Special announcement: Since recording this episode, The Hon. Bronnie Taylor has been appointed Chair of the national charity Motherland. We’re thrilled for Bronnie and proud to support Motherland and their incredible work for rural and remote women across Australia. Congratulations, Bronnie!

In this warmly honest episode of Letters from Home, Amanda sits down with Bronnie Taylor - oncology nurse, farmer’s wife, mum and proud rural woman - for a conversation that feels like a cuppa at the kitchen table. This isn’t about politics; it’s about the heart-work behind good policy and the everyday grit of life in the regions.

Bronnie reflects on growing up across countries, finding her feet in a frosty little hamlet at the base of the Snowies, and discovering - like so many of us - that community lifts you when you let it. We talk boarding school from both sides: the way it shaped Bronnie’s courage as a teenager, and years later, how it shaped her mothering - homesick nights, the power of a school nurse’s timely call, and the “second families” that come from carpools, long weekends and shared netball courts.

There’s plenty of laughter (red sports bloomers, train trips and questionable IDs), but also the truth rural parents know well: that love can look like letting go, and opportunity sometimes means distance. Bronnie pays tribute to the glue of rural life - women who organise, advocate, bake, budget and keep the wheels turning - while reminding us that our kids can leave the front gate and still carry home inside them.

If you’re weighing up boarding, missing a child at boarding school,  or cheering one on from hundreds of kilometres away, this episode will feel like a letter in your mailbox on a long week. Press play, take a breath, and walk a little taller with us.