General News
30 May, 2025
New Clunes childcare centre underway
Construction is currently underway for a new childcare and early learning centre in Clunes, thanks to the State Government’s Best Start, Best Life reforms.
Currently known by it’s interim name, Early Learning Victoria Clunes will be a Victorian Government owned childcare centre run by Early Learning Victoria.
This is one of 14 recently announced Early Learning Victoria centres that will be opening throughout the state in early 2026.
These centres will charge fees below local market rates, making childcare more affordable for families.
The centre will have outdoor play areas, a maternal and child health consulting room, and a car park. It will also have a community room for meetings and playgroup.
Each centre will also be located within close proximity to a local primary school, easing drop off and making the transition from kindergarten to school simpler for children and their families.
Located on Paddock Street, the early learning centre is currently being constructed on the Clunes Primary School grounds.
Clunes Primary School principal Sonia Jardine welcomed the project, anticipating the centre’s benefit for the community.
“It’s a really positive opportunity for the town and the school. Yet to be specifically named, it is actually built on the grounds of Clunes Primary School,” she said.
The early learning centre will provide long day care and both three and four-year-old kinder, with space for 102 children each day.
Ms Jardine said until now, childcare facilities have been much needed within Clunes.
“Clunes actually does not have an operating childcare centre, which means people will leave town in order to have early childhood support, so it aligns with where they work. We miss out on that opportunity in Clunes to nurture kids right through until school age,” she said.
“Parents will have already established their connections in Creswick, Maryborough or Ballarat, then often the children would go to school there as well.
“By having an aged zero to four opportunity for children to be supported and nurtured on the school site, that means that it will be a fluid connection through to primary school years.”
Ms Jardine said while the site is under construction, its progress has even been met with excitement from students.
“Our children have been looking through the temporary fence at all of the machinery and the project management hut, they think it
looks like a red Antarctica hut,” she said.
“So they are watching what’s going on in the Antarctica hut and the machinery galore. It’s a humming facility.”
While construction has commenced within the boundaries of the Clunes Primary School site, Ms Jardine said reconstruction of impacted facilities will follow centre’s completion.
“The centre will actually take over the bottom third of the school oval, so the construction company is actually about to redesign the oval, make a new oval and cricket pitch and realign it all,” she said.
With interest already growing for enrolments for 2026, construction is expected to be complete at the beginning of next year.
“The building is moving through at a fast pace because it is insisted that it will be open at the start of the school year, next year,” Ms Jardine said.
The State Government’s Best Start, Best Life reforms aim to deliver better early learning, saving families money, and helping more parents return
