Dimboola Rowing Club was looking for an injection of young blood, with numbers dwindling from their young contingent.

Ambrose, along with a few friends – including future Olympian Pam Westendorf – joined the program and discovered a natural talent for the sport.

It led to a life dedicated to rowing and a career of success, with multiple national championships and the chance to compete around the world, including in Copenhagen and Milan. 

“Our first proper race was at Head of the Wimmera, and we won rather surprisingly,” Ambrose said.

“That gave us a taste of what it was like to win. From there, in our first year of rowing, we had nine starts and won six of them.”

Their newfound success propelled them to the status of local celebrities. As their talent became more evident, the training, support and opportunity grew beyond what they had ever expected. 

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Their talent was natural, but success didn’t come without an exceptional amount of hard work and a lot of help from the community.

“Our schoolgirl crew became quite popular,” Ambrose said.

“The Dimboola Rowing Club was just fantastic. They were always there for us and gave us all the stuff we needed. The town got behind us with fundraisers and support, too.

“The club gave us a huge amount of moral support and equipment, buying us a new boat and new oars.

“We were all athletic and really hard workers, but we trained really hard, too. We trained twice a day, six days a week – so we definitely put in the work to succeed.

“Our coach (Ruth Klinge) was fantastic and really forward thinking, too. She used to give us gym work to do, which was a bit unusual back then.”

Their early success culminated in a trip overseas to represent Victoria in colt series rowing. They were beating the best teams in the country, and being the underdog from a small town was part of the fun.

“In 1976 we were selected to go across to New Zealand to row for Victoria, and then in 1977 we went across to Perth for the national championships and we won two Australian championships,” Ambrose said.

“We were the young kids from Dimboola knocking off all the city crews and the New South Wales crews and everyone.

“It was around the Tim Watson era as well. He was doing well at football and us at rowing, so we were sort of the kings, always coming up on stage at high school assemblies,” Ambrose joked.

The team’s rise through the ranks coincided with a growing culture of women’s rowing across Australia. Ambrose has since been part of promoting women’s rowing as a competitor and administrator. 

“Women’s rowing was just really starting to take off,” Ambrose said. “It was the beginning of a new era of professionalism and clubs really taking it seriously.”

After the early success and national championships, Ambrose took a hiatus in her early twenties before a move to Melbourne reinvigorated her love for rowing. Here, her natural talent and drive shined again, and she quickly found herself back in the upper-echelon of the sport.

“Within the first 12 months of getting back into it in Melbourne, I made it into the Victorian lightweight four,” she said.

“We won a national title and a state title that year, and I was basically in the state crews from then on.”

She missed out on rowing in the Commonwealth Games in 1986, but made it into the Australian team in 1987. The team competed at the Rowing World Championships in Copenhagen that year, finishing fourth. 

But it was the next year that would be the pinnacle of Ambrose’s career, when a dramatic set of circumstances finished with a second-place finish and a silver medal in the lightweight coxless four.

Before they left for the 1988 World Championships in Milan, Ambrose and her team failed a weight test in Canberra, clocking in at slightly above the allowed average of 57 kilograms per person.

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“We were told we had to be within a couple of kilos, but we were about a kilo over. The selectors were ruthless and said, ‘you’re not going to Worlds, you’re staying home’,” Ambrose said.

“We were devastated. Our coach and the rowing fraternity at the time got behind us and pressured the selectors into letting us go, and eventually they reversed their decision.

“The rest of the Australian team had already left, so we had to get on a second plane and got to Milan late.”

They had to pass the final weigh-in two hours before the race and went to exceptional lengths to make sure they met the requirements. 

“It was tough. We are were all tall girls, so to get to the weight we were pretty skeletal already,” Ambrose said. “It was sort of like boxing or jockeys – you try to get down to that weight for the weigh-in but you would never stay at that weight for long.

“You would stop drinking, dehydrate, sweat run, don’t eat much. It was pretty brutal, but we made it, and we finished second and won the silver medal.

“It was like sweet justice for us – the selectors reversed their decision, we did go overseas and against all adversary, we got that silver medal.”

Since then, Ambrose has continued to compete, winning several world and national titles in masters rowing for people in different age groups. She still competes with Melbourne University, and maintains her competitive attitude.

Recently, she was appointed to the board of Rowing Victoria, providing her leadership and knowledge acquired through a lifetime of rowing.

“I was approached by somebody who thought I would be good for the job and was elected last year, so getting on board with that has been really good fun,” Ambrose said.

“Rowing was always something I wanted to dedicate my life towards.

“Once you get it in your blood it never leaves you. If people ask “what are you?”, I would always say I’m a rower, all throughout my life. Even now I play other sports, but first and foremost I’m a rower.”

Her passion for the sport goes beyond the competition or the accolades. Ambrose is above all thankful for the rowing community, and impact it has had on her life.

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“I’ve just had a wonderful life with it,” She said.

“What I’ve really loved about it is the people that I’ve met.

“I have absolutely just enjoyed the people, the travel, and what it’s brought to my life. It’s another dimension to my life that I just love. It’s an absolutely fantastic community to be involved. It’s a fraternity and it’s a lifestyle.

“I’ve had some success along the way and met a lot of great people, and I continue to enjoy the sport and what it brings to my life.”