The pandemic, a career change, and a desire to give his family a better lifestyle motivated Brett Power to say goodbye to Sydney and return to the place he once called home: Dubbo.

Our community is the better for their “tree change”, with the 40-year-old strata management specialist and his wife Lauren, who works in the energy sector, bringing in-demand skills and their young family to the region.

It was also a return to the place where Brett had spent the last years of his childhood. Brett’s family moved here when he was 10 to care for his grandmother, who had Alzheimer’s. He completed his education at Dubbo High School before studying commerce and moving into hotel management, a career that took him to London and then Sydney, before he took an opportunity arising from the COVID-19 pandemic to pivot into the career of strata management.

The move back to Dubbo in 2025 was a calculated choice, with the city beating out strong family ties to Adelaide and Brisbane as other potential places to relocate, Brett told Dubbo Photo News.

“We were also looking at the northern region, and then Newcastle, Orange, and we went for a bit of a drive around the state looking at things, and Dubbo just kept coming back,” he said.

The final “tick” to the move, however, was a nod to NRL footballer, Isaah Yeo.

“We were watching a rugby league game, and Issah Yeo spoke at the end. I said to Lauren, you know, he's from Dubbo,” he added.

This led to more discussions about Dubbo, the social, educational and employment opportunities, and the couple decided to look for work here.

“The community was a huge tick for us, because we're both into sport and we wanted to spend more time with the kids and raise them regionally,” Brett said.

The benefits of regional living can’t be calculated, he said, especially for his daughters Lucille, 5 and Leah, 3.

“The big thing about Sydney is you're travelling so much to go to work, so you're losing hours and hours a week commuting and not spending that time with your family,” Brett explained.

“[Living here,] I drive five minutes to work, and I've got that extra two hours every day to spend with my children. I love taking them to farms. They understand what animals are here for, the land for growing crops that we eat. You can’t get that in Sydney,” he added.

The Dubbo of 30 years ago is also very different, he has found, and his high school no longer exists, but he likes it.

“Everything is so spread out now. Everyone's nice. We walk the kids around the streets, people are neighbourly and talk to you,” he said.

Brett joined BurMac Insurance Solutions in Dubbo seven months ago, bringing his much-needed strata management industry experience to the region.

It’s an area that is deeply misunderstood, the senior account executive said, the situation not helped by recent scandals, including one allegedly involving a local service provider that is currently before the courts.

This has led to negative views of the industry, he said, and has inspired him to do what he can to improve the reputation of strata management locally through his work for BurMac.

“Strata is usually something like a block of units, so it has some sort of common facility like a common wall that you share with your neighbor,” Brett explained.

“It might be a common area like a driveway with many different car parks. It might be a shared facility like a swimming pool or a tennis court. There are a lot of [strata facilities] here in Dubbo,” he added.

“[Property owners or investors] come to me wanting insurance for it, and a lot of time they don't understand the insurance and what they need because it's very confusing at times,” he said.

With BurMac, Brett manages strata books for properties locally as well as in Mudgee, Tamworth, Port Stephens, Lennox Head, and inSydney.

For anyone thinking about upping sticks from the Big Smoke and heading west for career and lifestyle opportunities in the Dubbo region, Brett and Lauren Power highly recommend it.

“We're so happy with the decision to move here,” Brett concluded.