“There are a lot of people in town that helped me to get to where I am today,” Mrs Goolagong Cawley.

“I wouldn’t be here unless I had the initial support of the townspeople of Barellan, I think they made me who I am today anyway.”

Mrs Goolagong Cawley was in Griffith with her foundation that was running their annual Indigenous Tennis Come and Try Day.

On the way she dropped in to her hometown of Barellan, where her brother still lives, to catch up with friends and family.

“I'll always be a country girl, that’s why its comfortable to come back (to Barellan),” Mrs Goolagong Cawley said.

“We went to Barellan yesterday and a lot of memories came back.

“I thought about all the people that had helped me along the way, it made me feel proud because it made them feel proud.”

Mrs Goolagong-Cawley also has relatives in Griffith.

The trip back to the region brought up memories of trips to town when she was a little girl.

“We used to come here (Griffith) and get on the train with mum and mum used to do some shopping and she'd drop us off at Griffith park,” she said.

“She’d go do her shopping and in those days there were flowers everywhere, she'd say ‘go pick that flower, go pick that flower’.

“All the flowers in my mum’s house were from the Griffith park and they all grew beautiful.”

This is the third year that the come and try day has been held in Griffith.

Mrs Goolagong Cawley wants to give the indigenous youth of today the same opportunities she had.

“I want to help them find their dreams through education,” she said.

“I think education is the most important tool for them to find their dreams and create better lives for indigenous kids all around Australia.”

The come and try days travel to every state in Australia.