May I recommend the high Tablelands inland from Cairns for a great tree change - you can have a rainforest tree change such as my wife and I in Kuranda, or a volcanic soil tree change further south west, great weather, reliable rainfall, close to the City of Cairns for all your needs and the Cairns international airport and JCUniversity, yet out of the mad rush. You will be amazed what you can do from home by broadband, or you can rent a little shop in any of the many towns (I have the Hidden Words Bookshop in Kuranda Village - non-fiction for thoughtful readers). Live cheaply on the local produce and breath the fresh air. Sure beats the clutter of the big cities.
Graham Nicholson

Iain
Some great advice, thank you. Your rural life sounds idyllic. I must admit to being only very basic in my handyman skills but improving and I can read instructions well. :) My husband is not too bad with small building projects, I am more useful in the garden and with animals. Always willing to learn to be more self-sufficient. Making new friends will require some effort, one small town we have our eye on appears to be very community minded as we will aspire to be, and that will go some way I think in the settling process.

Severin
Your lovely Yarra Valley home will be difficult to leave but you may find new adventures waiting for you in the regional centre. Your mum is very lucky to have you. We are hoping to make our new home (wherever it will be) environmentally friendly with solar, rainwater tanks and the like. I too am weary of the rat race mentality and material superficiality and there is little happiness or fulfillment to be found there.

May see you in Tassie one day. :)

When I was a young fellow, [mid 20s] I saw a joke.

This personal officer was telling a young pimply faced youth, "John, you'll like our retirement plan". "We retire you from age 30, to 40, then you come back, & work 'till you die".

This made sense to me, so at 32 I chucked the big job, climbed onto my yacht, & spent 14 years odd jobbing around the Pacific islands, & the Barrier Reef tourist industry. It was a real sea change.

I never did get a big job again, I always seemed to get jobs running little companies who were actually banrupt, but the accounting was usually so chaotic, no one really knew.

I'm lucky in that I don't feel stress, so running a company that's probably broke is not a problem. In fact it's rather fun, & it feels so good if you can save them, I preferred it.

For those who want a tree change, try this advice to a sailor quitting the sea.

Put an anchor over your sholder, & in eastern Oz, start walking west. Don't stop when someone asks what the anchor is for.

When someone asks "what's that thing over your sholder, you know you are far enough from the sea. Settle there. Should be a good spot for that tree change as well.

Hello, did somebody call?

>>I can't for instance, ever see Pericles adjusting to milking the cow etc :)<<

Ah, there you are Yabby. Hi.

You have nailed that one for sure and certain, my friend.

It was great when I was a kid - we're talking eight-to-twelve here - when my brother and I would roam around the countryside every day we weren't at school. There were a couple of farms nearby, so I was very familiar with milking cows - we used to often watch the farm-hand, as he attached those four tubes to the udders and switched on the machine. I wonder, do they still use those old-fangled methods today?

But spend my life there? Ain't gonna happen.

A very good friend of mine did the tree-change, a dozen years or more back. The whole bit. Gave up a job in PR that she was remarkably good at, and started over in a converted railway carriage, living off the land and having babies.

She was in hog-heaven, as far as I could tell. But there was less and less in our ever-more-infrequent emails that either of us could relate to. I'd be very interested to know if it still holds the same attraction as it did back then. Because unless you are extraordinarily careful, there's no way back.

And for me, there is so much about city-living that I would miss. Like crazy.

In fact, if I ever move from this one, it will be to another - perhaps even bigger - city.

Would that make it a "concrete change"?

Pericles, I thought I had you about right. It must be something
to do with our genes/environment that makes us whom we are, like
deep instinct. I lived in cities, my mom dragged me to the opera,
to the ballet, to the art galleries, I hated the lot! But give
me the outdoors, with lots of plants, animals and space, a workshop
with a welder and a few other gizmos, the joy of never having to
wear a shirt and tie again, I would never go back.

That does not mean that I rough it, or sacrifice various creature
comforts, or am not in touch with the rest of the world. In that
sense, the internet has changed alot.

I still go to the city when I need to for some reason. But I stay
for ever shorter periods of time and driving out of it and back
into the wide open spaces feels liberating every time.

So I guess we just need to figure out what drives us personally
and then follow our passions.

As to your question about milking cows, there are no dairies
just around here, but really modern dairies do now exist, which
are totally automated. The cows walk in when they feel like it
and are milked whilst they chomp on a ration that is in balance
with their milk production.

Na-a-a-a-a-ah, you're kidding, right?

>>The cows walk in when they feel like it and are milked whilst they chomp on a ration that is in balance with their milk production.<<

Just trying to pull a townie's leg, aren'tya?

They wouldn't be able to hold the tubes with their little hoofy things, would they?

Derrr.