Across Yarrawonga and the wider region, families are struggling to everyday childcare as centres experience large numbers of people on the waitlist but not enough educators to cater for the demand.
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Member for Ovens Valley, Tim McCurdy, recently called out the Victorian Government for abandoning regional families, after it was revealed that only four of the 50 early childhood centres promised in 2023 have been delivered.
Mr McCurdy said the childcare shortage across Northern Victoria had reached crisis point, with many local towns now classified as “childcare deserts”, with little to no access to early learning and care.
“In 2023, the Victorian Government promised 50 new early childhood centres by 2028, but two years on, only four have been built,” Mr McCurdy said.
“Now the timeline has been quietly pushed out to beyond 2032.
“Families across the Ovens Valley and beyond are being forced to wait years, travel long distances, or give up work altogether because childcare simply doesn’t exist in their communities.”
Mr McCurdy said regional areas faced unique challenges that required tailored solutions, yet the government continued to apply metro-centric policies that don’t fit the realities of country life.
“Staffing ratios, rigid regulations, and a lack of support are making it near impossible to attract and retain childcare providers in rural towns,” he said.
“Communities are crying out for flexible, innovative approaches, whether it’s mobile childcare, using community spaces like town halls, or employer-supported models, but those calls are falling on deaf ears.
“Every family deserves access to reliable early learning services, no matter where they live.”
Goulburn Region Preschool Association CEO Ronni Druitt said the issue was complicated and not necessarily a lack of services but rather a lack of educators, which had been the issue since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“For example, we have space at some of our services for more children, but we cannot accept them because we need more suitably qualified staff,” Ms Druitt said.
“In addition, long day care services must always have 50 per cent Diploma trained staff on site at all times, so hiring more newly qualified staff doesn’t help the situation unless you are hiring more Diploma qualified staff.
“We see a lot of private services popping up but they are also not filled to capacity because of the lack of staff.
“However, in order to pay our educators more, we need to increase fees, which families simply cannot afford.
“For one educator vacancy, we used to get five to 10 applications pre COVID, now we are lucky to get one.
“Another way the Federal Government can help the areas of childcare deserts are by allowing stand-alone kinders to receive the childcare subsidy to offer wrap around care (before and after care programs).
“They don’t allow this and parents pay full fees for those programs, which is very expensive.
“This would allow parents to be able to work at least three full days per week.”
Ms Druitt said that approach would help in areas like Tungamah, Katamatite, Strathmerton and Nathalia where there were few to no other options for childcare.
Country Buddies, which currently has two spaces in Yarrawonga is not immune to the issues facing the sector with centre director Melissa Riches explaining that the centre had been planning for the current childcare crisis for a long time.
“We opened a brand-new centre in Yarrawonga in 2023, which caters to 108 children daily, and we’re proud to still have our original Country Buddies centre operating as well,” Ms Riches said.
“Additionally, we’re expanding our Wangaratta centre with a significant extension, which will open an extra 40 places a day to help meet the growing demand in the area.
“Despite these efforts, we currently have waitlists at all our centres, with the highest demand being in our under three age group.
“However, we still have availability for our three- and four-year-old funded kinder programs for 2026.”
A spokeswoman for GoodStart Early Learning in Yarrawonga said that like many regional and rural parts of the country, finding educators and teachers to work in Northern Victoria centres could be challenging but they believed the educator shortage across Australia was easing.
“Our Yarrawonga centre is in strong demand but does have some spaces for new children and families,” they said.
Trikki Kidz approved provider Trudy Brooks agreed saying that a lot of information provided publicly is sensationalised.
“Yarrawonga doesn’t have a childcare vacancy shortage,” Ms Brooks said.
“The community is very fortunate to have an abundance of places, especially with the opening of our own service and Country Buddies in late 2023 and early 2024.
“The challenge we currently face is staffing shortages. However, in recent times, with improved wages in the sector, due to the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Worker Retention Grant (WRG), the situation has improved.
“We maintain a waitlist at Trikki Kidz Yarrawonga; however, it is mostly for future-dated applications.
“We have 125 places available each day, and we are currently operating at around 70 per cent occupancy.
“We will look to recruit additional educators when required.”
Where the problems lie
• Insufficient access/availability of qualified and experienced staff including relief staff can result in service closure days.
• Limited opportunity for above ratio staffing to support inclusion and additional needs of children
• Lack of staffing due to the administrative demands of the roles, the pressures of family expectations, and low renumeration for Cert III and Diploma trained staff.