When Alison Jones took a gamble on a reality TV show more than a decade ago, she never imagined it would end up transforming her life and the small rural town she'd eventually call home.
But this gamble eventually landed Alison in the northern New South Wales town of Walcha, with three young children to Charlie — the man she met on The Farmer Wants a Wife.
It also landed Walcha with a female GP – a rarity in the country. And in a few months' time, the town will have its first childcare centre too.
Alison admits she got "the biggest shock" when she made the move from inner-city Sydney to Walcha, a community of 3,000 atop the Great Dividing Range.
"I remember the first time we rolled into Walcha on a Sunday and there were no shops open," she says.
"There was no-one on the streets and I thought, 'Oh my goodness, what have I got myself into?'"
No phone or TV reception and no coffee shops around the corner have been just a few of the challenges she has learnt to adapt to.
In between meeting Charlie, moving to the country, and having kids, Alison has finished her medical degree and is now one of the only female GPs within a 150-kilometre radius of the town.
"We've been going out for 13 years now and we have three kids and a couple of farms. And yeah, it's very busy," she says.
Working as a GP is even busier.
Alison's waiting list for patients is six weeks long and the acute doctor shortage in the region means people are travelling long distances just to see her and her two colleagues.
"We're getting a lot of patients driving 100km to see us because they can't get into see a GP locally," she says.
Maternity leave mission
It's not just her patients' problems that Alison has become adept at diagnosing — it's the town's too.
Working as a GP, Alison had been "heavily relying" on her partner's family to help look after their young sons and was fortunate that her work helped pay for a nanny, costing up to $700 a week.
But when she learnt her neighbour, an accountant, was dropping days of work because she couldn't secure childcare, Alison was spurred into action.
"I thought, 'This is absolutely ridiculous that people are cutting back on work because they can't find childcare,'" she says.
"So, I made it a mission during my maternity leave with my third kid to change that.
"It took me a long time. There were a lot of passive-aggressive letters to important people around town. I wrote a lot of letters to the local newspapers and local members of parliament."
The only childcare available in Walcha is for children aged three to five.
For parents with younger children, it has become almost impossible to secure a spot at a centre in neighbouring towns like Armidale where there are more than three children competing for every childcare place.
Childcare a boon for Walcha
A year into her "mission" to end Walcha's status as a childcare desert, Alison has managed to corral a group of local parents, who have pitched in to buy a property in town, and together they have secured a provider — Little Kindy — to run the long daycare centre.
"We're looking at opening in July, which is amazing," Alison says.
Little Kindy operates in northern NSW, but its owner Santika Arzal had no idea there was a demand for childcare in Walcha until she saw Alison's campaign and received an email from a community member.
She said many providers would dismiss places like Walcha as "too small or too far away".
Once it's operating, the centre will have places for 40 children aged from newborn to five years and will employ 12 full-time early childhood educators.
Most of the educators Santika has interviewed so far are either in Walcha or grew up in the town and are keen to return.
"We've already got a really long waiting list. We're pretty much around 75 per cent filled — especially the nursery," she says.
For Alison, it's about more than just a childcare centre. It's also about "bringing more professionals to the area".
"Childcare is mostly the woman's job, still, and in terms of equity in the workplace, this is important," she says.
Boosting GPs next task
Before the centre has even opened, Alison has her sights set on her next mission to secure the future of GP clinics like hers.
Alison is one of three doctors in Walcha — a community of 3,000 — but warns "there's just there's not enough money in general practice to keep going".
The Australian Medical Association has been lobbying the federal government to increase the rebate paid to GPs, repeatedly warning that clinics will close and people will struggle to access primary care, particularly in rural and regional Australia.
Alison says she has "hated" privately billing patients, but the practice can't afford bulk-billing with the existing rebate.
"It's not viable in a small, tiny town if we don't privately bill patients. So, it's been really hard," she says.
Alison is staying in general practice because she enjoys it, and she feels an obligation living in a small rural town.
"These are the people that I want to help," she says.
If the federal government listens to doctors like Alison, she might end up helping many more.
