After spending much of her life on the coast, Lissie Turner heard a river calling. Despite floods, droughts and occasional porcine misdeeds, she’s glad she answered

A deadly pandemic was raging but what kept Candice Chung’s parents up at night was the terror she might not find enough Asian food

Thailand’s capital gave me the adventure I craved. But I couldn’t shake the feeling I was missing out on my friends’ lives back in Sydney

For decades Sydney’s Oxford Street and surrounds were the backdrop to my most formative years. When I finally moved there, my life changed again.

Coming back to the city – especially from overseas – was seen as settling. But for me, quietness has never meant a lack of activity and excitement

Until I was 25, I’d lived in the same house, on the same street. But after a shaky start in Shakespeare’s county, I got a bicycle, learned to drive and wrote a novel

I couldn’t stand Alice Springs when I first arrived, in part because of the circumstances that had brought me there. Then, little by little, I settled in

We held festivals, started an energy cooperative and reduced our waste to almost nothing. But there are downsides to putting idealists of all stripes together