It depends on your location. Some of our staff live locally, and some commute from all parts of Sydney and the surrounding regions. I come in via train most days and it's a 10min walk from the station.
There's a surprising amount of software jobs in Western Sydney in IoT as it's the industrial heart of the Sydney region. In our case, the office is next door to the factory, so we can collab with hardware and manufacturing folk easily.
We are having conversations about opening an office in the city - mostly for tech workers. But that is still in early conversations and there are no concrete plans or timelines yet.
I took a three year break that combined freelancing, some personal projects and a good bit of everything but devwork. Coming back into a full-time dev role was challenging for a couple reasons, but most pointedly all the effort required to rebuild the emotional muscles to negotiate the political/social situations. Took a good 6 months before it felt effortless again.
I am thankful for the opportunities and growth that my break enabled. At the same time, it has felt that getting back into work routines has been just as awkward as getting out of them.