Brisbane, Queensland.

The Remote Family Care Service started in May 1997 in response to the large numbers of isolated families and young children who were entirely without access to mainstream services and who were suffering high levels of stress, which impacted on their children.

Carers are placed with outback families for up to three weeks in any calendar year to provide relief child care during times of shearing, mustering and hardship. To be eligible the family must have at least one child under 5 years of age and be in a location where traditional child care is unavailable. Service charges are based on the family allowance from Centrelink received by the client family.

A varying number of full-time carers and part-time/emergency carers deliver the service to families living within the five defined (Remote Area Families Services (RAFS) areas.

The service with a full-time coordinator is based in Brisbane and support is provided from the Brisbane office.

The Remote Family Care Service is a joint project of Frontier Services and the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR).

Frontier Services has been involved in the project since 1990 and was uniquely placed for sponsorship of the program with our extensive network already established in outback Queensland, through RAFS.