At 17 she went to Ballarat to train as a teacher, and taught in primary schools in Melbourne before having two children. Since then she has written several books for children and studied for two degrees, a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Education. She currently teaches at the Council of Adult Education (Melbourne) in the Professional Writing and Editing course. The two children have grown up and both attend RMIT University in Melbourne.
After years of wondering who would give away a baby as an anniversary present, Rachel finally asked her mother and found out that she hadn't literally been a present at all, just a surprise.