Eight years ago Kimberley Garlick and her young family packed up their life in Sydney to move to the country, leaving behind a suburban home for 15 lush acres in the Northern Rivers region of NSW. Gone were the next-door neighbours and access to water on tap, replaced with wide, open spaces and tanks that only filled when there was rain.
It is a move the family does not regret for a minute. In fact, Kimberley, 45, her husband, Adam, 48, and daughters Maddison, 19, Bridget, 17, and Caitlin, 14, have thrived in their rural environment.
“I love the seclusion and privacy we have,” Kimberley says. “And I really believe it has opened our minds to many more experiences that we wouldn’t have had if we had stayed in Sydney. Adam’s done things he never thought he would before – like having to pull a calf out when a cow was having trouble birthing.
“Growing up, our girls had an incredible sense of freedom. They would take their tent and horses and ride down and camp by the creek on our neighbour’s property. It was only a few paddocks away, but it felt like they were in the middle of nowhere. They would cook and just have fun by themselves. It gave them a real sense of independence.”
Kimberley says the tree-change has also given the family a closer connection to nature.
“Our girls grew up in the great outdoors. Still to the this day, even though she’s now 14, Caity has a favourite tree on our property and she enjoys quiet time so will often go there and just be up in the tree reading by herself.
“We rely on the weather much more than we did in Sydney. We are not on town water, which was an initial shock to the system as we were just used to turning on a tap and having water there. But we are on rainwater tanks here and there have been times when we have run out of water. The flipside is that when it rains a lot we have been flooded in and can’t get out.
“There’s also the wildlife to contend with – like rats and snakes. It’s all a bit of a reality check, but it just becomes part of life.”
The move to the country for the Garlicks was initially prompted by their love of horses. Sydney was neither conducive nor affordable when it came to keeping their four-legged friends. But it was also the allure of space and a sense of calm that only a rural setting could offer that drew them to the Northern Rivers.
“Our passion for horses was probably our main reason for moving from Sydney – to be able to get property for the horses,” Kimberley says. “But it was also to have that freedom of the kids being able to just experiment outside and do their own thing – with less of the so-called helicopter parenting required, which we could see was starting to happen if we stayed where we were.
“Now we have plenty of space – with no direct neighbours. It’s just a really special place to live. I’m sitting on the deck as I’m talking now and it’s the most beautiful view in the world!”
Housing affordability was also a big drawcard.
“We could get so much more for our money up here than we ever could in Sydney,” Kimberley says. “Really, there were just so many positives to making the move.”
However, even though Kimberley is a self-confessed planner, she says that not everything went according to plan and that she had to learn to “go with the flow”. The property that the Garlicks bought had an old house on it, which they knocked down so they could build their dream home. But three months after moving up, Adam, who was a building project manager working on the nearby Gold Coast, was retrenched, throwing their plans into a spin.
“We had thought we would live in a caravan for about three months while our new house was being built, but when Adam lost his job that turned into just over one year. I can’t gloss over it, it was really difficult and it didn’t stop raining that first year. But it also had its positives. Our girls are so incredibly close – they shared a bedroom the whole time and there were never any issues.”
It didn’t take long before things were back on track for the family: Adam soon established his own building business locally, and Kimberley is running a successful pilates studio in nearby Lismore. The family has moved out of the caravan and into a cabin with more space and comfortable living conditions while their dream home is being finished. And the girls have also well and truly found their feet.
“Before we left Sydney, everybody warned us that we wouldn’t get the same opportunities in the country as we would living in the city, but that hasn’t been the case,” Kimberley says. “We have access to everything we need here – good schooling, fantastic facilities from music to dance, the horses – but without the stress of living in a city.
“Our girls have certainly not gone without opportunities. Bridget’s life is about horses and being outside and she is now horse-riding professionally and finishing her HSC via distance education so she can do this.
“Maddison is finished school and living in Brisbane, but she always says she will move back here when she has children because she wants them to experience a childhood like hers. And every time she comes back home she comments on how peaceful it is.
“Caitlin is now dancing full-time and was awarded a ballet scholarship in Houston, in America. She was competing against all the city kids from around Australia for only 10 spots, and she got one. She’s also in the Queensland Ballet program, so every Wednesday I take her to Brisbane for that. It’s a 2½-hour drive there but it’s achievable. All this from the base of a small country town [in Lismore].”
Kimberley says that while she still misses friends in Sydney, the family would never consider a move back to the city.
“It took me a little time to adjust to not having my friends or a coffee shop close by, but the benefits far outweigh those things. For a start, the traffic would drive me mad if I was back living in Sydney. We just don’t have that here. There is a real sense of community where we live. While we don’t live in each other’s pockets, the people here are incredibly supportive and you know they would be there for you if you ever needed anything.
“The other thing is that I don’t feel like there are any pressures here to keep up with the Joneses. We are just accepted for who we are – there isn’t a pressure to fit in. Maybe that’s unique to the Northern Rivers, but I’ve found that you can be really quirky and no one blinks an eyelid. You can be wealthy or poor, but people seem to treat everyone the same way – it doesn’t matter if you are a lawyer or a baker. That’s really refreshing.”
Even better, if all goes to plan (this time) the Garlicks will be in their new home – surrounded by paddocks and their horses – by Christmas!
Bank with confidence and flexibility. With over 3000 fee free ATMs Australia wide, 50 branches in NSW and SE Qld plus online banking via Mobile App and Internet Banking, Greater Bank, has you covered, wherever your location. Find out more here.
