Series 2: Episode 2 – Bonnie Carroll

The magic of Alice…

Written by Bec Bignell

After pushing the pen for hours during relentless medical exams Paediatrician Bonnie Carroll, based in Sydney, decided it was time to prescribe herself a change of place and a good dose of space to help her recover from the onslaught of study.

“I had just finished these massive exams and they took up my entire life, no one could ever pay me enough money to do them again. It is kind of like life-changing and identity changing because you forget everything that you’re interested in and then they finish …and I just found myself doing a lot of sitting in my Alexandria apartment just being like, ‘I don’t know what to do with myself and I feel like I don’t even know this city anymore. I’m living in one of the best cities in Australia and I feel stuck.’”

Bonnie pursued an opportunity for a rural placement in Alice Springs after a friend recommended the community, and before long she was venturing from her “cardboard box Sydney apartment” to the expansive plains of outdoor Alice.

Moving to a much smaller place did not mean Bonnie had to downsize her life–in fact, her new home was bustling with social outings, new friends, and exciting experiences that enhanced her lifestyle two-fold.

“More here than ever before in Sydney I’ve got time for a social life and social commitments and friends and things like that. One – because the drive is so small and then two – because it is just the open warmth of this beautiful town. You actually don’t want to miss out, you have massive FOMO all the time – all the things that you want to get to! A lot of it is packing up right after work and racing out to Spencer Hill, which is like, one and a half kilometres from my front door, so that we can eat cheese and drink a bit of wine and watch the sunset go down…

I’m surrounded by people who want to do the same kind of things as me as it really attracts beautiful, warm adventurous kind of people and so you do it all together…I mean it’s my kind of thing. It’s my kind of jam. So, I guess that’s why I’m here. It’s small-town energy.”

After living alone in Sydney for two years Bonnie was keen to connect and fully immerse in her new community. She leapt out of her comfort zone and after being interview by Sam and Stefan – two young people she met through a Facebook Flatmate Group (they were eating soup in beanies while they interviewed her from their couch!) Bonnie decided to go for it and moved into a share house.

Although the logistical terror and fear associated with moving initially made Bonnie a little apprehensive, the friendly nature of locals helped her find social networks and meet new people. She found that being open and making bold choices that she may not have been inclined to do back in the city helped her quickly establish a social circle on the ground.

“I literally made friends because I went to a cafe with somebody – you walk in with one person and then they see four friends and you sit down with them. They go, ‘yeah, I’m going to this, and we should go together.’ You’re making a lot of easy connections through that…It was just being open, making those choices and going to a lot of stuff that maybe I wouldn’t always necessarily go to.”

Bonnie finds that the small-town workplace has meant the team is extremely supportive and colleagues are quick to jump in to help each other. She also enjoys the familiarity with patients, the personalised approach and continuity of care that can be serviced when the population is smaller than a big city. Bonnie has had to adjust to being highly accessible and recognised within a much smaller community.

“It’s a pretty small place – you’re going to have all those moments where you’re running into people in and out of that workplace. I just had one of those total cliche ones – I was working on the weekend and a child was in and I looked at his mother and I thought gosh she’s familiar…five minutes later she came up to me, she’s like ‘I’m a hairdresser.’

I’ve just moved, I’m definitely in need of a haircut and she was like, ‘right, I’ll book you in.’ Four days later I walked into the salon – my friend was there and over the course of the three hours that I was there I saw three of my patients…it is that kind of hometown charm…you get recognised.”

Adjusting to the quirks of the new job, environment and place were not the only discoveries Bonnie made – the move also presented an opportunity to get to know herself again and reinvigorate her life.

“I didn’t come with other friends or a partner and so, you know, I could have been anyone…It’s kind of like a readjustment. I’m like, who am I?…So it was like a lot of getting to know myself again as well…I think an interesting thing is that you do you see yourself differently through the eyes of other people that are just meeting you for the first time.”

In Alice, Bonnie acknowledges that she is “a white tourist” who is grateful for being able to enjoy the incredible community she lives in and the extraordinary country she lives on. She attributes the vibrancy, beauty, and life of the community to the First Nations people, whose country it is, “the first thing is really that this is Aboriginal land and I’m living amongst Aboriginal people, and it is their town.”

Living in Alice Springs has enabled Bonnie to build friendships and rapport with the Aboriginal communities and she enjoys learning from the people within the special town. She thinks that because Alice is so far away from major cities there is a dynamic reservoir of creativity and it’s “full of life” – abundant with culture, art, music, and live gigs. Bonnie says there is an extensive pool of young, excited, motivated people who thrive in Alice Springs.

“I met my girlfriend here and we’ve been dating a couple of months now and I think it’s like the first person that I’ve dated in God knows how long that I didn’t meet online like not through an app, which is just so cool. Just refreshing I guess.”

Bonnie says that Alice Springs offers limitless adventures – additional to the scenery, serenity, sunsets and fresh air it has festivals, community gardens, great coffee and wonderful people.

She believes her social life is busier, fuller and more satisfying than it’s ever been, and she can’t imagine living anywhere else…“it makes me wonder if I’m ever going to be able to go back to the cardboard box in the middle of the sky in Sydney. I just think in a place out here I can finally breathe, and I might just suffocate if I go back there…”

REGIONAL ROUSE:

“I think if you want to feel connected to your environment, to yourself, and allow yourself to have that extra space and clean air to breathe – a lot of those things is what attracted me into regional Australia. You really do kind of find what you’re looking for, you really you find that beauty, you find that space…People can’t believe that I moved but to the ‘middle of nowhere’ but to me now, living here, it just feels like the centre of everything. Because when you’re there it’s not ‘nowhere’ and it’s beautiful and there is amazing community and vibrancy out here that I just so much better than I could have ever expected. It’s really brought a sense of happiness and peace to my life that all my friends and family and things have noticed. It’s been life changing.”

BONNIE’S TIP: Accept invitations to social outings and events, be bold and say yes!