Over the past twelve months, the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation has had the privilege of working with two extraordinary families to remember, honour and build something for the future in the names of their most cherished loved ones.
“What you do for yourself dies with you when you leave this world, what you do for others lives on forever.” – Sir Ken Robinson.
Matilda Ferguson and Bruce Simpson are two names that have been spoken frequently and emotionally within our ARLF network over the past year. Two leaders whose deaths have left not only the pain of grief among their family, friends and all those grappling with their absence, but powerful ripples too.
As the time of year for slowing and reflecting approaches, it’s become clear that extraordinary things are blooming in the space left by these remarkable leaders. And their powerful stories have yielded three very special ARLF scholarships to be awarded in 2026.
Bruce’s life propels an enduring legacy
Bruce Simpson, a graduate of Course 7 of the Australian Rural Leadership Program (ARLP), was a passionate advocate for rural Australia. After his tragic death in February 2024 following an anaphylactic reaction, Bruce’s family set out to honour his legacy through an ambitious vision: The Bruce Simpson Rural Scholarship Fund , a $2 million perpetual endowment supporting established rural leaders to take part in the Foundation’s flagship ARLP.
When the close-knit family set this ambitious goal, it was Bruce’s twin brother, John Simpson, who likened the effort to an attempt at Everest. Remarkably, over the past year Bruce’s close family, friends, his Deniliquin community and the ARLF ‘family’ have propelled fundraising efforts to the half-way mark of $1 million.
The next challenge is to raise a second million, and it’s going to take an extraordinary collective effort of giving to reach that fundraising ‘summit’.
“We’ll require all the oxygen and full support to get there.” John says.
For Bruce’s siblings Julie, James and John, and Bruce’s wife Shandra and their children, Lucy and Charlie, the opportunity to focus on something powerful and positive amid their grief has provided solace and strength.
“There’s no doubt that the creation of this scholarship has helped turn the tragedy into something positive,” John says.
“It doesn’t diminish the enormity of the loss, but it has given us something special to focus on … it has been a very positive experience for the four of us to be doing something constructive. Bruce would have been very pleased—he was such a leader in rural communities and rural endeavour, and this will give back in such important ways.”
Striving and enduring
Lach MacKinnon had never met Bruce Simpson, but in August 2025 the Tasmanian-raised horseman took to the saddle and completed the gruelling Mongol Derby—the world’s toughest horse race—to raise $20,000 for the Bruce Simpson Rural Scholarship Fund.
“I never met Bruce, but I know his family. I’ve seen what a legacy of rural leadership can look like,” Lach says.
Bruce’s brother-in-law, Michael Powell, determined he too would push the limits of endurance in the name of his close friend and mentor. “He was generous, wise and humble. A steady presence in his community and in my life,” says Michael, who set out to honour Bruce this year by swimming the North Channel from Northern Ireland to Scotland.
While he was ultimately thwarted by wild weather, Michael’s determination and Lach MacKinnon’s Mongolian odyssey, illustrate the remarkable actions inspired by Bruce’s core values of acting beyond oneself to benefit others. These efforts are reflective of the commitment that, donation-by-donation, is building something of such pride for the Simpson family, and such significance for the face of leadership in rural Australia.
All-in for phase two
John Simpson is himself a seasoned leader, and as the recently retired Deputy Chancellor of Monash University, he is no stranger to the alchemy of successful fundraising.
“Phase two will mean casting the net wider to achieve the ‘summit’. Next year we’re going to have a large event in Sydney with people who knew of Bruce or have read about what has happened and what the scholarship fund with the ARLF is about. Quite a few people have come to me and said they’d like to help. Bruce was part of the fabric of NSW,” he says.
Perhaps most powerful of all will be the announcement in early 2026 of a rural leader supported by the fund to take part in Course 33 of the Australian Rural Leadership Program. To see the efforts of the Simpson family having a tangible leadership impact is a feat to be celebrated.
“This milestone announcement of the first Bruce Simpson scholar will not only help us to continue this campaign but remind us of the potency of establishing a fund that will give back in perpetuity.” John says.
“Bruce’s children, Charlie and Lucy, are having hands-on involvement in selecting the scholarship recipient, and we’re all very excited to see the first embodiment of this legacy.”
Matilda lays a trail for young women of the West
To the red dirt of far north west NSW, and the imprints left by another driven and humble leader: Matilda Ferguson. The lasting marks left by Matilda’s feet on that wild place are steps that will soon be traced by other young leaders.
When the former ARLF team member and rural go-getter’s life was cut short in a farming accident in 2024, those who loved her drew together to find meaning in the shock of losing her. She is remembered and celebrated through the Matilda Ferguson TRAIL Scholarship for Emerging Leaders, opening pathways for young women in remote Australia to step into their own leadership journeys.
Matilda’s mum, Chris Ferguson—herself a formidable bush woman—alongside Matilda’s partner, Lachie, brother, Will, and stepdad, Greg, together with the ARLF have launched a campaign to fund scholarships to support young leaders to participate in the TRAIL Emerging Leaders Program. TRAIL is a cross-sector, challenge-based, seven-day national leadership program, and Matilda’s scholarships will support other rural women like her to expand their horizons and connect with a supportive network of peers.
Chris describes her gentle yet tough-as-the-land-she-worked daughter as a quiet achiever. “She always showed up and did her best in whatever was before her,” Chris says. This was very much reflected in the thriving property management company, Outwest Management Group, that Matilda had founded and the dedicated work she did as a director on the board of Landcare NSW. In a piece of raw and exquisite writing for rural magazine Graziher, Chris expressed the painful but expansive feeling of love she has experienced as a mother who has lost a daughter.
In a peculiar way I am grateful for the opportunity to experience the fullness of the love we share, even though it overwhelms, even though it has laid me flat before it and taken the very air from my lungs. There is no other way that I could have understood the enormity of my love for her, and it is a beautiful thing. Heartachingly beautiful.
Inside this heartache, Chris has embraced the knowledge that what Matilda had managed to build in her 33 years can provide a powerful foundation for others like her to thrive.
The wide-open sky is the limit
Two recipients of the Matilda Ferguson TRAIL scholarship will be announced in 2026, and to Matilda’s family it has been of vital importance that these scholarships benefit other young women doing the tough, honest work of building their dreams in remote Australia. Not only that, but specifically young leaders who, like Matilda, are part of the fabric of the communities of wild and rugged western NSW.
And what began as a fundraising effort for one or two TRAIL program places, has taken wing in a special way. Such has been the generous outpouring of support for Matilda that funds are being raised for a third TRAIL scholarship, and maybe even more beyond this.
To Chris, it’s been a testament to the respect Matilda had earned through her advocacy for rural people—especially young women. Although, she acknowledges that a scholarship in Matilda’s name would certainly have made her humble daughter blush.
“This is not just about her. It’s about the people she’s left behind and how it can help all of us. It’s a way of honouring her, and it’s also something positive to be done in the wake of her death … it’s a way for the things that were so good about her to be carried on and continued,” Chris says.
Together, the initiatives in Bruce and Matilda’s names embody what it means to transform loss into lasting impact—turning the love and values of two extraordinary lives into opportunities that will flow through rural communities for generations.
You can donate to the Bruce Simpson Rural Scholarship Fund here and to the Matilda Ferguson TRAIL scholarship here. The ARLF would like to thank every person who has donated to the scholarships in Matilda and Bruce’s names. With your continued generosity we can unlock the gift of rural leadership for those who follow in Bruce and Matilda’s footsteps.
