For Sinclair Hunt and his young family, each day waiting to get his 10-month-old son Jesse into an Alice Springs childcare centre is added frustration.
"My partner wants to get back to working … but we've been emailing and calling childcare centres. I emailed 15 the other week, to be told by nearly each one it would be between a 12 to 18 month wait," he said.
Both parents want to jump back into their careers as frontline workers, to support their growing family and deal with the rising cost of living, but right now only Sinclair has been able to return to work.
"To get by in this society, especially in a central remote area like Alice Springs, it's nearly impossible. You can't get in front," he said.
"We're on one wage at the moment, we've been like that since my partner finished maternity leave.
"My partner has even been on community sites, community Facebook pages, I can tell you we are one of many in this town looking for a spot for our children."
In the Palmerston suburb of Bakewell, 1,200 kilometres north, childcare centre director Jasmine Feige-Falconer says there are 50 children on the waiting list, for a centre with just 60 spots.
"We're unable to get them a time frame because we're full at the moment — there's only so much movement that happens," she said.
"We can't move any of the older children on until they go into school next year."
Ms Feige-Falconer said demand was the highest she had ever seen in five years working at childcare centres in the Darwin area, but they were struggling to find staff at the same time.
"It would be very frustrating, everybody needs to return to work to pay the bills."
Poor pay, lack of incentives behind shortage
Experts say access to childcare varies across the country, with regional and remote areas missing out.
But even within centres, Early Childhood Australia chief executive Samantha Page said government subsidies failed to account for the difference in cost for taking care of kids of different age brackets.
She said it was time for a "rethink" on how places in childcare centres were subsidised.
"Babies are much more expensive to provide education and care for, so we tend to have an undersupply of baby places," Ms Page said.
"So often when parents are looking to first get access to an early childcare service for an infant or a young child, they will find that difficult."
She said access to childcare needed to be made more equitable, particularly in remote and regional Australia, where access was much patchier.
Griffith University researcher Susie Garvis said poor pay in the sector, compared with other industries, was a key factor behind workforce shortages in childcare centres.
"We know early childhood educators is a very poorly paid profession," she said.
"I think it's important to know that in other countries, early childhood teachers are one of the most respected and trusted professions."
Dividends from investment in childcare
Professor Garvis said the societal benefits from greater access to childcare education included a lower risk of families struggling financially, or even living in poverty.
"It's looking at the holistic benefits of early childhood services, not only for the benefit of the child's learning development, but also for families as well.
"By allowing parents to actually engage in the workforce, you are also allowing them to increase their financial means."
Professor Garvis said Australia's model compared unfavourably to the childcare systems in other countries, particularly in Northern Europe, where governments played a greater role and guaranteed spots for children within four months.
"If we had these types of policies within Australia, we would really see the opening up of access for families."
For Sinclair and his growing family, the long wait for childcare hasn't prompted him to leave Alice Springs yet.
But he feels the lack of accessible childcare is part of the reason frontline workers aren't choosing to stay in Central Australia and raise their families.
"This town is beautiful, it's amazing, we love it, but it needs to have some things addressed and childcare is one of them. Big time."
