The Growing Childcare Crisis in Regional Australia

Across Australia, the term “childcare desert” is becoming an increasingly accurate description of life for families outside major cities. In regional communities like Eurobodalla on the NSW South Coast, demand for early learning and care consistently exceeds supply. The growing pressure on early learning and care reflects structural challenges that continue to shape access to early learning and care in regional Australia.

For families on the ground, a childcare desert is not an abstract policy concept. It looks like long waiting lists, limited options for children under school age, and parents travelling between towns to piece together care. It looks like stress, uncertainty and difficult decisions about whether work is even possible.

Eurobodalla is often seen as a family-friendly region, and in many ways it is. Preschool in the year before school is relatively well supported and familiar to families. But for children younger than four, particularly those needing long day care or Family Day Care, options are extremely limited. Waitlists are the norm across almost every service type as demand far outweighs supply.

The fragility of the system becomes especially clear when even one service closes. When that happens, families are suddenly displaced, forced to shuffle children between towns or join already lengthy waiting lists elsewhere. For families with more than one child, or those balancing work, study and caring responsibilities, the impact is immediate and deeply disruptive.

Parents are often left patching together informal care, reducing work hours or leaving the workforce altogether. While this begins as pressure on individual households, it ripples through the local economy as employers struggle to retain staff, small businesses lose skilled workers and essential services, from healthcare to hospitality, feel the strain.

Early childhood education and care is more than a social service. It is economic infrastructure. When access to care is limited, workforce participation drops. Regional communities, already managing smaller labour pools and geographic isolation, are hit hardest.

One of the most critical pressure points in the current system is workforce supply. Across the sector, educator supply remains a central constraint on access, particularly in regional areas were attracting and retaining staff is more difficult.

Within the existing system, Family Day Care is one model that is well positioned to respond to shortages while maintaining strong outcomes for children.

One new Family Day Care educator can create up to seven childcare places, including care for their own children. Educators work from their homes and establish care locally. This means new places can be created faster than centre-based services, without the need for large capital investment or lengthy construction timelines.

In regions like Eurobodalla, Family Day Care has become increasingly important because it offers what families need most: locally based, flexible and consistent care. Families value being able to drop all their children to one educator. They value strong, trusting relationships and the stability of a home-like environment. They value flexibility around hours, including early starts, late finishes and, in some cases, weekend care, options that are often unavailable in centre-based settings.

Family Day Care is a professional, regulated and high-quality part of the early childhood education sector, operating within the National Quality Framework and delivered by educators with qualifications ranging from Certificate III through to Bachelor and Master degree level, and they operate within the National Quality Framework. They are supported by approved services, subject to regulation and oversight, and committed to delivering quality educational programs.

What makes Family Day Care distinctive is its small group setting. We know that children thrive in environments where educators can build close, consistent relationships and respond to individual needs. Mixed-age play supports social development, continuity of care builds security, and trust develops quickly when children and families see the same educator every day.

For educators themselves, Family Day Care can be empowering. It allows them to shape their own program, develop their educational philosophy and remain closely connected to their community, while still being professionally supported. For many, it offers a sustainable way to stay in the sector while balancing their own family responsibilities.

With demand continuing to exceed supply, the question for many communities is how to support growth in models that can expand access while maintaining quality.

The answer lies in barriers that prevent educators from entering or staying in the sector. Many potential educators do not see their home as “suitable,” even though Family Day Care is designed to be home-based. In bushfire-prone regions, additional compliance requirements, while important for safety, can become overwhelming and discouraging without adequate support.

More broadly, early childhood policy continues to be designed around metropolitan models. Regional realities, distance, smaller populations, limited infrastructure and workforce challenges are often an afterthought. As a result, communities like Eurobodalla are left managing shortages that have been decades in the making.

I have worked in early childhood education for more than forty years. In that time, I have seen significant progress in recognising the importance of early learning. But what has not changed is the persistent shortage of childcare places in regional Australia.

If governments are serious about addressing childcare deserts, the solutions do not need to be radical. They need to be practical and achievable.

Reducing barriers to entry for educators is essential. Providing clearer pathways, targeted support and sensible compliance processes, particularly in regional and bushfire-prone areas, would make an immediate difference. Recognising and investing in locally grounded, flexible models like Family Day Care is a practical investment in both quality and access, and an acknowledgement of what works in communities where options are limited.

Families need care now. Employers need workers now. Communities need solutions that can be implemented quickly and sustainably.

Family Day Care offers a supported, professional and community-based pathway to create urgently needed childcare places. The demand is strong, and the most immediate constraint is educator supply, alongside the policy settings and practical support that influence whether educators are able to establish and sustain services.

Until that changes, Australia’s childcare deserts will continue to grow, and regional families will continue to pay the price.