Uplyft to shutter three WA childcare centres, forcing parents to drive hundreds of kilometres

Uplyft has confirmed it will shut its Mount Barker and Katanning centres by the end of December 2026, with Kojonup to follow in the first half of 2027. Chief executive Jo Sadler blamed lease conditions at the first two sites, which she said made the isolated Kojonup service unfeasible to keep running. The closures were announced to staff and families in October.

For Julienne Slade, the Mount Barker shutdown lands close to home in more ways than one. The former police officer, who spent more than a decade working in Great Southern and Pilbara towns before retraining as a teacher, said the centre is the same one she attended as a child. "I couldn't believe it," she told the ABC, adding that families had been given little notice.

Slade's husband works in agriculture, and she said the pair will have to rework their jobs around childcare. "I'll either need to take leave or my husband will have to not work," she said, putting the lost income at up to $5,000 or $6,000 a day when his work dries up. Other parents described joining waitlists or facing drives of hundreds of kilometres each day.

In Kojonup, mechanic Ryan Colman sends his two-year-old to Uplyft five days a week and has no nearby alternative. He said the realistic option is an 80-kilometre round trip twice a day, adding fuel costs to the family's mortgages and bills. "That's the only real option," he said.

The pain is not confined to the Great Southern. Data from the Early Learning and Care Council of Australia shows 152 services permanently closed between 2024 and mid-2026, with another 276 at risk of shutting by July 2027. Australian Childcare Alliance vice-president Nesha Hutchinson pointed to inflation and high running costs, saying regional, rural and remote services are "being pushed to the brink of financial viability" — and warning it won't improve in the short term.