Video Transcription

Moving away from home

• I mean, it’s never ideal. You never want to move away from the place you sort of grew up in, like your family.
• The two oldest children, the two oldest daughters, have moved away. They’re both at university.
• In Canberra, I live at a residential college with 400 other students, and in Bathurst, I live with my six family members at home.
• Here, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep.
• Here, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep, sheep.
• Yetholme is a small community. It’s been around since about 1830, maybe, and has 200 people living in the region.
• I did have a lot of fun in Yetholme, even though it didn’t give me the opportunities that I find I need now, as a 19-year-old.
• What happens when one of the kids leaves, particularly in a rural setting, is that, you know, there’s less density of people around you. So when they leave, the gap that’s left is bigger.
• We’re quite a close family, so it was difficult. I have two little brothers, and for them, I knew moving away would mean I would just drop off the universe for them.
• Expanding foam is a metaphor for life in some ways. The boys expanded to fill the gap. They expanded physically to help on the property because we have quite a lot of demands running stock and so on. They filled the gap emotionally, and they just stepped up and grew up really quickly, to our surprise.
• I think maybe it was good for their growth that we left as well. I don’t know, but it seems to be that way. And for Mum and Dad, they hated having a lot of their family leave.
• Brianna is a bit noisy and a bit bright, so when she left, it was quieter. When she left, what we found was that we had more time to connect with the boys, which we hadn’t had before because we had to divide the time amongst all the kids. So, that means more time for the younger ones coming through, and that fills the space.
• You know, I feel old, but the next generation is very adept and switched on to social media. So, Brianna contacts the family two, three, four times a week, and vice versa.
• I’m always calling Dad. I’ll be like, “Guess what just happened?” Or if I need help, I’m like, “Dad, could you please read over this?” and he’ll go over my assignments, my applications, my resume. He loves it, actually.
• You have to make the communication happen. You just have to, several times a week, with each of the kids, calling them and encouraging the one who’s left home to stay in contact with the ones at home. And if you can do that via Facebook, phone calls, or Skyping and so on, and if they can know what the sibling’s friends are doing, and who’s going out with who, and what sports they’re doing, and what the results are, you stay connected.