With jobs galore, affordable housing, an abundance of good schools, plans to improve the hospital and a heritage streetscape built on the back of the gold rush 150 years ago – what’s not to love.
The number of city dwellers moving to regional towns has soared. Here’s one town that ticks all the right boxes.
Is this the lucky town?
Charters Towers, 130km west of Townsville, is booming.
It has jobs galore, affordable housing, an abundance of good schools, plans to improve the hospital and a heritage streetscape built on the back of the gold rush 150 years ago.
The grand buildings were so impressive at the time, locals called it ‘The World’.
For those who have already made the city to country switch, they say it’s a no-brainer, especially if you can keep your city wage working from home, while taking advantage of the cheap housing options.
Deloitte Digital Director and mum-of-two Lorrae Strahorn, 40, and her husband Tim, a relationship manager for an American bank, did just that.
They both negotiated with their companies so they could work remotely, and swapped their 3.8m wide terraced house in Melbourne for an old Queenslander-style home on a 1000 sqm block, which they then renovated.
“There’s a buzz around Charters Towers,” Ms Strahorn said.
“People are seeing the potential. Friends say they wish they could do what we have done, and I tell them, they can."
Full articles in:
The Daily Telegraph, New South Wales
Courier Mail, Queensland
Herald Sun, Victoria