Kiya Gill felt like a failure when she realised her daughter Quinn had difficulties with her legs, but she says a playgroup in her remote community could have helped her spot the problem earlier.
Ms Gill and her growing family moved to Jervois Station, 350 kilometres north-east of Alice Springs in central Australia, in 2019.
"Living remotely you don't always have access to doctors and child health nurses," she said.
"When Quinn was about six months old she was standing up and trying to walk and we were looking at her little feet and going, 'I don't think this is right'.
"Three months later we were able to get into a doctor and they agreed there was something wrong with her feet.
"At that period you feel a bit like a failure, like we'd failed our family."
Ms Gill believed if her family had access to early learning, they could have compared Quinn's development to other children's and realised something was wrong sooner.
As a result, she is pushing for government-funded early learning in remote Australia.
Playgroup in the outback
This year, the Alice Springs branch of the Isolated Children's Parent's Association held its first playgroup, through RAISEducation, after a survey of 50 families in the region found many families were missing a network to help care for their young children.
Alice Springs ICPA president Danyelle Haigh said 21 children travelled from up to three hours away to attend the playgroup at Territory Grape Farm, 180 kilometres north of Alice Springs.
"It's just so nice to see," she said.
"Our children go for weeks on end, not having any interaction with the other children.
"A lot of our children don't have that social ability, because they don't get it very often."
The Alice Springs ICPA and RAISEducation will deliver nine playgroups around central Australia this year, but these have been funded by grants, not government.
Ms Gill was concerned if government did not start funding the playgroups, they would be short lived.
"We haven't seen any traction or any real commitment from the Northern Territory government to pursue this and help us with funding, it just doesn't seem to be on their agenda," she said.
"We don’t want to do all these amazing things in 2023 and see it fall flat in 2024.
"If we don't help support education in the bush, families are not going to stay in the bush and central Australia is the heart of the cattle industry in the Territory."
No ongoing funding
The Northern Territory government did not commit to funding the ICPA's playgroups, but a Department of Education spokesperson said funding for playgroups fell predominantly under the federal government's responsibilities.
"The Department of Education supports and delivers early childhood education programs through preschool and Families as First Teachers (FaFT)," they said.
"Preschool is delivered through School of the Air for families that are geographically isolated."
FaFT is an early learning and family support program targeted at remote Indigenous families, but open to all families.
The closest FaFT to Jervois Station is more than 100 kilometres away at Harts Range, but the Department of Education spokesperson said the program there was in a "break" and was not expected to return until July.
