The regions of our country are an incredibly important part of our future, offering more relaxed, nature connected ways of living as well as critical inputs (food, energy, water, materials etc etc) for the cities that house most of our people. COVID has shown that with good internet connection and fast rail, regional towns are more than well placed to take a whole lot of the heat out of the already overcrowded cities and suburbs.
With this in mind, my husband and I decided to test this out. At the end of 2020, we bought a small place in the town of Dungog. I was introduced to the town by Jo Vaughan, who lives on a property just outside the town and teaches in Construction Management at the University of Newcastle. When she and her students were helping us with finding local, non-toxic materials for the First Steps Count project at Taree, I was intrigued to find that many of the good timber supplies were from the town of Dungog and its surrounding areas. I investigated and found a beautiful town, set in lovely “clear hills” (meaning of the aboriginal work dungog) and on the rail line that goes from Sydney to Brisbane.
We have found many other green shoots such as sustainable food growing and making, a significant permaculture group, walking and cycling groups, a reconciliation group etc. A 650 acre “commons” sits on the edge of town and hosts a world class mountain bike course and lots of walking tracks. The Barrington Tops National Park is not far away, along with many other beautiful places to visit. The cream on the cake is the lively cultural life, demonstrated by the recent hosting of the Australian Chamber Orchestra on Wednesday 21 April 2021. Richard Tongnetti noted that his friends overseas were so jealous of their being able to play, and astonished that this was one of three musical events in that week in Dungog.
John and I are in the process of tending, mending and renewing our little place on the main street of the town. With so many interesting and warm people in town, we feel welcome and are so happy to be part of this community🙂
