Rachel Hagan, Yorke Peninsula Country Times
Minlaton’s time to celebrate arrived with the official opening of the long-awaited Minlaton Family Centre on Friday, August 30.
The ribbon was cut by Member for Grey Rowan Ramsey, and the three women who started it all: Katie Hughes, Anna Phasey and Amy Honner.
Yorke Peninsula Council mayor Darren Braund said this was one of his proudest moments from his six years in the role.
“I’m most proud because it represents a multitude of people and organisations working together to achieve something very significant for our community,” Mayor Braund said.
The centre has created 120 childcare places in the region, which is an incredible increase from a few years earlier when there were only 14.
“An independent cost analysis, where the study was done around this centre, found that every dollar invested in the project would create $52 of economic value for Yorke Peninsula,” he said.
“And that is really significant, in fact it is amazing, the ripple effects of a centre like this; people don’t realise how important it is.”
After an almost seven-month battle with construction deadlines, the centre’s opening was pushed back further and further, until it finally began operating on July 22.
Childcare facilities also attract young families, who can help enhance the region’s services by bringing in new skills and addressing skill shortages.
YP Family Learning and Care managing director Michael French said the vision for the centre was not just childcare, and the goal was to also deliver services missing from the SYP.
“We’re really pleased (that) already we have a GP coming in monthly on a Saturday to provide additional GP services, and we hope to see that expand,” Mr French said.
Though many groups worked together to make the centre a reality, it was local mums Katie Hughes, Anna Phasey and Amy Honner who got this dream off the ground.
As a special thank you to the trio, a decal of their story features just inside the centre’s front door as a permanent reminder of how the facility began with a chat among friends.
Ms Honner said their group had been on quite a journey to get to this day, but she wished to thank every community member who rallied behind the creation of the centre.
“Like many other rural and remote areas, we fell into what is now being categorised as a childcare desert, meaning there was only one childcare place available for every 10 or more children in our region,” Ms Honner said.
Though the women’s own children are now too old to use the childcare facilities, their selflessness has provided other SYP families with the ability to have all caregivers in the household able to work.
Contributing to the community and region, the childcare centre itself has provided about 50 jobs.
This article appeared in Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 3 September 2024.
