seachange

Noun

seachange (countable and uncountable, plural seachanges)

1. (Australia, uncountable) A movement of people from cities to rural coastal areas.
   • The seachange shift was initiated by retirees from the late 1960s although it did acquire a spiritual status when embraced by the boomers from 2001 onwards. […] The drivers of treechange and seachange are the same: people wanting a simpler life in a pleasant town with all the amenities not too far...2006, Bernard Salt, “Values and Mores”, in The Big Picture: Life, Work and Relationships in the 21st Century, Prahran, Vic.: Hardie Grant Books, published 2007, →ISBN, part 1 (Life), page 23
   • For example, the ‘seachange’ and ‘treechange’ movements have seen transitions in rural and regional communities, with the influx of wealthy city-dwellers increasing the price of housing and demanding the provision of particular services and facilities[…].2007, Susan Thompson, “Planning for Diverse Communities”, in Susan Thompson, editor, Planning Australia: An Overview of Urban and Regional Planning, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University...
2. (Australia, countable) An act of relocating from an urban to a rural coastal community.
   • Surrey […] was negotiating with his wife to move the family (two teenaged girls, reluctant to leave their high school friends) to Tathra and a new house, perhaps with a view of the sea. The trick was going to be maintaining the loyalty of his longstanding if slow-paying rural clients, when he...2013, Stuart Littlemore, “A Personal Injury Paradox”, in Harry Curry: Rats and Mice: Ugly. Irascible. Intolerant. Clever., Sydney, N.S.W.: HarperCollins, →ISBN