Tanya Heaslip

And then they'd all get on the tram or bus and go home.

And so, no, but the girl, there were quite a few bullies in the boarding house.

The boarding house was like a military system.

You know, you crush the spirits of the kids.

You get them to just a uniform mass.

But there's always bullies in that kind of system.

And especially if you had no social skills, which I didn't.

So you go from a life of freedom to one of constraint.

Yes.

You feel the walls around you a bit.

I was just used to running free.

And also bush kids grow up from a very young age to do adult tasks.

My brother at age 11 was sent out at 3am, 15 miles away to muster cattle and get them back to the station by dawn so they could be trucked and Dad was waiting.

That's the kind of responsibility that bush kids were given and in a boarding school you're treated like just a naughty little girl who has no rights.

It's very confronting as well.

So the friendships that you do make there,

What's the nature of forming a friendship in that kind of strange, straightened world where you're feeling like the walls are closing in a bit?

It's very interesting.

I think probably it's not the same, but it's akin to how you often hear soldiers talk in the army, akin to any kind of institution where you're pushed together and you're forced to survive and you need each other to survive.

So...