THE EFFECT OF LIVING THE 'SEA CHANGE' DREAM

Despite claims that rural Australia is dying, the regions around Sydney and the north and south coastal strips of NSW are attracting rapidly increasing numbers of disenchanted city dwellers looking for the good life, according to a study by UNSW's Professor Peter Murphy and Associate Professor Ian Burnley.

Professor Murphy will speak about his research when he takes part in the UNSW State Library Lecture Series.
"The popularity of the ABC's Sea Change series is partly due to its portrayal of the escapist dream of leaving the pressures of city living," Professor Murphy said. "My interest is in the motivation and effect of the increasing numbers of people who are living the dream and moving to regional, usually coastal, NSW."

Professor Murphy's lecture will address the types of places typically colonised by sea changers, the sorts of people who leave the city for more rural areas, how the sea changers affect the towns where they settle, how side spread the sea change phenomenon is and whether it will be a part of the solution to the development and demographic problems of regional Australia.

WHAT: Sea Change: Reinventing Rural and Regional Australia. (UNSW State Library Lecture Series)
WHO: Professor Peter Murphy, UNSW School of the Built Environment.
WHEN: 5.30pm, Wednesday 15 August.
WHERE: Metcalf Auditorium, NSW State Library, Macquarie Street, Sydney.
COST: $11 for students and alumni members, $16.50 for non-members.
BOOKINGS: State Library on 9273 1770.