One rural family faces a five-year waiting list for childcare, while another has a 130km drive to the closest centre and many others rely on grandparents for help.
Mothers in rural Australia report quitting their jobs at schools and hospitals due to a dearth of childcare, or even re-training in early education to fill the gap themselves.
These kinds of stories, as revealed through research by advocacy group The Parenthood, have highlighted the pressing issue of rural childcare inequity ahead of the federal election.
The National Farmers' Federation on Monday called for all sides of politics to back a $1 billion government program to build more childcare centres.
Under the Building Early Education Fund, a re-elected Labor government would construct or expand about 160 centres in areas of need.
Most regional Australians live in a "childcare desert", where there are more than three children per place, with one million rural and remote people living in areas without any services.
Farming towns' prosperity relied on access to childcare and early education, the federation's president David Jochinke said, calling for bipartisan support.
"It's no exaggeration to say a lack of childcare is holding entire communities back," he said in a statement.
The grain-growing region of Moora, Western Australia, experienced a surge in demand for childcare from its growing renewable energy workforce.
The community wanted to make sure the new workers could live in town, while also supporting the agriculture, health and education sectors, shire president and farmer Tracy Lefroy said.
"If you have small children and you do not have access to childcare, it means 50 per cent of a potential workforce is not available," Ms Lefroy told AAP.
"If one person is a farmer and one person is a nurse ... all of a sudden, your regional community is potentially missing out on having a nurse.
"So it's not only unlocking farm workforce capacity, but also education, health and service provision within the regions."
The council divested its childcare service to a private provider, enabling it to direct funds towards building a new centre to double the capacity.
"We want some equity in the opportunities given to kids growing up in a regional area," Ms Lefroy said.
For those communities with no services at all, often in remote mining and farming regions, the Isolated Children's Parents' Association is also calling on commitments from all sides of politics.
The organisation, which represents more than 2500 families, is lobbying for mobile childcare services, along with an allowance for children attending pre-school programs by distance education.
"We cannot allow geography to determine a child's future," vice president Julia Broad said.
The Parenthood is hosting candidate forums on regional early education issues ahead of the election.
