Francene Halliger has made countless batches of chicken and corn soup over her decades with the Quirindi Country Women's Association.
But her most recent chunky broth needed to taste better than any that had come before.
The town on the NSW Liverpool Plains hosted 20 medical students from across the state on Thursday, as part of a push to attract more health workers to the region.
Ms Halliger hoped her chicken and corn soup could woo some of the group to make Quirindi their home.
"We desperately need doctors in town. We need doctors, and we need every other medical support we can get," she said.
Quirindi is located just under an hour's drive away from the larger centre of Tamworth, which has a greater variety of medical services, but Ms Halliger said there were some services that were completely lacking in the region.
"If it's serious, it [means travelling] to Newcastle or Sydney. Even Tamworth doesn't have everything that's needed," she said.
Rural road trip
The stop-in at Quirindi was part of a four-day Go Rural program run by the NSW Rural Doctors Network.
The 20 medical and healthcare students were bussed to other locations across the New England region, giving towns the chance to sell themselves as a destination.
Fellow Quirindi CWA member Colleen Wills said the CWA's relationship with the Rural Doctors Network was more than 30 years old.
"The Rural Doctors Network contacted me to see if we would host them and sell the country to the students," she said.
"We couldn't miss such a golden opportunity."
Liverpool Plains Shire Mayor Doug Hawkins said attracting young people had always been a challenge for towns like Quirindi.
"Rural towns have always haemorrhaged their young people," he said.
Cr Hawkins said the older members of his community, who tended to have a higher demand for health services, were concerned they were being left behind.
"We can't get medical professionals [in Quirindi], we can't get the help we need."
A strong pitch
Fourth-year medical student Yaron Gu said the need for better health services in Quirindi was obvious.
"I asked someone how long it takes to see the GP, someone said it was like three weeks just to get an appointment."
The federal government made large investments in Medicare in this year's budget, tripling the incentives paid to GPs to bulk bill for a range of patients.
But medical student Laura Olliver said the changes did not address the bigger issues for young health workers.
"They're saying, 'We're going to incentivise GPs to bulk bill, but we're still not going to pay them more'," she said.
"If I can't afford to live, then that's going to affect where I work."
Cooking up a plan
As the bus load of students left the Quirindi CWA to continue their road trip, Ms Halliger reflected on what impression their pitch may have left on the potential future health workers.
"We're the CWA, everybody pitched in," she said.
"We're a little branch, but we're probably the most active in the state."
But as the bus left, one student's impressions of Quirindi seemed to have sunk in.
"It's a cute little town," first-year medical student Mickayla Ennis said.
"I didn't try the chicken and corn soup, but the pumpkin soup was to die for."
