GRID-LOCKED traffic, crowded bars and a shortage of "desirable" dating partners.
These were atop the list of complaints from my city mates when I returned to the big smoke recently.
As I sat in peak-hour traffic with the sound of idling engines and car horns filling the air, I couldn't help but daydream of the landscape I'd left behind.
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That landscape was Tamworth in the state's North West, and my visit to the city was a short one to visit family ahead of the holiday season.
However, the brief stint was enough to assure me that the decision I made more than three years ago to leave the city was the right one.
Sure, being away from your family and friends has its drawbacks, but I'm in no doubt the benefits outweigh those negatives.
The sense of community you feel in the country is something that is tough to duplicate and the opportunities (such as writing for The Land) are just a taste of the benefits of a tree change.
Recent studies conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveal others like myself have seen the light and opted to move regional.
According to the ABS, 85,500 people moved interstate in the three months to the end of June 2020 and of those, a healthy proportion moved to regional areas.
In the June 2020 quarter, there was a net loss of 10,500 people from Australia's greater capital cities through internal migration.
This was a slightly larger net loss to the population of capital cities than in the previous quarter (10,100 people) and was well above the June 2019 quarter (4,300).
There's no doubt the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent new tools to help people work remotely has played a major role in the desire to move to the bush. In turn, job advertisements in regional areas such as Tamworth have spiked in recent months.
The federal Department of Education, Skills and Employment internet vacancy index shows job ads for the Tamworth region are up 46 per cent from last year. Meanwhile, the Dubbo region has recorded a whopping 93pc spike in job ads and the Southern Highlands 54pc.
To my mates, whose problems seem unsolvable, feel free to join me in the country.
I promise you it will be worth your while and like me, it might just change your life.
Billy Jupp is The Land's Tamworth based reporter.
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