Teresa Butcher, otherwise known as T Rex, has not crossed over the border into New South Wales since before the marriage equality plebiscite in 2017.
But she's made the emotional journey back to the Riverina, where she grew up, to be a part of the Rainbow on the Plains festival in Hay.
"Coming back here today, with these incredible women, as Dykes on Bikes Melbourne, has lifted a lot of shame that I've been holding, and I didn't even realise that I'd still been holding," she said.
It has been a long and difficult road for the 48-year-old.
Growing up in regional NSW in the 80s, T Rex said she had not realised "same-sex attraction for women was a thing" and there were negative attitudes towards the LGBTQIA+ community.
"I think back then there was a really common narrative that you wouldn't leave your children with a gay person," she said.
"That being gay and paedophilia went hand in hand, and that is so wrong."
After marrying two men, T Rex came out as a lesbian later in life.
"I didn't want to be dishonest about who I was," she said.
T Rex said her family was originally accepting — until the national vote to legalise same-sex marriage.
"They voted 'No', but they also disowned me and my 17-year-old son … and that was very traumatic," T Rex said.
"I had a lot of very dark times, and if it wasn't for my son, I don't think I'd be here anymore."
These days she is riding her jet-black motorcycle among a cavalcade of friends and allies that make up the Dykes on Bikes Melbourne group, which she joined in 2020.
After leading out the parade with her "found family" and seeing the smiling faces of so many locals, T Rex said it was something she wished she could have seen when she was growing up.
"Something like that in Hay, at that time, or any regional area, allowing people to be true to who they are … how many lives could have been saved?" she said.
Festival organiser Will Miller said the event had been "mind-blowingly successful" and the turnout "astronomical", despite initial concerns flooding would be an issue for travellers.
"The broader Hay community really knows how important this is for our community," he said.
"It gives us an opportunity to be heard and seen.
"The acceptance here is incredible. They just want to understand. There are no issues."
Margot and Darren De Bortoli have supported the event since its inception.
"Having been educated at a private boarding school in Sydney, it really does manifest those libertarian streaks in a person, that anti-bastardisation, and this concept of inclusiveness," he said.
"I think rural Australia gets a bit of a bad rap in terms of how tolerant the community is.
"The communities I know are all very tolerant."
Mr De Bortoli said he thoroughly enjoyed the parade.
"The gay community does know how to have fun," he said.
"I had a gold hat, a gold shirt and gold hot pants and nice long gold boots with about a four-inch heel, which I found very difficult to walk in and my wife dressed up as well in gold."
Young person Carrie-Ann Murray from the Hay Youth Taskforce, which was responsible for the kids' activities like Dunk the Drag, was "left in awe" that the community could be so inclusive.
"It creates the idea that it's OK to be who you are even if you come from a small town that perhaps might seem on the outside as very traditionalist," she said.
"But you know that you always have your place and it doesn't matter where you come from, you still have your place."
The Rainbow on the Plains festival also beat the record for the biggest human rainbow with 446 participants. Previously, Daylesford in Victoria held the Australian record with 405 participants.
