From the sublime to the ridiculous, country living has it all. Photo: Hayley Nicholls.
We moved to Wamboin around 10 years ago. I recall leaving the open house in a hurry to make a hair appointment in the city, and the timing was exactly 30 minutes from leaving our driveway to parking in the Bunda Street multi-storey.
How cool is that? All the benefits of rural living, half an hour’s drive from the urban heart of our nation’s capital city.
I think we underestimate how exceptional that is. There aren’t a lot of major cities where you can live like a hobby farmer and work like a public servant. City-dwelling, latte-sipping business professional by weekday, practically Amish on the weekends.
This double life is made possible by Canberra, the bush capital.
And, at the risk of appearing self-serving by creating a flurry of new demand and thereby pushing up my property’s pricetag, I’d like to outline a few of my favourite things about pseudo-rural life in the humble hamlet of Wamboin.
1. Community vibes
I now understand the generalisation that rural kids are often really nice. While my own young are still very little, and therefore more closely resemble very tame farm animals than ‘children’, I can certainly appreciate why people in small, close-knit communities generally behave differently from those in the big smoke. The community is small and word travels fast.
There’s a comfort in country living. Photo: Hayley Nicholls.
There is also a certain comfort in knowing you automatically have something in common with your neighbours. You both chose this fairly unique lifestyle, which is not everyone’s cup of tea.
That understanding alone seems enough of a foundation for friendly interactions and a feeling of camaraderie. And that aside, if you live in the country it’s probably only a matter of time before you need your neighbours for something – because the power has gone out, a tree has come down, there’s a fire alert nearby, a snake sighting, some animal has run off, or been found, or been injured, the list goes on. Which brings me to my next point …
2. Unique challenges (everyday’s a school day)
I will never forget the day my favourite sheep took herself for an unscheduled adventure down the road and I suddenly realised how ridiculous my life had become.
As I ran full pelt down our driveway, while mildly pregnant and clutching a baby monitor which was beeping its ‘out of signal’ war cry, I screamed wildly “THAT’S MY SHEEP!” at a collection of helpful neighbours who were attempting to keep my cheeky poddy lamb from becoming road kill.
As I tried to coax a naughty sheep towards me by lovingly calling her name (‘Come on, Gretel!’), I thought: my problems are weird now.
3. “How’s the serenity?”
There’s no other way to say it – the peace of mind that comes with a rural setting is invaluable.
It’s so easy to breathe when trees surround you, and simpler to disconnect from the stresses of your day when you’ve physically removed yourself from them.
While the isolation may present a problem to some people’s mental health, for me it is the opposite. Without the space and stillness of my rural surroundings, I don’t know where I’d be (but I suspect I’d be wearing a straight jacket).
4. The peace of wild things
In our time in Wamboin, we’ve played home to a variety of creatures – both native and companion animals, wild and tame.
Our paddocks have hosted sheep, alpacas, miniature horses, chickens, roosters and guinea pigs (once even a large boar, though he was just passing through) – all with their own unique personalities and each has provided us with belly laughs and stories to tell.
Every animal has a unique personality. Photo: Hayley Nicholls.
We have fed families of starved and desperate kangaroos during droughts, and tried very hard not to feed entitled king parrots and rosellas (who literally call to us as though we are their private butlers).
We have avoided plover parents who took up residence in our backyard, and evicted possums from every outbuilding. We have declared war on foxes, and closely followed the love lives of shinglebacks.
It’s incredible how at one with nature you feel when you are truly living in the middle of it.
This list scratches the surface of my deep love for living out of town. Of course, I could add a list twice as long about the unique challenges of rural living. But why would I? For me, the negatives cannot come close to outweighing the positives.
And anyway, how would that improve my property value?
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