Film producer and distributor Alex Burke was enduring another long winter in the Danish capital Copenhagen when her thoughts drifted to the "wide blue skies" of the NSW Central West.
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She ultimately made it to Orange earlier this year, after returning from Copenhagen and living in Sydney for four years.
Ms Burke said the COVID pandemic had forced a new, less costly business model upon the film industry - one that didn't require a daisy-chain of business meetings in various corners of the globe, and the concomitant flight, accommodation, travel and and meal costs.
"When I first moved here I actually didn't tell anyone in the industry that I'd done so," she said.
"Because it's such an easy drive, I could coordinate my meetings - leave here at 6am and be in Sydney for 10am."
Ms Burke and her business partner Lisa Shaunessy founded the film production and distribution company This is Arcadia two years ago.
They've been involved in the new Australian film Ellie & Abbie (And Abbie's Dead Aunt) and the climate change sci-fi flick 2067.
The global restrictions on travel have also benefited the local film industry, she said, with a wave of foreign money being invested into destinations where COVID is not rampant.
Ms Burke was raised in Parkes, so a tree change west was not as jarring for her as it may be for other urban types.
She used to travel from Parkes to Orange for sport as a youngster, and knew a few people when she lobbed in January.
This is Arcadia is currently run out of The Hive on McNamara Lane, however the company has bought a property on Endsleigh Avenue that will be converted into a post-production studio.
Ms Burke said Orange was attracting a lot of creative people involved in the arts.
New research undertaken on behalf of the NBN shows more than a third of NSW residents (36 percent) surveyed were considering relocating after the pandemic.
Nearly two thirds of those (65 percent) want to move to a regional area within the state, "citing the appeal of a quieter lifestyle, a desire to save money and wanting to live a more environmentally sustainable life".
Three-in-four polled said they couldn't move without access to "fast and reliable broadband".
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