"City people — they wouldn't know anything about country life. Brain dead, most of them."

Rob has lived in Wagga all his life — born and bred — and he doesn't have much time for these city people moving to his town.

He's not alone. I spent a day filming for The Link in the main street, talking to people about life in Wagga Wagga, and a few of the locals were not convinced about outsiders. It depends on how they fit in, many said.

The place is changing. Wagga is now home to more than 60,000 people and the council plans to bring in another 20,000 over the next 20 years.

There's a lot to offer: the unemployment rate here is about half the national average, it is only an hour flight to Sydney or Melbourne, there's a university, an Army and Air Force base, and an average house costs about a third of what people pay in the big cities.

Robin used to cry every time she left Sydney to drive to Wagga. ( ABC News )

Robin moved to Wagga from Sydney about 20 years ago. It wasn't an easy transition — she said she cried every day for six months.

But now she says she is almost a local. She and her husband raised their children in Wagga and now have grandchildren.

Robin said she worried about her sister living in Sydney and battling a big mortgage, job insecurity and a long, daily commute.

"Sometimes she has to get up [at] 3:00am in the morning," Robin said.

Her sister tried living in Wagga, but after six months moved back to Sydney. Robin said you had to give it time.

"We were devastated when she said she was going back. She didn't give it long enough," she said.

"With a town like this you have to meet people, get involved."

Robin is exactly who National Party leader, Barnaby Joyce, was talking about earlier this year when he urged people in the city to give up their views of the harbour and the Opera House and the million-dollar house prices and move to the country.

There is a generation of people who now fear they will never own their own home. Not so for Deb.

She and her pharmacist husband have relocated to Wagga. She says they now have a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home with a garden for the price of a two-bedroom city apartment.

Dave Alden is enjoying a new adventure after moving from Canberra to Wagga. ( ABC News )

Dave has swapped Canberra for Wagga, moving when his government department shifted headquarters.

He is originally from the United Kingdom, but said he and his wife were discovering a whole new adventure in their adopted home.

Life in the country is not without its challenges. Access to hospitals, schools, disability services or internet coverage may not match the city.

Work is often hard to find; youth unemployment is at critical levels in many rural areas.

Wagga in many ways is an exception — it is big enough to have city services, but small enough to have a country lifestyle.

Our old-timer Rob would like to keep Wagga as it is. As for that "brain dead" comment, what does Dave make of that?

He laughs: "That comes as a surprise, but everyone has their own opinion. People from everywhere have a contribution and they're not brain dead obviously."