Community
25 August, 2026
Highlands Playgroups Pack Up
A few years ago, Bundanoon’s community playgroup saw thirty kids and carers gathering every week. On Friday 31st July this year, after a lengthy hiatus and a year of trying to revive it, it folded.
Contributed by Kim Garratt
A few years ago, Bundanoon’s community playgroup saw thirty kids and carers gathering every week. On Friday 31st July this year, after a lengthy hiatus and a year of trying to revive it, it folded. In the last year, Penrose and Exeter playgroups have also packed up the toys for good. I spoke to six local mums to find out what happened, and why it matters.
‘As brand-new Bundanoonians, we knew no-one,’ says Simone Taber, Bundanoon Playgroup Treasurer. ‘At that crucial point where having small children can be really isolating and it can be hard to put yourself out there…it was a way for us to meet other families and start building a support network and connection and community for ourselves.’
‘There’s a lot of those fun memories of watching the kids making friends,’ says Simone, ‘but the ones that really stick with me are the ones where I was struggling as a mum with young kids, and playgroup was a place I could go every week and find mums doing and feeling the same things as me…all those moments where you’d rock up sleep deprived, exhausted and emotional, and someone would hold your kid’s hand and make you a cup of tea. For me and a lot of mums I know, playgroup was a lifeline. Leaving the house in the morning with kids can be so hard, but if you can pop them in the pram and walk to playgroup, it’s so worthwhile.’
‘Going to playgroup for the first time was one of the scariest things I have ever done,’ says Sofie Rocca, a regular at Bundanoon playgroup for many years. What really pushed her to go at first was seeing her kids interacting with other kids in their age bracket. ‘We used to share fruit, we did songs, we did baking, and all that stuff was fun, but when you look at your one-year-old playing with another one-year-old, it’s like the world suddenly makes sense to them. They learn how to share, communicate, be kind to each other, be empathetic.’ And the research backs up the value of playgroup for kids – a 2016 study by Playgroups Australia found that attending playgroup benefits kids in every area of development, building motor skills, social skills, and language, and that kids who attend have an easier time transitioning to kindergarten and to school.
That same study, now ten years old, found that across NSW, between 30-45% of kids under five had regularly attended playgroup for at least a while. But with three neighbouring community playgroups closing in a two-year period, are things changing?
Among the six mums I interviewed, the demise of playgroups was attributed to more barriers to accessing community spaces, as well as compounding changes to parents’ availability, expectations, and ability to commit.
In the last decade Bundanoon playgroup has played a game of musical chairs, moving from the preschool to Morton National Park to the Presbyterian church to the Bundanoon Club to the CWA. Next door in Penrose, the hall fees were a factor in the playgroup packing up in 2025.
The parents I spoke to loved that at the preschool and church the group had access to a safe, enclosed outdoor play area. Being in the preschool and then right next to the primary school meant that it was easy for parents to drop off one kid and then stay for playgroup, and that when their toddlers started attending the preschool or school it was an easier transition because they were already used to going to that spot every week. But the group lost access to the church when it went on the market (it’s been sitting vacant for four years now), and the preschool when it became part of the Big Fat Smile franchise.
Nine de Borde, Bundanoon Playgroup Coordinator, says that Bundanoon preschool Director Liza Rynehart was very receptive to playgroup coming back when they last spoke. ‘The issue isn’t that we aren’t welcome,’ says Nina, ‘it’s all the regulations – valid as they are - that come with going into a daycare. You can’t bring in your mobile phones. You can’t bring a cup of coffee.’ Ultimately the committee decided that the conditions would be counter to the easy-going, inviting environment they were trying to cultivate.
In Exeter, where the community playgroup closed doors after a two-year run (begun while Bundanoon playgroup was on hiatus), space was never an issue. ‘The broader community was really supportive’ says Jane Gillis, Parent Coordinator of the Exeter Playgroup. ‘The council gave us a $1000 grant at the start, we got a grant to buy toys, and we got a community group discount at the Exeter hall. We also had generous community sponsorship to cover some of those fees,’ adds former Exeter CWA President and playgroup co-convener Fran Simons. ‘Before that, we started at Werai Farm Club, who generously gave us free space to get started,’ says Fran. ‘I don’t know if people were attracted initially by the fact that there was coffee and animals,’ laughs Jane.
More families need two incomes, so there’s less likely to be a parent at home to go along to playgroup, and even parents working part time might not have days off that line up with playgroup. While the timeslot of 9:30-11:30 doesn’t always line up with nap times, ‘ideally playgroup isn’t a place where naptime matters, because you’re getting something out of it too,’ says Sofie. ‘The amount of times I’ve been to playgroup and half the mums are actively trying to put their babies to sleep in carriers, bouncing them around, because they wanted to stay and chat; they wanted to be there.’
‘The other thing is that expectations of what a playgroup might offer are really high these days,’ says Fran. ‘In my day, playgroup was really just mums getting together in a park somewhere and chatting while the kids played on a rug. These days, I think everybody’s expectations are a lot higher.’
‘We had one ex-daycare teacher, who was really passionate about creative play, and she was creating just the most amazing things, really elaborate sensory play, and she wasn’t getting paid, she just enjoyed it’ says Jane. ‘And we had other people who contributed activities from time to time, which was great.’
‘But people did come to expect the very high level of activities we were providing, and as the people running those activities burned out, we didn’t find enough other parents willing to come forward and keep it at that level,’ says Fran. ‘For various reasons, many of our parents saw it more as a service to pay for than contribute to.’
Attendance at Exeter playgroup was strong, with up to twenty-five families joining each week, from as far afield as Mittagong and Marulan. Fran puts this down to the draw of activities like fire engine incursions and the sensory play, as well as a dedicated committee member advertising the group on social media. ‘Once she was no longer able to take on that role, there was a noticeable drop off,’ says Fran. ‘Which I think says something about the world today.’
After two years of leading the group, some of the original committee’s children were ready for school, while others just needed a break. ‘The main reason for closing was not the hall fees,’ says Fran. ‘It was not having enough new parents willing to take over the responsibility of organising the playgroup, and getting other people to commit to coming along regularly enough to sustain it.’
‘The four or five of us that were on the committee felt like we were carrying it, and when your child was sick and you couldn’t make it that week you put out the call for help and someone would cover for you, but it was always those same four people, says Jane.
This anecdote touches on something I heard in all my conversations – among young families in the Highlands, while expectations on experiences for kids have never been so high, many parents don’t feel able to commit to contributing themselves.
‘There’s a bit of a trend in the community, I feel,’ says Simone, ‘which is that everybody loves the community feel of the town, a lot of people comment on it when they first move here, but for some reason those people struggle to commit to the parts of the community that make it what it is.’
It occurs to me that there are now four places in Bundanoon where one can buy a cup of coffee (and don’t get me wrong, as a Melbourne emigrant, I’m very grateful) but the CWA hall is the only place where you can make a cup of coffee for each other.
And it isn’t just our playgroups that are struggling – the Bundanoon Primary PNC has had roles empty for a while, and while a lot of people are active in the PNC, there’s not enough committee members for official decision-making. said PNC social media coordinator Sam Ward. ‘A good handful of people always are attending the meetings but we need new faces otherwise it's always the same people who are always taking the load.’
‘A lot of parents feel they have too much in their dish, but in reality if we don’t do it our kids and our community miss out.’
Simone makes the same observation. ‘It’s the same people you see showing up across all the volunteer roles’ and gives examples of people who are on the PNC and are also helping run a local sports club, baking for the school canteen, as well as involved in a playgroup. ‘We almost lost swim club until two dads stepped up at the last minute. It’s such a common theme.’
Even when you have a critical mass of families coming along every week, having only a small core group of committed leaders leaves playgroups vulnerable. Playgroups are an inherently transitory community – babies turn into toddlers and toddlers grow up and start school. Parents go back to work suddenly, move between villages or out of the highlands altogether. ‘The group has to have a way of refreshing itself,’ says Fran.
To make volunteering more sustainable, Sam suggested role-sharing, and Jane points out that school tuck shops have rosters to ensure that there’s always someone there but it’s not always falling on the same couple of people. ‘Fran and I talked about whether there should be some kind of paid position,’ says Jane.
‘The interesting angle here is, what is a playgroup for?’ asks Fran, ‘how do you get it going and what makes it sustainable? And I think it works when enough parents realised it’s about them building a community as much as it’s for children to have positive experiences and get the social and developmental benefits.’
‘And community doesn’t get built unless people put in the building work.’
Contributed by Kim Garratt
If you want to get involved in your local playgroup, the nearest playgroup currently running is Wingello Bush Babies, which meets Tuesdays at 10am at the community centre next to the playground.
For more playgroups near Bundanoon, see https://www.wsc.nsw.gov.au/Places/MyShire/MyShire-Clubs-and-Groups-Directory/Playgroups-in-the-Wingecarribee-Shire
--------------
Subscribe to The Southern Wire Newsletter for free at the link below.
https://subscribe-forms.beehiiv.com/1986abc6-c89e-4781-9db2-cf35c9dd71e4
If you value independent local journalism across the Highlands, Tablelands and Wollondilly, please click the link below to support us to ensure we remain paywall free.
Read More: Southern Highlands, Bundanoon