Bec Bignell: [00:00:00] Aussies are relocating from capital cities to regional Australia in record numbers. We could give you all the stats about better house prices, all the jobs on offer, and higher levels of happiness. But what’s better than hearing from someone who’s made the move themselves? Welcome to you Moved where the podcast, where we interview everyday Aussies who have moved from the city to the.
I am your host, Bec Bignell, a girl from Regional Australia who moved to the city and then you guessed it back to Regional Australia. This is you Moved where
Have you ever thought about how hard it might be to introduce boutique craft beer to a fiercely loyal VB drinking crowd? ? Yeah, neither have. Luke proud, the self-proclaimed townie from Tamworth. This was the kind of [00:01:00] conundrum he faced in going back to where he came from. A move back to the country. Music capital was never on the cards for Proudie, but when Fate served up a once in a lifetime opportunity, he called last drinks on his city life and headed up the New England Highway back to the very place he’d poured his first beer.
Of course, issues of the palette were not the only thing the music obsessed public and father of two had to contend with. When making the jump back from supercharged Sydney, he had to find his feet on the social. Reconnect with the people from his childhood. Figure out how he could quench his thirst for music, live gigs and good food.
Or while trying to manage the pressure and expectations that come with taking over the local institution.
Luke Prout. You moved where
Luke Prout: I moved to the country Music Capital of Australia Tamlo.
Bec Bignell: Tamworth, golden guitar, all the good things about [00:02:00] country music that we love. What are the things that you remember about growing up in Tamworth?
Luke Prout: Ah, well, for me growing up in Tamworth was, um, it was challenging. Um, you know, it was, I did all my high schooling here.
You know, I moved here when I was, uh, 11, 12 years old. It’s, it’s a long way from everywhere. It was a very different town back then to what it is now. A small country town with very wide streets and deep gutters. Probably a lot of narrow minds and, um, little imagination really. You know, this is pre-internet.
This is where. fashion and, and those sort of things took months, if not years to get here. Whereas, um, these days with the. You know, with everything online and the speed at which information can move, things tend to be a little bit different. But yeah, for, as a young person growing up in Tamworth, it was, you’re either a townie or you are, you’re a rural [00:03:00] kid.
And, um, if you didn’t play rugby league or rugby union, there wasn’t much in it for you, I don’t think. Um, took, it took a little while to transition and to get to know how things worked and obviously, General cliques like you get anywhere. I was pretty lucky. I was a pretty handy basketballer and I fell in with a number of other representative basketball players who were a bit like me actually, without trying to deviate from the subject too much.
But we, we moved to Tamworth cuz I lost my dad when I was, um, 10 11. So yeah. And I fell into this basketball team. I’d say eight. Eight out of the 10 kids were for single parent families. And that was probably the one thing that really helped me fit in and get, get through rural life as a, as a teen. Um, because like I said, it was a very different place back then than what it is now.
Bec Bignell: And That’s amazing. So your mom raised four kids, single mom raised four kids in Tamworth. At what age did you get the itch [00:04:00] to go to the city
Luke Prout: of, I think by the time I was probably 16, I knew that. Small town living wasn’t for me. Um, I was really starting to get into music. I was doing well at school, so I always had my eye on the prize of going to university and trying to get as many opportunities as I, as I could.
So, but I was a very young, um, HSE student. I turned 17 in July, so I was four months younger than the next person, so I had to have a gap year cuz I wasn’t old enough really to move on my own to. . But pretty much the minute I turned 18 and was accepted to uni, I jumped on a train with a mate, his mom and my mom and my, our siblings just basically waved goodbye to us with our bags and literal pockets full of cash.
And, um, off to Sydney. And we walked around for best part of three weeks trying to find a rental. Um, Yeah, and moved to like in like sort of moved to the western suburbs [00:05:00] cause that’s where our universities were and it was a huge eyeopener. Yeah,
Bec Bignell: I know what you mean. I remember when I arrived off the plane from Perth in Sydney and I’d actually never been to Sydney myself before that point.
And I remember just being really overcome by the Sydney Harbor Bridge. I just thought for some reason that was incredible. Like the fact that you could engineer and make something so incredible just blew my mind. What was it like when you finally came to that moment that you were there, that this was gonna be in your life?
Luke Prout: I was, I was super excited. I think I’d always wanted to be in the city. I love, I love the pulse or that. Heartbeat. You can feel it’s just alive. There was no question of moving home ever. I was gonna make it work and, um, I really can’t remember any really tough times, you know, pressures of university and try to support yourself.
A lot of kids go through, I got mugged once, but overall, it was just that [00:06:00] excitement and that energy that the city has was exactly what was what I, what I was hoping it was to be. And it was. And it was like that for the whole. 18 years I lived there. You
Bec Bignell: talk about, um, obviously you’re at uni. Can you tell me what were you studying and then also were you working, what were you doing for work?
Luke Prout: Oh my God. Well, um, the first real job I got in Sydney when I was at uni was actually working at a, um, French patisserie, um, chain called Deli France, where they’d dress you up in pinstripe shirt and type white pants, a be and a scarf, and super embarrassing. Um, As a young bloke from the country, really hard to get a job in pubs, which is what I wanted to do.
Um, and that took some time. And with uni I was studying to be a teacher. I was gonna be a high school English teacher, but I just couldn’t put the guitar down and couldn’t stop singing. And, uh, I just sort of lost interest in the whole [00:07:00] teaching thing and eventually dropped out, thought I’ll give this music thing, you go and, um, started bands and just really immersed myself into.
Tried to immerse myself into the Sydney music scene.
Bec Bignell: How did you get into pubs? Like how did that happen for you? Obviously being an ambition.
Luke Prout: Uh, I got lucky. I was just having a beer in a pub with a mate, got chatting to these other guys, told him how hard it was to get a job in a pub and he said, just head down to the Blues Point Hotel.
A ma of mine runs it. He’s not gonna like it cuz you’re a bloke, but tell. Uh, he owes me a favor and to give you a job. So I started there and then, um, a couple years later, ended up at the she in Double Bay and worked for a large company called sok for best part of a decade. Loved it. Just loved, again, just the energy, the energy of people meeting new people, and the dynamic nature of the industry itself is just something that fed me and filled my cup.
Yeah, [00:08:00] I loved it. I still love it.
Bec Bignell: You’re in the city, right? You’ve, you’ve been there for about 15 years. You’ve worked in a couple of pubs. You’ve got this opportunity to actually go into buy a pub. Tell me what happens from there.
Luke Prout: Well, strangely enough, I, I was at work one day. My mom called, as she does to see I’m doing, and, um, said, how’s the pub hunting going?
I said, ah, You know, it’s, it’s, it’s okay. We haven’t found anything yet. And she said, you know, the Tamworth Hotels for sale, and I’ve told this story a few times before, but this, it was like a watershed moment. I got ting, this tingly feeling and this. Feeling come over me as if to say it was almost like I was a train and someone had trained, changed the track setting and it put me in this direction.
And that was where I was supposed to go. The minute she said the Tama Hotel was up for sale. Um, it was just like, I knew that was where we were gonna buy it and that was gonna happen and I was gonna move home and, um, [00:09:00] I’d never, ever contemplated moving home. The funny thing was my partner. Romantic partner at the time.
She’d moved back to Tamworth for work and we were at a point where it was basically, what do we do now? She was saying, I’m not moving back to the Sydney. Um, and I said, well, I’m not moving back to Tamworth unless somehow can buy the Tamworth Hotel, and I was never gonna have $3 million. So that was never gonna happen.
But it happened. It just, um, I was lucky. My business partner said, let’s buy it. I’ll back you. I wanna be in business with you. And we, um, had to jump through a fair few hoops to get it, but we got it. And the next thing you know, I’m moving back after 18 years, um, had phone calls from my, um, 90 year old grandmother to say, are you sure you’re a city boy?
Now, I’m not sure if Tamworth’s for you, um, but you know, the Tamworth Hotel was the first pub I ever poured a beer in. I’ve played a number of gigs here as a musician. [00:10:00] During festival, I’ve worked after university, I come back and would work here as well. I’ve got a long, I had a long, uh, standing relationship with the place and yeah, to be able to come back and.
Be a part owner of it is. It was wild. It was, yeah, it was crazy.
Bec Bignell: That’s such an amazing story. And tell me about the Tamworth. Is it an institution, like was it the local watering hole that you went to as a young country kid? What is that pub in the town?
Luke Prout: It was, it was, it’s funny, it’s, it was a very polarizing hotel.
Um, it was always considered the snobby or posh pub. Um, the, the previous owners who, the people that hired me were from Sydney, they actually had some great pubs in Sydney, iCLU, including the Lord Dudley in, um, Paddington. Um, so they had a way of doing things that wasn’t really country. Um, You know, like a lot of [00:11:00] operators, you, you, you can’t keep everybody happy.
They put some noses at a joint. But for young, for young people like myself, it was the place that we went to. I had mates who lived up the street, um, and yeah, we, that’s where we’d go out and drink. Always had a pretty good relationship with music. Like as an 18 year old, pouring beers in a tent out the back.
There was a band called the. Lead singers, an iconic Australian songwriter called Kevin Bennett. And I as an 18 year old, I’m watching these guys and they would’ve been a little bit older than I am now. They would’ve been in their forties. And I was like, wow, if these old guys can do it and pull a crowd like this and entertain, I’m gonna have to give it a go.
So they inspired me to wanna go on, and those guys still play here on the two biggest nights of our festival. Now all these years. And they’re, you know, they’re, they’re, they’re like family. So for this, this part, it is an institution in Tamworth. It’s the place that everyone goes to on Christmas Eve.
doesn’t matter where you’ve been, it’s the place that you come back and you run into [00:12:00] old friends that you haven’t seen for a year cuz you’ve been away for uni or ex-girlfriends that you probably don’t wanna see. Or boyfriends I should say. Um, yeah, it’s just, it is, it’s an institution and since we took it over, we really tried to make it a lot more inclusive.
Um, really pump a bit more culture into the place in fine arts and music and that sort of thing. And. Yeah, I love it. It’s, it’s my home. I lived in it for two and a bit years. When I first moved back, um, might not have been the best thing for my mental health, but I’d always wanted to live in a pub, so it was quite romantic in a way So,
Bec Bignell: Interesting that you talk about what it’s like when you are moving back to a town that you’re from, the reconnection with people who played a part in your childhood, and obviously there’s a bit of pressure going back as the public in a pub like the Tamworth as you’ve just described. What was that experience like for you?
Luke Prout: [00:13:00] Yeah, you’re not wrong. I, when I announced that I was moving back and that we bought it on social media, the amount of people that said, oh, you’ve. Great to hear. Proudie great to hear you Moving back. Massive shoes to fill. Can’t wait to see what you do. And yeah, there was a considerable amount of pressure, but I think because I’d already had a fair bit of my heart invested into the place, um, it was a welcome pressure.
I wanted to take the place on and build something more there. Um, yeah, you’re not, you’re a hundred percent correct, but the connection thing when I came first came back, it was almost. Like, a lot of people obviously knew who I was because it’s a big thing when someone takes over a, a pub in a small town.
But I’d see people, and I’m very good with faces. I’d see people I hadn’t seen for 25 years and I’d, I had no shame. I’d just go, oh. Rebecca, Rebecca, blah, blah. And they’d be like, yeah. And I’d be like, that’s Luke proud. We used to do go to school, this, that, and the other. Lovely see you or whatever. And you know, it made me feel [00:14:00] good.
I, I could, most of the time I could see that they felt good that, you know, after all these years I could remember them. And it was, I’m, yeah, I’m just lucky. I’m good with faces, terrible names, great faces. Um, but yeah, getting sea. Cause a lot of people didn’t leave. Or if they left like me, they came back. Um, and yeah, just those connections.
I, I’ve, I’ve lived in a, a few other small towns and I don’t know, people do tend to go home eventually. It’s a, it’s just a, it’s like there’s a magnet in the towns that eventually bring you back, even if it wasn’t your plan.
Bec Bignell: That reconnection with people. Um, and your openness to that. Do you think that was also because you wanted to build community back in a place that you were gonna be.
Luke Prout: I, I think so. I think so. I, I, I also think it was probably just a test to, for me to put myself out there and, um, yeah, I guess, and reconnect it. You know, pubs are, The days of a town square [00:15:00] are over. Pubs are the town square where people, whether they’re lonely or they’re celebrating or whatever, that’s a hub.
It’s a, it’s community hub. And, and, and that’s what’s mostly important I suppose. Like I see it day to day. You know, you see lonely people, you see people coming in to celebrate or whatever, but a pub, by definition, it’s a public house. It’s a place that anyone can come to. You can’t. You can’t discriminate and people come and they try to connect.
So again, that’s probably something that’s. Drawn me to pubs as well. I guess I, I love being around people and I love, I love the connections.
Bec Bignell: So you were sort of lucky cuz you were, I guess, central to that, like, because you were in the pub running the pub and it’s an incredible pub. I’ve had the pleasure of staying there as a guest of yours.
I really enjoyed the experience that’s expansive. It’s incredible. Was there anything that was a bit of a non-negotiable when you were taking it over? Like when you actually looked at what you had ahead, the [00:16:00] plans and what you wanted to make of it?
Luke Prout: Oh gee, I suppose I gue, I, I guess I had to, I’d have to do music no matter what.
Definitely live music. Um, You know, I had a lot of friends in bands and still have a lot of friends in bands, and it was basically the minute I got up here, it was get in touch with them and say, listen, any tours you’re putting together, anything you’re doing, come through here. We’ll give you a roof over your head, guaranteed, you know, fee.
Get some food in your belly, help you move on to the next, next venue, uh, next town, and make sure you have a good time. So it’s definitely that. Food, I suppose. Again, food’s one of my most favorite things in life and, um, there’s not a, there wasn’t a lot of variety, I suppose even in the last six years.
Things have changed so much up here. Um, so it was basically curating a menu within my pub of things that I miss at times. Not everything or, [00:17:00] you know, but certain things that I, that I, I really missed. So again, food and music, two, two of my favorite things. I suppose the other thing was, I, I really feel that if, if with your staff within hospitality, you can’t bullshit like.
Everyone’s got a bullshit meter. So if you’re, if you’re not authentic and you’re just putting on that facade of, Hey, how are you today? What would you like? Like people see through it. They don’t want it, that they want, they want authenticity. I suppose that’s a word that gets thrown around a lot these days to help with products.
Brand business that has to be an authenticity. Or people, they’re not gonna connect. They are, they’ll leave, they’re not into it or whatever. So I really wanted my staff to know. That’s the, that’s our product is re realness, authenticity. No bullshit. So that, yeah, probably those three main things for me. Oh, and inclusiveness massively.
We definitely needed to [00:18:00] make sure people knew that we’re an inclusive venue. Um, and, you know, anything, anything that’s smacked of racism or non inclusiveness was a thing of the past. I
Bec Bignell: mean, I suppose as the owner of the pub, you become a natural leader and so you can start to change and reframe things that are outdated narratives and things that you know are not necessarily productive ways of thinking in the bush.
Have you felt that you’ve been able to have an influence in that respect with the decisions that you make in, in your.
Luke Prout: Yeah, I, I think so. It’s, I think one of the main things, I suppose is an example of change that I’m really, I, I don’t think I’m an, I, I I was a tool for this change or a, you know, um, but I was, I’m definitely an advocate for it is the Australia Day celebrations.
We’ve never done that here. We, I knew coming back you could feel it and you knew it wasn’t right. You knew there [00:19:00] was a large portion of. Community and society that are hurt by the day. So we made a pretty big call early on that we just wouldn’t do anything. We just run the pub as normal. We weren’t into flags, fake tattoos, any of that sort of stuff.
Yeah, that’s something that I’ve felt has been a big change.
Bec Bignell: That influence that you’ve got to kind of drive change, obviously hiring young staff. Do you take that responsibility really seriously as well in terms of the opportunities that you can afford them and how do you, what kind of role do you play in their lives?
Luke Prout: There’s definitely a broader, um, cross section of community amongst our staff now that I’ve probably ever had before in the city or when I was younger working here. Um, whether it be, um, First Nations people, neuro divergent staff members, trans staff members, what it does to the fabric of your business, especially when there [00:20:00] is a, a real sense of inclusiveness amongst your staff in particular.
It’s invaluable, especially at the moment where, Across Australia, across the world, staff are so hard to find and good staff are hard to find and keep without virtually signaling or getting on this soapbox, having a place that. people feel safe and don’t have to be, feel like their, their differences are questioned.
I think it’s, I think it’s fantastic and it’s, again, I don’t think it’s just this place, I think it’s rural areas in general are moving. There is change, there is progressive thought in and like, I don’t wanna ov his word, but a lot more inclusiveness. And I, you know, I really feel that that’s happening in a lot of, a lot of country towns, which is great for people wanting to move.
Bec Bignell: The Tamworth is very lucky to have you. Can you take me through your experience of parenthood and becoming a dad since you’ve been back?
Luke Prout: Well, [00:21:00] yeah. Well, I guess it’s probably something that’s a bit more common these days, especially for city people, probably a bit less for rural people, is that we, we.
We’ve had children later in our lives. We were lucky to have twin boys. Um, nearly two years ago. They were covid babies, identical twin boys, Frank and Henry. And I think rural living takes off a lot of the pressures for new parents. Um, if you’ve got a good support network around you, other, you know, like anywhere it can be difficult if for new parents where if everything moves a little slower traffic, you’re not stuck in traffic for 40 minutes just to get to the doctors or whatever.
These are the little blessings about our boys. But Fatherhood’s been amazing. Probably should have done it sooner. I always thought I’d be a young dad, but, um, life got in the way. Everything’s worked out at the perfect timing. . Our families think they’re magical. I think they’re magical sometimes. My grandmother’s a twin.
Emma’s grandmother was a triplet and there’s no other multiples in the family, so it was bound to happen to someone, I [00:22:00] suppose. And we got lucky and they landed right on us. Um, really funny little guys. Very into music. Hopefully they’ll be dad’s backing band one day.
Bec Bignell: I look, I’ve gotta say I’m very impressed.
I had Evie at around the same time, and that was a struggle with one. So, hats off to you with two really interesting as well. The thought that your two boys are gonna be growing up in a pub, like do you, do you have any sense of what that experience is gonna be like for.
Luke Prout: I’ve gotta be honest, I’m jealous as a kid.
As a kid, I’d always walk past pubs with family or whatever, and for some reason I just love that smell. There’s a, there used, well, there used to be a smell and it, I’m not a smoker and I never have been. I really can’t stand it. But the smell of stale beer and smoke and. People and food as a kid, it was just, I was like, wow, what is that?
That’s, that’s humanity. That’s life. [00:23:00] And now the boys. The mom’s not a huge fan of the pub, um, which I can understand. She’s an introvert. She’s an absolute genius with children. She’s not a huge pub lover, but she brings them down and they’re at an age now where they are. They just love it. Daddy’s pub, this daddy’s pub that they got right into Country Music festival this year, they love having a dance.
Everybody seems to love them, thinks they’re a great little, what would you call it? Mascots for the pub. I, I, I’ve never had a pub dog, but the boys are sort of filling that gap, , so, yeah. But I think, I think them being around people and different people, I think it’s gonna be, Invaluable to them. Growing up, you
Bec Bignell: talked about that very traditional connection to the pub, that stale beer and the Siggy smoke of yester year.
And, and as you said, Tamworth is a, it’s a really contemporary sort of pub in terms of its furnishings and things like that. How do you manage the [00:24:00] local expectations around. Boutique beer verse vb. Really Australian pub experience.
Luke Prout: So a wise man, I can’t remember, it was once told me that when it comes to pubs, changes have gotta be made.
Like you’re steering the Queen Mary too, very slowly, very surely, but very slowly. You can’t make massive changes quickly or you’ll just lose people. Most locals at pub. See the pub as an extension of their home or their lounge room. They like their own, their specific stool chair or table. They’re very, very particular about their beer.
When it came to craft beer or boutique beer, just had to be a slow transition and give them a taste. Let ’em say taste like flowers and spit it out. You know, just things like that. You’ve gotta, you’ve gotta move forward by keeping it, but you still gotta keep your hand on the bar, you know, where, where you started from.
You could, you’ve gotta keep some of that [00:25:00] traditional stuff. Like even with our pub, we’ve renovated the beer garden and the bistro, but the front bar’s pretty much the same as it was 30 years ago. And our saloon bar, which was the old lady’s bar, it is exactly the same except for three pictures as when I worked there.
25 years ago, 24 years ago. Carpet’s the same. The bar’s the same. We still use the same style of glassware. So I think you’ve, you’ve really gotta keep that, like our carpet is iconic. It’s sort of like a, it’s a, it’s a, a red tartan and a lot of my business partner hates it. He’s been trying for six years to get rid of it.
But every local and every visitor always. Bloody love the carpet. Something about the carpet and, yeah. And, and so I’m, it’s a, it’s a constant fight to keep that carpet. You’ve got, you’ve gotta remember your roots.
Bec Bignell: That’s fantastic. The carpet is the soul of the pub. I totally get it. , it’s,
Luke Prout: it’s a hundred percent is
Bec Bignell: you talked about before, obviously, [00:26:00] um, the pub is a hub for people in the community.
Um, and the things that are offers as, you know, connection and engagement and those sorts of things. What are the things that you observe that people get out of the pub? Like what does, what benefit does it give to the c.
Luke Prout: I guess the main thing is it gives people who probably probably live alone gives them somewhere to come and hang out.
Chat with the bartenders if there’s no one else around, or just make friends and connect to other people who are probably in similar boats. Um, don’t get me wrong, it’s not like a huge heartbreak hotel type place, but also new, new people to town. I’ve always told people who I know who are moving somewhere in, it’s a new place, they don’t know anyone.
Join a sporting team, go to the. . Hell, if you’re young, get a job in the pub. It’s the best way to meet people. So yeah, I think, like I said, pubs [00:27:00] are what the town square used to be. Um, it’s just a great place for people to come. Not necessarily even drink, not necessarily eat, just to meet people and talk, you know.
Bec Bignell: There’s been some discussion around how booze and beer can obviously mask people’s ability to like really look into their vulnerability and deal with mental health and is problematic. Have you seen sort of any influence of this change?
Luke Prout: It’s something I speak to people about a lot. Um, the drinking culture.
Change dramatically if you looked, especially at VI figures with alcohol, um, related violence. Anything that’s to do with licensed venues I think is probably Dr. Bottomed right out compared to, say 20 years ago when it comes to men’s mental health and the masking, again, young blokes, I think definitely still drinking to deal with.
[00:28:00] Their own vulnerabilities, mental health issues. But there has definitely been a major shift in, are you okay to, you know, people wanting to speak November? All those initiatives, like we have a. We have two tables a month of, um, men’s table. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of that, but it’s an initiative where 12 guys get together, have dinner, sit around a table and just talk.
And we kicked that off, I think in October last year. And now we’ve got two, two or three tables a month now with a really good cross section of guys, whether they be, there’s, you know, some. White collar professionals. There’s farmers, new Dads was, uh, uh, a group that I was trying to help the men’s table focus on as well, because as being a fairly new dad, I definitely can see the pressures that you can, can be under.
It’s definitely got a long way to go. There is a shift for men to [00:29:00] be more proactive and, um, putting their hand up and being, showing the vulnerable vulnerabilities and looking for help and looking for, yeah, looking to discuss the feeling.
Bec Bignell: And the men’s table sound fantastic. What a, um, an awesome initiative to be, to be including in the pub.
You talked about Tamworth early on when you were growing up there. What’s the town like now? Can you give us an analysis of Tamworth in 2023?
Luke Prout: I, I reckon to the naked eye. Anyone like myself who were moving back would probably go, oh, Jesus hasn’t changed much in 25 years. Once you scratch the veneer, it, it really has, I, I guess everything from early childhood philosophies, you know, for preschools and early learning centers.
They’re not just your finger painting. Babysitters club anymore. That, which I know a lot of young families would probably be concerned about food and drinking culture. Like I, I said, [00:30:00] they’ve changed a lot as well. We’ve got a really large Indian community here now. A lot of Nepalese, you know, that are opening businesses and doing food and doing a lot of great, really great things around the place.
So that multiculturalism is really, really, really bubbling here and having some really positive, um, positive effects on the town. , like I said, I do, especially food related and things like that. Um, and, and, and general just acceptance and, and culture. It’s, yeah, it’s, you know, in general I just, I think mindsets are changing.
A lot of more open-minded people are moving here and not afraid to speak about their beliefs and what they. Should be important in the community and we’re really seeing, yeah, it’s just that myopic vision of 25 years ago of, you know, having blinkers on it’s, it’s gone or it’s going. There’s still, there’s a lot [00:31:00] more people out here looking for a lot more and there seems to be a lot more coming at all time.
Bec Bignell: Absolutely. And you talked about, you’ve just had the Tamworth Country Music Festival. Tell me about the vibe of that festival, and also I would love to hear what your favorite gig was from the festival. Just gone.
Luke Prout: Well, we, we sort of run our own race here at the Tamworth Dream Festival. We, I put on, this was our biggest one we’ve ever had.
I booked about 45 bands over 10 days. Most of the bands stay upstairs. It’s really cramp. Bunk bed backpacker style, but it creates an amazing environment and vibe. There’s just musicians everywhere When they’re not playing at other, other places or here they’re in the beer garden hanging out. It’s really unique.
Every musician always says there’s something magical about it. It’s like a total different. Time it’s, I dunno if it’s similar to something from the sixties or seventies where it’s just a real community of [00:32:00] musicians who support each other and love each other. Sort of record numbers. The weather was beautiful, the bands were amazing.
We had no issues with. Any social, you know, any social behavior or anything like that. It was just really lovely and really great. Um, family vibe as well. Tell
Bec Bignell: me what you feel like you’ve given up and also what you feel like you’ve gained in going back to Tamworth.
Luke Prout: It definitely felt like I’d given up a lot more at the start.
Um, it was a tough transition. I’m not gonna lie. It was, took me probably two years. I, I liken it too. I was a. Coal train running at a very, very, Fast speed and basically hit another track and just had to slow right down and everything was slowing down around me. And yeah, it took a long time for that transition.
Um, what I’ve gained, no, I think I’ve probably gained a lot more appreciation for a slower life and simple life like. You know, [00:33:00] things can still get stressful and hectic, but at the end of the day, half the time, I’m just, I just think I wish things were a little bit more simpler and doesn’t take much for it to feel simple these days, especially now I’ve got a nice young family.
My family were back here as well, so it’s really nice to be near them. They’ve got kids as well. Um, nice to be near my mum again. We’re only speaking this morning about, I was away for so long and she’d, she would constantly remind. I left and I was never coming back. But, so it’s, um, yeah, I think just family and just a, a definite slower lifestyle nature.
I was never much of a nature person, but now when we can, we try, try to either get to the coast or I want to become a camper. I know, crazy. Um, things like that. And just small sense of community as well. You know, it’s nice to walk, walk down the street and see. 20 or 30 people you know, and say hello and you know, not that it couldn’t happen in Sydney or whatever.
Yeah. It’s nice and it’s nice to know that people care it. It’s a good [00:34:00] feeling to be in a small community. If
Bec Bignell: you were gonna create an ad for moving regionally, what would you
Luke Prout: say? What would I say? I would say, I know it would be something along the lines of, take deeper breaths, change gears, add years to your life.
um, find more time for the things that you love. That’s what rural living can give you, I suppose. Sounds cliche, but it’s, but it’s true.
Bec Bignell: That was fantastic. You should be writing scripts for radio people. That was brilliant. You know, you just took me on a journey and really made me think about so many different things, hospitality, pubs, the impact that you are having in your community, um, by being able to kind of influence in a really contemporary, inclusive way is really inspiring.
Thank you so much for your time today. It was a pleasure listening to you and your journey. And. Good luck. Time. Time for, uh, what time [00:35:00] is it over there? Nearly time for a five o’clock
Luke Prout: beer. It’s for nearly, yeah. It’s that time. No, thanks for having me. It was, it was, it was a, it was great fun and great to be able to reflect on, um, my time in my rural living.
Bec Bignell: You moved Where is made on the land of the Kenny Yang people with Luke Prout joining us from the land of the Camilla Leroy Goro people. We would like to acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the traditional custodians of the land and pay respects to elders past and present.
This episode was produced by Grace Rouvray and hosted by me. Be Bignell. Make sure you follow us wherever you get your podcast. Because on next week’s episode, you’ll hear stories like this, married my hot farmer, I’ve got two beautiful kids, . Um, I feel like I’ve, I’ve just been given this confidence I’ve never had before by living in the region of getting a bit emotional there.
You [00:36:00] moved where is brought to you by www.movetomore.com.au And the regional Australia Institute move to More is supported by the Australian Federal government. And if you head to ww dot, move to more.com.au. You can search almost 2000 regional towns and cities to find your favorite regional destination.
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