The thought of establishing a temporary home on the other side of the country was a hypothetical joke after the Pyman's travelled from Sydney to Western Australia for a funeral earlier this year.
Now, in the midst of NSW's current outbreak of COVID-19, the family of five have their kids enrolled into a local school and remote work is becoming the norm.
Leaving Sydney
Andrew and Mindy Pyman along with their three kids — Gideon, Robyn and Theodore — live in Fairfield, one of Sydney's worst-hit suburbs.
On June 4, the family flew to Perth and travelled to Albany for a family funeral, the same day that New South Wales recorded no new cases of COVID-19.
Less than a fortnight later, the family were preparing to fly home when, their home state recorded a locally acquired case of COVID-19 — a limousine driver from Sydney's eastern suburbs who drove international flight crew.
Mr Pyman's mother-in-law, Kaye Pitman, was hosting the family at their Albany home when Sydney's COVID-19 outbreak began.
Staying put
As it turned out, the family's temporary residency in Western Australia was sealed on June 25, when New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced a two-week lockdown affecting Greater Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Wollongong.
Mrs Pitman said she knew what the rising cases would mean for the family.
"I thought, 'This is a real possibility that they would be staying longer'," Mrs Pitman said.
Mrs Pyman said their suitcases served as a reminder of their changed plans.
She said that she missed playing for her local AFL team, the Parramatta Goannas, but seeing her favourite team — the West Coast Eagles — play Richmond at Perth Stadium in June was a silver lining.
Impact of extended lockdowns
The family has had six flights home either postponed or cancelled due to continuous lockdown extensions but have made longer-term plans in Western Australia, including enrolling six year-old Gideon and five year-old Theodore into a local school.
He said he had contemplated a permanent relocation away from Sydney to escape the effects of snap lockdowns.
"Wouldn't it be great to live in a place like this, a bit of a bubble when it comes to [COVID-19] in many ways in the Great Southern or Albany area," he said.
However, he said, a move would be largely dictated by his work with Christian charity 'PraxEls', part of which involves working in refugee and migrant communities.
Reflecting on his home suburb, Mr Pyman said Fairfield's migrant community makes communicating COVID-19 information challenging.
"It's just second nature to visit loved ones," Mr Pyman said.
He said the community was slowly realising the severity of COVID-19.
Remaining grateful
He said the unexpected change to their plans would be memorable.
'We're going to look back and have a lot of special memories," he said. "We're just not realising that now."
Meanwhile, Mrs Pitman said, the time had been special for her grandchildren.
"To take this opportunity to get to know them. It's been really good," Mrs Pitman said.
The family has a flight home booked for the end of August and Mrs Pyman said some things would need throwing out when they eventually get home.
"[We will] probably need to clean out the fridge because the veggies at the bottom of the fridge would've gone all mouldy."
