Roger Foote, 47, was born and bred in the Southern Sydney suburb of Cronulla and although the beach was second home, the hustle and bustle of the city became too much for him.
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In 2017 he decided to ditch the noise and the traffic and move to the Bega Valley to spend time with his parents who were nearing the end of their life and living in Tura Beach.
"I wanted to come down and spend some time with them and just to get away from the music industry for a while," he said.
Prior to moving to the area he worked in the music industry and ran a company that hired out instruments to touring bands, "it was seven days a week and just brutal, it just got to a point where I couldn't do it anymore."
Nowadays he spends most of his free time bush walking, eating out at local restaurants, playing golf, and managing the under 16s Pambula Rugby League Club and said he feels, "a lot healthier, lot less stressed."
He and his partner of 20 years, Janne Rasmussen, bought their own home in Tura Beach around 12 months ago after initially renting the property.
The pair met while working in the Sydney music industry when Mr Foote was playing in a band that hired out studio space Ms Rasmussen was managing.
The move down to Tura Beach was not all smooth sailing, they lost all of their belongings when their removalist truck caught fire during the journey down from Sydney. The reason for the fire was unknown.
"It was very strange to relocate with nothing. We salvaged a little bit of furniture that we had to restore or get restored, so pretty much everything we owned was burned.
"Janne is still a little bit disturbed by it. I was ok, I lost a couple of cool things but for me it was almost like alright, we are definitely starting from scratch, all memories of that past life are now gone and we've got this huge house and we can kind of fill it up as we want."
"We live quite minimally now, which is a great way to live, we got a lot of stuff from the antique store here in Bega," he said.
After moving down to the Far South Coast Mr Foote applied for a job as a manager at the Bega Salvation Army Family Store.
"I thought I wouldn't be conservative enough, due to the way I looked and maybe my background in management of the music industry, but they were very open to new ideas and it was fantastic."
"I was pleasantly surprised when they gave me the go and it's worked out really well, the store's going really great," he said.
The store depends on a team of around 30 volunteers, including many retirees, and his role largely involves managing that team to keep the volunteers happy and ensure they have everything they need.
He also manages general retail management duties such as the general running and maintenance.
He works five days per week in the store and the first Saturday morning of each month for Sustainable Saturday, an initiate launched with some of the stores and galleries in Bega promoting ethical and recycled products and homemade wares.
The best part about the role is ,"the interaction with the community," he said, "that was a huge part in leaving Sydney for us, just the anonymity, it's a lot harder to get involved with community stuff up there.
"There's just something about seeing locals everyday and getting to know them and that interaction with donations, so people bringing cool stuff and we sell cool stuff to other people and it's a bit of a cycle."
All of the wares in the Bega Salvos store come directly from donations given by local people.
"Compared to what I used to do, it'd like not even work, it's just hanging out with some cool people for a few hours and making sure everything goes smooth."
He also feels much more at peace in the Bega Valley due to the proximity of the natural world and has fond memories of visiting the area for camping holidays as a child.
He loves the cleanliness and isolation he is able to experience at the beaches on the Far South Coast and the general respect that people have for maintaining the beaches.
"In the city I always felt like we were constantly trying to get back to nature.
"You'd get a day off and say you'd drive to the national park and it's absolutely packed because everyone has got that same feeling, you just want to escape that hustle and bustle and get some nature and you're stuck in traffic for 45 minutes to get to the national park and it's packed."
He does miss some of some of the convenience of the city, especially the bars and food but, "I went back recently and I couldn't wait to get back down here. It just felt so crowded and so dirty.
"It's a strange thing that somewhere that was home for so long felt so alien," he said.
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Ellouise Bailey
Queensland Country Life reporter based in Rockhampton and reporting on agriculture in the central Queensland region. Got a story? Get in touch: 0447 477 399 or email ellouise.bailey@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Queensland Country Life reporter based in Rockhampton and reporting on agriculture in the central Queensland region. Got a story? Get in touch: 0447 477 399 or email ellouise.bailey@austcommunitymedia.com.au
