Karratha, Western Australia.

This program is based in Karratha, Western Australia and serves the surrounding area. The program was established to service the booming mining and oil/gas industries where construction workers and their families were housed in caravan parks.

At that time, Frontier Services employed a Caravan Park worker to provide support to families and an offshoot of that ministry was the provision of a small child care program within the Rosemary Road Caravan Park.

With the goodwill of the Caravan Park that provided the space, and funding from the Australian Government, support was provided to many of the long-term families living in the parks.

At the end of 1998, the Caravan Park was converted from a residential park to a tourist park. The amenities were upgraded and the recreation room in which the child care service operated was demolished due to a structural problem in a wall. The child care service was then relocated to Karratha Family Centre where it now operates side-by-side with playgroups and other children’s activities. Although operating in the Karratha township, it still offers priority placement to children in caravan parks.

Currently there are up to 20 children attending per session with two sessions a day.