In 2017, after the launch of The Rural and Remote Education Human Resources Strategy, CCSA advocated to the NSW Government for children in remote communities to be able to access a quality early childhood education program.

This was the start of a long and challenging, but incredibly exciting and rewarding, collaboration between CCSA and the NSW Department of Education that culminated in the opening of the Gidgee Preschool in Weilmoringle.

Weilmoringle is a very remote community located in the upper Culgoa floodplain of New South Wales near the Queensland border, approximately 180kms north of Bourke, with a population of only about 70 people and no access to services such as transport or early childhood education.

The Gidgee Preschool is named for a very important totem of the Muruwari people, the Gidgee tree, the preschool is open to both aboriginal and non-aboriginal families and is funded as an independent community preschool.

Looking forward CCSA is working with communities in Louth and Wannarring to also set up local preschools for their communities.