Nature Deficit Disorder

A vast majority of Australian’s spend their lives behind a screen, indoors, inhaling re-circulated air made slightly better thanks to a scattering of greenery for ambiance. Perhaps this saturation in the artificial is what is prompting a mini exodus from urban centres as we yearn from some unplugged nature and a deep breath of fresh air from time to time.

We’ve all heard the ‘sea change’ phrase bandied about and likely banished it to the fantasy realm of our thoughts, or distant retirement plans. More recently ‘tree change’ has become the catchphrase of choice with young families and tech savvy millennials metaphorically uprooting their digital offices to make the move out of the metro crush.

American journalist Richard Louv has conceived a term – nature deficit disorder – to describe the possible negative consequences to individual health and the social fabric as children [in particular] move away from physical contact with the natural world.  This notion, taken alongside increasingly unbalanced work/play lifestyles and growing urban property pricces as culminated in a growing number of young families making the move to regional areas in search of that elusive balance between work and family.

Slowly, residential developers are honing in on the reality of more and more city dwellers heading for regional areas in search of a sense of community, lower costs of living and greener pastures. Northern NSW has long enjoyed a bursting at the seams as Sydney siders opt for the promise of happiness that beckons from the beautiful coastal towns along Australia’s east coast. In Victoria, the Mornington Peninsula feeds into the Melbourne CBD via major arterials that allow for an easy 90 minute commute and the positive social and psychological implications of these lifestyle choices have been increasingly documented.

The 2015 Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (HILDA) showed that those residing in regional areas with populations under 1,000, non-urban areas, and areas outside the major metro hubs, experienced an increased level of overall life satisfaction. The ever-increasing pressure of keeping up with the jones’s, the reality of inner-urban land availability and the digital divide fracturing our social and cultural values, mean property hunting beyond the city fringe may be more than simply food for thought. 

NURA Rye by Neometro. One of the last pieces of land available for sensitive development across some of Australia’s most spectacular coastline.

Find out more about NURA Rye here.

Photographs by Rachel Claire.

Words by Tiffany Jade.