Country Living Stories

The Foti Family

For almost two hundred years the Foti family were amongst the most famous pyrotechnicians in Italy.  In other words, they put on the best fireworks shows anyone would ever want to see. 

Thirty five years ago the Foti family migrated to Australia and settled in Sydney where they continued that proud two hundred year old tradition. 

Foti Fireworks is the largest and most awarded fireworks manufacturer and display operator in Australia.  They were the pyrotechnic designers, consultants and suppliers for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. They have played a significant role in the Sydney Harbour Bridge New Years Eve fireworks displays in recent years.

The family company is located in Leppington, not far from Liverpool in Sydney, but the continued residential growth in the area has made it impossible to continue operating in a metropolitan area.

“Our operation needs buffer zones, large areas to operate successfully.  We’re being encroached upon by suburbia”, says Company Director Vince Foti.

The Foti Fireworks Company decided to look further afield and finally targeted a site at Marulan near Goulburn. Vince Foti says “Marulan has given the company all the space it needs”.

“We are able to improve our operation and have a more modern factory.  It is under construction at the moment and we hope to have our first stage of the move completed in three to four months”.

Mr Foti says the company will be taking key staff with them to Marulan and will be asking all their staff to move with them.

He said “We will definitely need locals at Marulan to come and join us.  We see it as a win win situation.  We are able to move our factory to an area that is much more suitable for our line of work and at the same time we are able to offer employment to the people living in the area”. Vince Foti says the company picked Marulan because it’s close to good transport and only an hour and fifteen minutes from the present site at Leppington.

Mr Foti is excited about the company’s move to the country.  “It’s great, as a business moving to an area like this you get to grow with the community.  We have two hundred acres at our new site and everything is contained on the property including all our safety buffer zones.”

“The Department of State and Regional Development has been extremely helpful to us.  In the pyrotechnics industry we have to contend with ever changing laws that are enforced by a number of different government departments.  It has been fantastic to work with one department that has been able to speak for us to many of their colleagues”.

Since the family started in pyrotechnics, seven generations of the Foti family have been involved in the business.  Even today younger members of the family are coming into the business and bringing new and fresh ideas into this two hundred year old tradition.  A tradition that has now found its way into country New South Wales.

Tatyana and Dennis Yule – Tree Change Story

Tatyana and Dennis Yule moved from Sydney to Armidale on the state’s Northern Tablelands 18 months ago with their two sons Frazer, 11 and Connor, 10. As Tatyana writes, this major move has opened up a whole new world of opportunity for the family.

We were a couple significantly entrenched in Sydney, feeling life was content and satisfactory. Good jobs, in the middle income bracket, 2 kids; living in an acceptable suburb in the inner west of Sydney.

We were  making good money, provided there was some overtime every week,   but could not afford to buy our own house in Sydney unless we were willing to commute 2 hours each way every day or not be choosy about where we sent our kids to school.  We picked the suburb in Sydney where we lived for its school so that we lived “within the zone” ensuring our children’s enrolment.

Average house price in our suburb was $650,000 to $800,000.  Average rent for a very basic 3 bedroom, $375 to $500 pw with no garage. With the cost of transport, tolls, parking, petrol, childcare, insurances, rent and the other basics, we felt like we were going around in circles.

Moving to Armidale was a risky and intriguing proposition for us as neither of us had ever lived in a community under 700,000 and had no family or support network here.

Job prospects, infrastructure, schools and education for the kids were top of our priority list.  We were seeking a better quality of life, one in which we could enjoy our family and not be working endless hours or stuck in traffic for endless hours. One where when we actually reached the comfort of our own home we didn’t feel exhausted.

Since moving to Armidale 18 months ago – I secured employment within 3 months, albeit on less money.  We bought our own home and are paying $50 less on our mortgage than our rent was in Sydney. Our costs for insurances, childcare and transport have been halved and we are renovating our home.

The most precious gift to us is the 3 extra hours on any given work day which are now ours which were once spent lost in “the twilight zone of commuting to and from …” and can actually do things on a weekend as a family.

The school our children attend is well resourced and committed to an equally high academic standard as their previous Sydney school; the parents have a sense of community and contribution.

We still get our “city fix” every 3-4 months for a weekend in Sydney or Brisbane or with friends and family, the “bright lights” and shopping of course.                                              

For the first time in years, we are not just walking a treadmill of basic economic survival and can see possibilities.  My husband has been working in Sydney on occasion and says he loves getting back to Armidale, the pace, the beauty of the area and our home.  18 months after our move, our children are happy and busy and we are more settled in the community. 

Check It Out - It's Worth It

When Merrilyn and Maurie Jackson decided to move out of Sydney to somewhere in the country they made all the right moves. First of all they attended the Country Week Expo at the Rosehill Gardens Events Centre last year, and once there, went about their business in a very methodical fashion.

They went and visited all the stands at the Expo meeting and talking with people from country and regional centres all over New South Wales. They collected sample bags at all of those stands, and where they met people they liked, they put a big tick on the bag. When they arrived home they took out a map of New South Wales, and measured out a radius that was roughly three and a half hours travel time from their home at Plumpton near Blacktown.

When they compared the ticked bags to the map, they found they had a lot of places to choose from. They visited about half a dozen towns before an invite came to be the guests of the Cootamundra Shire Council at the town’s annual Wattle Time festival.

“Having lived in the city all our lives and being a little sceptical of anything for nothing, we thought all the Cootamundra people will be on their best behaviour for visitors during their festival, so we went and checked the town out the week before,” says Merrilyn with a laugh.

Everything they saw that day they liked and the Jacksons were back the next week for the festival.

“We were talking to a lovely old lady in the street at Cootamundra during the festival and when we went to say goodbye, she actually gave me a kiss and a cuddle. Straight away I knew there was something special about the place,” Merrilyn remembers.

Finding their dream home on the outskirts of Cootamundra was also like it was meant to happen.

	COUNTRY COMMUNITIES - THE POWERHOUSE OF THE ECONOMY
	The Honourable Tony Kelly MLC Minister for Regional Development

The couple lived in a caravan park when they first moved to Cootamundra but strolling up the main street one evening, they saw a house in a Real Estate agents window. They called the agent up, and even though the next day was Father’s Day, he left his family to show the Jacksons over the four bedroom home on five acres that had caught they eye.

“That wouldn’t happen in Sydney”, Says Merrilyn. “The people in Cootamundra are so friendly; the whole atmosphere in the town is wonderful, it’s just right!” It didn’t take long for Merrilyn and Maurie to make up their minds and now that house on five acres on the outskirts of Cootamundra is home.

“Compared to where we used to live in Plumpton, the crime rate in this area hardly exists. In Sydney, there is lots of vandalism, graffiti is every where and there is never any shortage of hoons. There’s nothing like that at Cootamundra. We feel like we’re in the middle of nowhere with no neighbours in sight.” “The grand children love it here, our health has improved and I’m even turning into a housewife and a cook”, giggles Merrilyn.

“These days I find I’m making homemade soup and biscuits. There just seems there is always something to do.”

It's The Best Thing We Have Ever Done

That’s the view of Mark and Anne O’Connor who moved from Sydney to Tamworth just over three years ago.

Mark, an accountant, and Anne a teacher were living in Thornleigh in Sydney when they decided to make the move. Their first two children had been born and the pressures of living and working in the city were starting to take their toll.

“I was working long hours and at the end of it, I sat in the car for 50 minutes before I was able to reach home and be with my family. Even now, our two eldest boys don’t go to bed until nine o’clock because they just became used to waiting up that late so I could say goodnight,” says Mark.

Mark and Anne have three children; Jamie 7 and Nick 4, both born in Sydney and Ben, who is almost two and who was born in Tamworth.

In fact little Ben might not even have been here except that his parents decided to move out of the city. As Anne says, “If we were still living in Sydney, I doubt we would have had a third child. We would have struggled and I would have needed to go back to work.”

Anne has no doubt that their decision to leave Sydney was the right one.

“The move has brought us closer together as a family, Mark and I are closer and Mark is closer to the boys than if we had continued to live in the city.”

The O’Connor’s were able to sell up in Sydney and buy a home on three acres in Tamworth. After ten years of equity in their Thornleigh home the changeover was more than favourable financially.

While the move has brought great personal assets into the O’Connor’s life, it has also been extremely successful professionally.

Mark is a Director of Warburtons Charted Accountants in Tamworth, one of the city’s most successful firms.

“The opportunities for professional people are extraordinary,” he says.

“In addition to our local clients, we are attracting more and more clients from metropolitan areas. Because our overheads are much less than our city counterparts, we can charge half their fees but with technology and on-going training and our experience, we offer the same level of expertise and professionalism.”

Mark thinks city people have an unrealistic view of what country areas have to offer.

He says, “City people need to take the trouble to have a good look at what is on offer in country and regional areas. They will get a huge surprise.”

“There is great opportunity for professional people to find interesting and varied work in country areas. At our firm alone, we could put on two additional qualified people tomorrow.”

One of the great bonuses for Mark and Anne is that they were both Tamworth people originally and so returning to Tamworth after a 16 year absence has put their children into direct and regular contact with their grandparents. It has allowed them to tap into a family support network that was missing in Sydney.

Mark often goes home for lunch during the working day, something he would not have even thought about in Sydney. He finds the time to attend school functions with his children, again something that would not have happened in Sydney.

For Mark and Anne the work / life balance is back on an even keel.

There’s not doubt in the minds of Mark and Anne O’Connor….moving from Sydney to Tamworth was just the best thing they have done.

The Burke Family

A move to the northern New South Wales city of Armidale two and a half years ago has opened some amazing doors for the Burke family.  Gordon and Dominique Burke and their sons Nicholas and Alexander left Sydney’s Barrenjoey peninsula for an eighteen hectare property near Armidale and a whole new way of life.

Gordon and Dominique had owned six cafes in Sydney.  As Gordon says the company colours were red and white to denote the couple’s passion for good coffee.

Since coming to Armidale the Burkes have a new passion and this time their company colours are in the cool blues and silvers of the information age. 

Gordon and Dominique found a need and are filling it.  For years Gordon travelled all over NSW but failed to find accommodation that he felt was suitable.  So there was only one answer.  Create something that filled Gordon’s own expectations.

The couple have established Executive Oasis – accommodation for travelling executives that is more a home than a motel room.  What’s more they are on the cutting edge of technology with all their transactions with customers being on the internet.

Customers log on to the Executive Oasis site and choose the location of their accommodation.  The financial transactions are completed electronically and the guest is given a pin number that takes the place of a key.  All the guest has to do is arrive at the accommodation, punch in his supplied pin number on a key pad by the door and gain entry to his luxury home away from home.

As Gordon says, “Our motto is comfort, quality and consistency.  We are providing high class, smart accommodation which even includes high speed unlimited broadband all included in the cost.”

“There are enormous business opportunities in NSW.  I am living proof of that” he says.

Gordon, Dominique and the boys moved out of Sydney to be closer to Gordon’s parents who are living in Armidale.  The couple are always looking for opportunities.  Gordon took a job with Telstra which allowed him time to see what was available in the area.

Gordon says “There is a wave of migration happening out of Sydney to regional areas.  These are people who are well paid professionals looking to improve their lifestyles.”

Gordon and Dominique are extremely pro Armidale.

“We love the people in Armidale.  In fact I did some of my schooling here and still have friends from all those years ago”, says Gordon.

He believes there is a special quality of friendship, a real “genuineness” about country people.

“When we lived in Sydney people rated us by the car we drove, by the school our children went to, by the suburb in which we lived.  In Armidale people care about who you are, not what you’ve got.  There’s a real generosity in the people”.

As Gordon says in Armidale you have all the benefits of Sydney without having to put up with the crap!

“There is a real feeling of community here, that’s what it’s all about.”