdsong in the air. I’ve also worked out that I'm not a very social person. While I love catching up with my friends I equally love just hanging out at home, and my husband is the same. What a lovely anti-social pair we are.

I also love gardening, it’s the way I destress and there’s something deeply soothing about putting your hands in dirt … although I hate weeds, and that’s a constant battle.

The kids starting high school has been a challenge. For us that means commuting to Canberra for school and sport. We have accepted that for the next five years we will be a taxi service, driving kids in and out, and losing large parts of our weekend to sport and their catch ups with friends. Only two more years until my eldest gets his licence, and while that is also scary, it will mean he can help with some of the running around - I hope.