Australia - British Expat Forum

hello everyone!
i am planning to move to queensland next summer but would like to know how the nursery schools work over there?? how much is it a month hourly rate etc
thanks dean

Hi Dean,

How old is the child? Kids here go to kindy, a lot of them go from birth, and are in full time care. Childcare is in high demand, as a mortgage here is usually geared to two incomes, so Mum usually has to work, at least part time. Usually you would put the childs name down at birth, to ensure a place is available when the time comes. I'm speaking from experience in Sydney here (been through the process with my grandaughter).

The charges vary from different suburbs, and usually are by the day, not hourly. My son pays $75 per day, (all food included) and they must pick her up before 6pm, and they are open from 8am, although she never goes before 9.30am there is no discount! The same applies if she is ill, or away for some reason, the bill still has to be paid, whether she attends or not.

In another suburb the charge is $95 per day, and no food is included. It's something that you will have to do some research on, but the costs in other states will not be this high remember.

SSue 8)

In my area of SE QLD, they are building new Child Care places all the time, to cope with demand, and the local paper had adverts this week with vacancies for a few of them.

The big one, ABC Childcare www.childcare.com.au quoted $45 per day locally.

As a PR, you are entitled to a discount on this, depending on your income etc. These discounts go up to about 85%

As an example: 1 child with a $50k family income = 77% rebate
decreasing to 16% at $100k income.