Seeking ‘home’ through counter-urban migration to coastal Australia

ABSTRACT Many motives for undertaking a counter-urban move appear to be associated with a search for a sense of ‘home’, such as moving for a sense of community, for affordable or larger housing, perceptions of a ‘safer’ area for children, or moving to a childhood hometown. However, rarely is counter-urban migration directly linked to the concept of home. In this paper, I make the direct link between counter-urban moves and the search for a sense of home using biographies of four (4) counter-urban movers to the Sunshine Coast, Australia. The participants each moved to the area in a search for a sense of home related to four key themes: housing, family, stability and familiarity, however they varied in their pre-move experiences and expectations of how the Sunshine Coast would improve their sense of home. These differences impacted their post-move experiences, as those participants with prior familiarity with the Sunshine Coast felt a greater sense of home post-move. This paper provides an important conceptual link between the search for a sense of home and counterurbanisation, to add further critical insight into motivations and experiences of counter-urban migrants, and the perceptions of a sense of home being better achieved outside of major cities..