In regional Australia, many towns have been labelled as 'childcare deserts' with at least three children competing for one childcare spot.
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00:00Whether it's tiring out toddlers on playgrounds or ferrying teenagers across the country,
00:11six and a half million of us are in the midst of raising the next generation, and for many
00:18of us it means squeezing a job in somewhere too.
00:22But where we choose to do it can mean vastly different support.
00:27Many of us have dreamt of escaping to the country, picking up sticks, leaving the rat
00:31race and giving kids the chance to experience the open air and freedom that regional towns
00:36offer.
00:37I've been to many country towns during this gig, and the one thing that keeps coming up
00:42from Kununurra to Kingaroy is just how difficult it is to access childcare.
00:47But it made me think, how bad is it really?
00:50Well, if the stats and stories are anything to go by that we've received, it's a pretty
00:55dire picture.
00:57The Northern Territory can make for an epic childhood.
01:00It can also be a great career move, as Catherine Holmes, a childhood development researcher
01:05and evaluator, discovered.
01:07But when her children came along, the juggle was unexpectedly tough.
01:12My son is ten months old and my daughter is five.
01:16And I moved to Alice Springs when I was pregnant with my daughter, and I was just always told
01:23that accessing childcare would be a nightmare.
01:27I put her on the wait list when she was young.
01:30I was studying at the time, a young baby, and she got in when she was 14 months old.
01:37My son Sid is still on the wait list, even as a baby now.
01:43And as a sibling of my daughter, she's still on a wait list.
01:47Ironically, the desert town is also a childcare desert, a term that's been used to describe
01:52the populated areas where there's more than three children per childcare place.
01:57According to the Mitchell Institute, about 35% or 9 million people live in childcare
02:03deserts.
02:05And in remote Australia, that nearly doubles to 85%.
02:09The hardship of childcare in central Australia, particularly Alice Springs, is dire.
02:17It's a shared frustration at a birth and beyond catch-up in Alice Springs.
02:21They all have friends and colleagues who have been forced to relocate.
02:26We're hearing stories from people that are coming to work for law services, for medical
02:31services in hospitals, childcare workers as well in education, teachers, police, and they
02:37are all leaving because they don't have access to childcare.