Some 100 kilometres from the nearest town, the Donaldson family are preparing for the day ahead.
They live on a cattle station outside Emerald, in Queensland's Central Highlands.
With three daughters, parents Hannah and Hamilton have little access to early education for their youngest two: Ayla, 3, and Ruby, 1.
However, for the next two weeks, educator Agnes "Aggie" Mason is living on their property and teaching the girls through play.
After starting out with yoga, Ms Mason and the girls do some drawing before a family of emus arrive at the boundary and everyone loses concentration.
However, Ms Mason manages to turn the encounter into a teaching moment: "What kind of bird is it, walking on its legs like that?" she asks Ayla.
Ayla's response is "kookaburra", but when questioned further, she somewhat correctly responds with "memu".
What is the program?
Ms Mason works for UnitingCare's Remote Family Care Service (RFCS), a program that sends qualified early childhood educators to rural and remote locations.
The program is available to anyone who can't access a similar service within 40 kilometres, with exceptions for people dealing with health or disability issues.
UnitingCare has four educators who travel around Queensland, servicing 29 families.
The RFCS placements are partly funded through the Department of Social Service, which makes it ineligible for the federal Child Care Subsidy.
Instead, UnitingCare uses a sliding-fee scale which, it says, makes it comparable to what families would pay if they were receiving the subsidy at other early education services.
Ms Mason has been with the organisation for just over a year.
During that time, she has visited 12 families, for two weeks at a time, right across Queensland and is now on her second rotation.
"It's massive for the kids," Ms Mason says.
"They get pretty excited when they hear that someone is coming to spend some one-on-one time with them.
"[They] do lots of great activities and interact with someone different as well. So it's good for them."
Access to early childhood education
According to a Victoria University study last year, about 1.1 million Australians live in regional and remote areas with no childcare available.
The report has revealed that, in regional areas, smaller towns are much more likely to have a school than an early childhood education and care centre.
Early Childhood Australia's chief executive, Sam Page, says a national partnership agreement exists to get every child to attend preschool.
"One of the unexpected consequences of COVID was a lot of people moved to regional areas and there was also quite a number of babies born during the COVID period," Ms Page says.
"That has put pressure on regional centres and the availability of early childhood education and care."
Ms Page says that, in some areas, there is really strong demand for child care but an undersupply of services.
"It can be quite difficult for parents to get access to early childhood services and preschools," she says.
"Eventually, supply will catch up, but that's not much comfort to the families right now who need access to a service."
A quarter century and going strong
In Taroom, five hours south of Emerald, Janette Birch visits the Wagner family.
Ms Birch has been doing this job for more than 25 years and is on her second generation of families.
"I call what we do a gift. It's a gift to the children," she says.
"They get three weeks at a time of just them playing and learning.
"It is a really big thing, learning new outcomes, because a lot of these children haven't had access to a normal childcare centre before, [like] their city cousins."
It's not just the children who benefit.
Parents — who are used to working with their children in tow — have a chance to do some of the more-dangerous jobs, knowing their kids are occupied and happy.
Ashley and James Wagner — parents of Molly, 3, and Willie, 2 — say the program has been a great help to their family.
"Molly was just in that stage of starting to talk and Janette worked on quite a lot of things with Molly," they say.
"And now William's the same. He's starting to talk, and Janette's been great."
'They call me Mary Poppins'
Ms Birch understands the importance of her work and how it benefits the whole family.
"There's often cattle work thrown in while we're there," she says.
"It also gives [the] mum a chance to catch up with themselves, just being able to be her, and she can do whatever [she wants], knowing the children are cared for.
"But it's also obviously a really big gift to me, because I get to share such a unique lifestyle and share such a unique job."
Remote locations and lifestyle aside, Ms Birch loves what she does because of the connections she forms.
"You've got to understand that this is why they all call me Mary Poppins," she says.
"It's not just for the families. It's also for the communities, because I've been in it such a long time, I'm a comfort.
"If someone's having a baby or it's mustering time or, you know, mum's doing it a bit tough, they'll say, 'Hey, there's this great service, which is so, so special'."
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