TWO years ago Nathan and Leslie Jameson bit the bullet and took the plunge, giving up a high-flying sales job in the city and opting for a tree change.
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The Jameson’s, along with their two young children Ruby, age 5, and the three year old Austin are now the proud publicans of the Terminus Hotel in Quirindi and have never been happier.
“My parents were publicans when I was growing up and funnily enough the pub they owned in Coonamble was called The Terminus as well,” Mr Jameson said.
“The drought in the 90s really hurt us and we packed up and moved to the Central Coast.”
Mr Jameson finished school on the coast and then signed up to become a policeman, another family tradition, although just before graduation he was offered a job in the mail room for Qantas, and after working his way up the ladder through Sydney based companies such as Crown Resorts, Microsoft and Hewlett Packard was jet setting all over the world as a major player in the sales teams.
“I was doing pretty well but I just had enough of the lifestyle,” Mr Jameson said.
“Every Monday I would get asked the same questions about the same things.”
“My daughter barely knew me and would cry when I picked her up because I was always away.”
One day on a fateful trip through the Hunter the Jameson’s drove past the pub in Kearsley with a for sale sign out the front, and the rest is history.
“I just said to Leslie that I could do that and that I wanted to buy a pub – and she just said yeah yeah sure.”
Shortly after the Jameson’s started looking into it, and while the Kearsley Hotel was out of their price range they did come up with a shortlist, including hotels in Armidale, Cessnock, Denman and Quirindi.
“The cost of the pub in Quirindi was a bit high but once we had a look the town just swung us,” Mr Jameson said.
“Everyone is friendly, everyone says hello and you don’t have to constantly watch the kids when we are at the rugby or anything like that because you can trust that they are OK.”
Quirindi also ticked the boxes for education with the local day care and pre-school up to scratch, while the Jameson’s have been more than impressed with the local public school.
Cost of living is also an appealing feature of country living for the couple, who live above the pub after selling their house in Wyoming to make the move.
“We have such a better lifestyle here,” Mrs Jameson said.
“We do recommend other people do it but it does take some adjustment and there will be things you are not prepared for. You may not become a millionaire but you will be happy and you will get to spend more time with the kids and family. In the city the cost of everything was just too great.”
