Warrambungle Shire is one of three regions in western NSW that will benefit from a new multimillion-dollar investment to address childcare shortages in the bush.

Expansion of the government’s Workforce Activation Program to the new areas – the other two are Hay and Carrathool in the Riverina – aims to expand or upgrade eligible early-childhood education and care services in these areas.

Improving access to childcare can have a significant impact in helping stay-at-home parents, particularly in underserved rural areas, stay in the workforce. A recent study by the Regional Australia Institute confirmed that not having access to childcare services is hampering the ability of people to maximise their contribution to the local workforce.

This disproportionately impacts regional towns like these and contributes to worker shortages in essential services such as health care and education, plus in local businesses. By freeing up people to enter the workforce this will have an immediate positive input to the local economy.

Projects eligible for funding include workforce attraction-and-development initiatives to address workforce shortages, infrastructure upgrades to accommodate more children, and service improvements.

A second phase of the pilot program builds on the success of the $5.6 million announced last November, which created 189 additional childcare places in Broken Hill, Bourke and Cobar over the next 18 months.

Since November, 2024, childcare centres in Broken Hill, Bourke, and Cobar have advertised for additional childcare educators, engaged experts to deliver staff training workshops and finalised building plans for expansion.

The project has already provided significant benefits to far-western NSW women such as Alex Page.

“It’s important that my wife and I can remain at work, we both undertake fairly important roles in terms of servicing our local community,” Mr Page said. “Without being able to access childcare, my colleagues and I wouldn’t be able to be in the workforce, and I’m one of the lucky parents whose kids have fulltime care across the week.”

The pilot program expansion considered childcare places available, population growth and the needs of communities where families may face more barriers to accessing childcare.

“All around Broken Hill it’s very hard to get employees to work full-time because they can’t get childcare, and with greater access to childcare we’ll be able to have more people back into the workforce; it is a game-changer,” Mr Page revealed.

“To have the ability to move to the region and have access to childcare more easily would make it far more palatable and enjoyable for families to move from a major metro centre,” he concluded.