One night, Mr Wallace searched for rentals in Brisbane and the couple made a snap decision to move. “We were both like: ‘Let’s do that then!’. We could live in a townhouse for $450 a week,” Ms Meredith says. “The reason we were pushed out of Sydney was the cost of renting. We both had good jobs, but never had any money left over.” Phoebe Meredith with her husband Alex Wallace and their 18-month-old twins Hamish (stripe shirt) and Xavier (blue shirt) at their Brisbane home. Credit:Paul Harris The family, also drawn to Brisbane for its proximity to relatives and a job in the arts sector, are among nearly 250,000 Sydneysiders who have moved to Queensland’s capital since 1971.

After the initial challenge of settling their babies into a new city in June last year, they are loving Brisbane life. Ms Meredith works full-time, allowing Mr Wallace to stay at home with the boys. “I came up with a tagline ‘You have more time to live’. In Sydney, grocery shopping can take half a day. In Brisbane, I still find it funny that I can get a park straight out the front of the supermarket and be in and out in a minute,” Ms Meredith says. “It's just going to the beach and not having to park in Marrickville to go to Bondi. You can go down to the Gold Coast, practically park on the beach and it's free. “That quality of life was what we were really looking for, that and giving the boys opportunities.”

Moving to the country Beth Macdonald can remember the exact moment in 2010 she and her husband decided to move from inner Sydney to the country. They were driving through Kiama towards the city, having cut short a holiday because their baby daughter Harper fell ill. “We were just so miserable, both working, having two kids in day care, and having to pay for all that, plus me having to take time off my part-time work to look after Harper, who was always sick,” Mrs Macdonald says.

“We were in a rat race and miserable but just kept going with it 'because that’s what you do'.” Daisy, Rob, Beth (holding baby Maggie) and Harper Macdonald at their home in Burrawang. The parents and older girls moved from Sydney to the Southern Highlands in 2010. During the car trip, her husband Rob made an off-hand comment about moving to the country, and days later they were looking at houses in the southern highlands online. The country houses were bigger and more affordable than those they had been considering buying in Sydney, suburbs out from their Camperdown terrace. “To see huge houses with gardens and driveways for less than places we had been looking at on the other side of Parramatta Road was exciting.”

The family bought a house in Burrawang, a village 20 minutes from Bowral. The Macdonalds are among the 1,033,782 Sydneysiders who have moved to regional NSW since 1971. Mrs Macdonald says settling in was daunting, but they found friends by getting involved in community groups. Mr Macdonald continues his video production business from home and Mrs Macdonald keeps a warm and funny blog about family life in the country. They had a third daughter in 2015.

“We have seen our family grow - I don’t think we would have ever done that had we stayed in Sydney,” Mrs Macdonald says. “We are a strong family unit now, and spend so much quality time together. We have made some amazing friends. “The kids are lucky enough to go to a brilliant small public school where they are nourished and challenged and haven’t missed out on one thing - in fact they have gained.”

The early ‘tree-changers’ Even three decades ago, Aileen MacDonald had worries about Sydney life that mirror modern concerns. She was in her mid-20s, engaged, and wanted a family, but was renting in Beecroft and commuting an hour to work, while her fiance travelled even further. “It was all hustle and bustle, and we were thinking about our future, but where would we live, what would we do?” Aileen MacDonald moved to Guyra in 1989. Credit:Madeline Link/Armidale Express

Ms MacDonald, who worked in insurance, and her then-fiance Scot couldn’t afford to buy a house closer to the city, so they looked at businesses in regional NSW. They moved to Guyra, near Armidale, in 1989 and ran a rural supplies business out of an old shed. They married and raised three children, who spent much of their early childhoods in their parents' shop. Now Ms MacDonald works as a public servant, while Mr MacDonald is a NSW Liberal MP. There were challenges, like meeting people, and raising children away from family support. "I think the biggest challenge is you don’t know what you don’t know, and [having] the courage to believe that you can do it when so many said ‘are you crazy?’."

Now, Mrs MacDonald loves visiting Sydney, appreciating a harbour and coastline she doesn’t get to see every day. “When I lived there, it just felt like I was part of a race, rather than actually looking around and enjoying it.”