There is nothing on either Kelly or Simon Leplaw's CVs that would suggest they would leave their city lives and move to Rockley, a tiny historic village, population around 200, in the NSW central tablelands. They both grew up in Sydney and enjoyed corporate careers before making the decision in the middle of the pandemic lockdowns of 2021 to upend everything and get out of town.
“The urge to move out of Sydney was always there,” Kelly says. “It was motivated by pure escapism — the desire to live somewhere you enjoy the changing seasons and colours and actually experience the climate rather than live in an air-conditioned bubble. But I was very settled in my career in corporate fleet management and Simon had a good job as the sales operations and marketing manager for Ducati motorbikes in Australia and New Zealand, so it always seemed a bit of a pipe dream.”
Since 2008,
