Charlie Cull planned his regional escape but he didn’t expect to wind up in Wagga Wagga working for a company which supplies milk to Australia’s barista champions.
“My wife Zoe and I were living in Sydney and took a road trip to all the places we thought we might like to live in regional New South Wales – Armidale, Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour, Newcastle. Of course, Wagga Wagga wasn’t on it,” Charlie laughs.
The couple was keen to start a family and didn’t want the emotional and financial stress of trying to do that in Sydney, even with good jobs.
So, while working as a trade and industry policy adviser with the NSW government, Charlie sounded out companies with regional links.
Blue River Group offered him a job which he could start in Sydney and then relocate to Wagga Wagga, where he is the commercial manager for Riverina Fresh – a dairy producer which sources its award-winning milk from twenty local farms.
“We work closely with the specialty coffee industry and supply milk for the current Australian barista champion,” Charlie says.
But it’s not just the job which makes Charlie feel like a winner.
“We moved in December of 2019 and haven’t looked back. We’ve loved the community and have become involved in multiple sports clubs and a local church,” Charlie says.
“We’ve bought a house and the interest payments are less than the rent we were paying in Sydney.”
And best of all, they’ve welcomed their first child, Georgina Grace, into the world.
“None of this would have happened if we’d still been in Sydney. We love it.”
