Life has taken on a new rhythm for the former Australian Test cricket captain and his wife.

They’ve recently relocated from Hobart, renting a family home with their two children, Milla, 7, and Charlie, 5, along with their charmingly mismatched pair of dogs – an 11-year-old Swiss shepherd and a two-year-old whippet.

It’s been a little over a year since Tim called stumps on his cricket career at the end of the 2023 Sheffield Shield season for Tasmania. The pressures they experienced at the pinnacle of professional sport have since ebbed away, making room for more time as a family – cul-de-sac footy and cricket, Sunday markets, and trips to the beach.

The move also allowed Tim to fulfil a promise he repeated to Bonnie for many years: once he retired, they’d move somewhere warm.

“I don’t think he actually thought I’d follow through with it,” Bonnie smiles, recalling how their annual Noosa holiday helped the promise gather steam in recent years.

“No, I probably didn’t,” Tim laughs.

“I didn’t put a lot of time and thought into it. But literally the day after I retired, we started looking into it.”

The star wicketkeeper, who gloved 150 catches in 35 Test matches for Australia, first received a rookie contract with Tasmania at just 16.

He loves his home state, as does Bonnie, but the move to Noosa represented a fresh start – a chance to recalibrate and offer their kids the kind of small-town, beachside upbringing Tim remembers from his childhood, playing beach cricket in Lauderdale on the outskirts of Hobart.

It also gave Bonnie the opportunity to prioritise her career after a decade spent in the supportive role often required of professional athletes’ partners.

Around the time Tim retired, Sanctum, the skin clinic where Bonnie worked as a registered nurse since 2019, announced plans to expand to Noosa.

Bonnie, co-founder and developer of the skincare brand SIRCLE alongside five other women in the business, saw this as a chance to launch the brand in Queensland.

“The stars aligned. Tim had retired. The kids are still quite young, so it was just the perfect time to do it. I was like, ‘I’ll go. We’ll move my family,’” she recalls.

“It’s a new little chapter, and we’re so ready for it. And what better place to do it?”

By June, Tim was driving the dogs up from Hobart, while Bonnie and the kids flew up, collecting the keys to their Noosa Heads rental and beginning her new role.

Tim didn’t miss a beat. After 12 years in the national side, he was accustomed to being away from home. But more importantly, he knew Bonnie deserved this chance, and for him, that was enough.

“I’m very, very proud of her,” Tim explains.

“She’s always been driven, and she’s done so much for me over the years, following me around for over a decade.

“When you’re in professional sport, it’s all-consuming, and at times you’re extremely selfish. Your family and wife often get the short end of the stick. So, for me to flip it around and let her pursue the things she wants to do in life now is really exciting. Spending more time with the kids has been great but seeing her happy and chasing her dreams – it’s really good to see.”

When we meet in early August, about six weeks after their move, Bonnie is busy running the newly launched clinic.

Tim, on school pick-up duty when he’s not bouncing between coaching roles, has recently joined NBL champions the Tasmanian JackJumpers as high-performance director and is preparing to fly to Darwin as assistant coach of NT Strike for the 2024 Top End T20 Series.

Bonnie smiles wryly, knowing retirement would always be a loose term for Tim.

“I don’t think Tim will ever stop playing cricket,” she says. “He’s too competitive. He loves sport way too much. It’s his passion.

“I think he’s living vicariously through our son, who also now loves cricket.”

“Charlie is a lunatic,” Tim laughs, correcting himself.

“Charlie is – well, he’s me, I think – unfortunately. He’s just an absolute sports nut, and he’s getting to the age where we can actually go and do it together. We can have a kick, or I can bowl to him, and I love doing that.

“And Milla’s a bright young girl who loves gymnastics and dancing, so I try and do a bit of that with her. We can hardly get them in the house now.”

Tim has been appointed head coach of the Adelaide Strikers for the next two summers of the Big Bash League, which runs from December to January, but will otherwise be home to support Bonnie.

“That’s the only time I’ll spend on the road for a longer period, and I can take the family with me. I’ll probably keep it like that for the next few years while the kids are still young – try and spend as much time as I can at home.”

The family has endured their share of turbulence, both publicly and privately, and has emerged stronger for it. Bonnie was just 21 when she met the then-promising young Australian wicketkeeper in Melbourne, where she’d moved to complete her nursing degree and worked at Victoria’s Austin Hospital.

Tim made his debut for Australia against Pakistan in 2010, but a hand injury derailed his early career. During the 2011/12 season, he travelled back and forth between Hobart and Melbourne to visit a specialist hand clinic. Meeting Bonnie was a delightful perk.

She moved back to Tasmania a year later and took a job as an orthopaedic nurse at Hobart’s Calvary Hospital. They married in the summer of 2016 at the picturesque Home Hill Winery and welcomed Milla the following year.

Tim had been on the brink of retirement when he got his Test recall, tearing him away from his new family to pour himself back into international cricket. Bonnie was happy to put down roots and raise their family in Tasmania while he took on the travel commitments.

“I did feel like it was all about Tim and his career, supporting him,” Bonnie says, reflecting on those whirlwind years. “And I never felt like I was missing out on my career.”

Bonnie left her job at the hospital when the difficult reality of double shifts and short staffing set in. Charlie was born in 2018, the year Tim was named captain to lead Australia out of the public darkness of the ball-tampering scandal.

Pressure was high, and Bonnie, who was grieving the death of her father, was raising two children under two.

“It was really hard. I was raising the babies by myself, really, and trying to support Tim,” she says.

When asked if he was aware of the sacrifices Bonnie was making at home while he was on tour, Tim pauses. “Probably not, to be fair,” he admits candidly.

“Not when you’re playing. I think as athletes, we’re well-intentioned, but the nature of professional sport is that it’s a very selfish existence. When you’re in it, you’re in it.

“We talked at times about the fact that once it was over, I would be happy to do whatever she wanted to do. I don’t think she totally believed it at the time.”

The job at Sanctum was a reset for Bonnie in 2019, a chance to work as a registered nurse in a more relaxed environment alongside like-minded women. They were also fortunate to hire a nanny while Tim was away and who became part of their family.

“Just working two days initially in a really supportive environment was helpful,” Bonnie says. “It was my little escape, using my brain and getting back into a working environment.”

Bonnie had grappled with the pressure of being the wife of the Australian Test cricket captain – the set of societal expectations placed on athletes’ partners, against which they are freely judged at award ceremonies and sitting together in pavilion stands.

“I was so young when Tim and I got together, so I always felt so much pressure, especially when he got picked for Australia,” Bonnie reflects.

“There’s so much judgment and opinions, and that definitely weighed on me heavily.

“It’s definitely a societal thing, and I just accepted that. But now I almost rebel against it a little bit. That comes with age and a bit more confidence in myself. We don’t have to give in to those societal norms and be like, this is what we celebrate, this is what we appreciate. It’s quite refreshing when you take that step back.”

Bonnie deleted her public Instagram account last year, shunning the expectations she had begun to place on herself, which were impacting her wellbeing.

“Everyone’s weighing in on what you’re wearing, what you look like, and it just felt so inauthentic. I had to reassess what was important to me,” she says.

“I’ve been so grateful to have these amazing women around me (at Sanctum) through all the ups and downs. Whether you’re wearing your activewear and no makeup or you’re in a beautiful gown and you’re looking like your best self, that shouldn’t just be the only time that you’re feeling like your best self.”

The decision also stemmed from the shattering blow their family experienced in 2021. Text messages Tim had sent to a female colleague years earlier were leaked, leading to his resignation as captain. Though cricket officials had investigated and exonerated him, and the couple had dealt with it privately, the public interest was feverish and invasive, picking and prodding open old wounds.

“When everyone was looking in and judging and had their opinions, I just felt so exposed,” Bonnie says.

“It made me a recluse. I wanted to wrap my little family up and just hide, and so I think that also came with the deleting of Instagram and everything just to cut off the rest of the world’s noise.

“I value that (privacy) so much now,” she adds. “I’m just putting all my time and energy into myself and my brands and my children and our family; what we want and what makes us happy in life.”

Bonnie was thriving in 2023. She spent nine months working on perfecting her skincare range. And with Tim’s retirement, their priorities shifted, and the opportunity to move somewhere new – and warm – felt right.

“I sort of thought, okay, this is getting real,” Tim laughs, recalling their initial conversations.

“But I am a bit of a homebody. I’m someone that keeps to myself a lot anyway … so I’ve always said to her it wouldn’t bother me where we live because as long as they’re around, then I’ll be happy.”

Swapping roles in their marriage has been as much a recalibration for the cricket star as it has been for Bonnie.

While she stayed home with the children to support his cricket career, Tim, like many professional athletes, had sacrificed time with his family.

“I missed a lot of it, travelling when the kids were really young. Bonnie did a lot of that by herself,” he says.

“It was interesting when you’re going away for months at a time and you come home, the kids didn’t want too much to do with you.”

Now, the chance to be part of the daily routine – waiting at the school gates, kicking a footy, taking the dogs to the park – is not lost on him. “It’s probably the longest extended time I’ve spent with them their whole lives in the last sort of 12 to 18 months,” he says.

“It’s really rewarding to see your relationship grow and get stronger, whereas I used to be in and out, and by the time they got used to me being around, I’d be gone again. I think they found it a bit weird – ‘Who’s this? He’s getting in the way of our routines’.’’

“I’ve been really proud of them as well,” he adds.

“The way they’ve just gone about their schooling and met new friends, and Bonnie’s doing the same in her workspace.”

The family plans to spend the next 12 months getting a feel for Noosa. They admit they might spend long Saturdays on the sidelines as parents now, but don’t expect to see Tim as a local coach.

“Bonnie’s a bit – what’s the word – she’s a bit cautious about me coaching any of the young teams because she knows how competitive I am,” Tim smiles.

“So, she’s like, ‘I think we’ll just go and watch.’

“I want my kids to go and enjoy their sport. I love going and watching them and making sure they’re just having a good time. If they are, then I’m happy.”

Bonnie, soaking up the Noosa warmth, doesn’t mind the prospect of more time in cricket stands.

“At least it’s in the sun,” she smiles. “I’ll take it.”