‘It was a shock to them’: The families who turned their backs on Sydney and embraced the bush

It was really a matter of when, not if Omar Kowaider was going to leave Sydney behind for a rural lifestyle.

It was 2021 and the electrician and father-of-three had been going back and forth over where to go and when to leave as the western Sydney lockdowns bit hard.

“We wanted space, and the lockdowns were the push and the drive, but we were thinking about it as a family,” he said.

“And we made the decision last minute – we even told our families, like, a week or two before going. They were acting like we were going to another country,” he said, laughing. “It was a shock to them.”

Kowaider was part of a wave of Sydneysiders who decided to abandon the city in light of the pandemic to seek a change of lifestyle and more affordable housing.

The family moved from their home in Greystanes in western Sydney to Young in the South Western Slopes region of NSW, known as the cherry capital of Australia.

Kowaider, who was born in Lebanon and came to Australia as a child, said the 2021 lockdown of western Sydney local government areas (LGAs) during the Delta outbreak, and the harsh restrictions that came with it, pushed him over the edge.

For 107 days, 12 LGAs “of concern” in western Sydney faced tougher rules than the rest of the city, including curfews, limits on exercise time and retail traders. The restrictions also came alongside an increased police presence across the region.

“We just felt so constrained, and out here you can just contemplate. If you’re just painting something, you’re picking something, looking at the horses, or you just look outside and you can admire God’s artistry,” he said.

“You can actually see the sun rise and set here, things you take for granted in Sydney. I used to live in a townhouse and we never got a chance to see where the sun rose and set.

The idea of a “sea change” for Sydneysiders took hold during the pandemic. According to data from the Australia Bureau of Statistics, more than 66,000 people left Sydney for regional NSW during 2021-22. Between 2021 and 2025 more than 200,000 people left Sydney for a regional town in the state.

Five years on from his big move Kowaider says he has no regrets, and his trips up to Sydney to see his family remind him of the city’s worst traits.

“The traffic is horrendous,” he says as he sips his coffee, the morning winter sun seeping into his home. Surrounded by expanses of grass and bushland, Kowaider has taken to some small-scale farming, growing some of his vegetables and keeping chickens, sheep and horses.

“It’s the slow pace that we love, especially for the kids. You don’t have to be caught up in a technology race out here. The TV isn’t on in the mornings and there are no iPads here.