The couple, who moved from North Fitzroy last year, are now woken by the sound of lambs bleating, rather than delivery trucks and city traffic.

“We live in the middle of a paddock with a fantastic view of Mt Sturgeon. It’s beautiful. We have sheep and lambs and roos in the front yard,” Ms Van Workum said. 

She was previously employed by a Bourke Street consulting firm in corporate human resources and wanted a change. 

Looking for something different “and a bit out of the box”, she found it. 

“I saw an ad for a HR manager under the Royal Mail Hotel,” Ms Van Workum said. 

“I thought ‘I love the idea of that’. I’d had friends that had eaten here and loved it. I wanted to change industries and thought hospitality would be good. 

“I thought ‘what a great name to be associated with, what a great way to learn’… 

“Once I started talking to the people here I realised it was much more than the hotel. 

(Employed by Dunkeld Pastoral Company) my role spans very much hotel and restaurant, but also agriculture, gardens, conservation, that sort of thing. 

“My job is still very busy but there’s more sense of perspective, I think, in the sense of urgency and the panic around things isn’t there.”

Mr Tijs, who is the Google Play Music Australian and New Zealand editor, works from home, so they decided to make the move.

The pair have explored national parks, visited Warrnambool, Port Fairy and the region’s wineries and recently enjoyed a Sunday lunch together at the Royal Mail Hotel.

“It’s just nice to be a tourist where you live I guess,” Ms Van Workum said. “You go through that transition where it really feels like a holiday and not really your life. 

“Where our place is, it very much feels like somewhere you would go for a weekend to relax in the country. 

“Then the alarm goes off on Monday and you’re like, I actually have to hold down a job,” she laughed.

The pair struggle to spend money, a contrast from their inner-city lifestyle. 

“It’s so much cheaper as a lifestyle,” Mr Tijs said. 

“I was actually running a couple of jobs just to pay for a flat and all the fun in Melbourne, and out here I can work almost a bit over half of what I used to work and I don’t even notice rent. It’s huge.”

Even their dog Midge is pleased about the move and endless space to explore. 

“She is loving life like there is no tomorrow. Now she’s leaping, literally just bounding,” Ms Van Workum said.

“Our garden is fantastic, that’s another massive bonus. We went from a tiny courtyard to this huge garden and now we’ve got this enormous vegie patch and we’re eating what we grow, which is something we’ve always wanted to do. That’s been really good.” 

Mr Tijs thought it a cliche that people in the country were friendlier, until the pair experienced it first-hand.