The new Kiddie Academy in Woodward Street, Parkes is ready to throw open its doors, all it's waiting on now are the finishing touches.
"We are ready to go, all we're waiting on is to finalise the occupation certificate with Parkes Shire Council before we can move forward," owner/operator Lloyd Williams said.
The childcare centre also needs 45 staff to get it up and running.
"We've got 26 staff so far, we've had a very good response," Lloyd said.
"The kids are here we just need the staff to fill it."
Latest Stories
He's hoping the centre will be open for business in January.
The Parkes Champion Post was given a sneak peak tour of the new premises and, with the anticipation building within the community for its opening, it certainly didn't disappoint.
Catering for 152 children, the centre boasts seven furnished rooms in total, including two baby rooms that can have 16 babies each.
Adding a touch of Parkes and its connection to space through the Parkes Radio Telescope, each room is named after a planet.
There's a fully equipped kitchen run by a head chef and assistant chef that will provide the children meals.
"We provide everything here, it's a one-stop shop for parents," Lloyd said.
"We have a chef on site, we supply the nappies, the only thing parents need to provide is milk."
There's plenty of room for the children to run and explore with a very large outdoor area that includes a playground, two sand pits, two ball pits, in-ground trampolines, a little road for bikes and a veggie garden.
The big bonus, Lloyd said is the 65 square metre outdoor water play feature.
"That's an innovation of mine that I've put in at Mudgee and Orange," he said.
"It's a major feature here and we have double the required shaded area.
"The space is in excess of what we need."
He's employed staff from Parkes, Forbes and Eugowra, with Eugowra woman Maxine Vincent appointed centre director.
"We're keen to employ more, we're happy to train people and assist with their travel if needed," he said.
The centre has been a long-time coming for Lloyd who'd like to reassure the community he's the owner/operator and not here to pass it on.
He's been designing and building childcare centres for 23 years, mainly for other operators but he currently owns four Kiddie Academies in Kellyville, Mudgee, Orange and now Parkes.
"I'm on a pathway now where I can do it for myself and I'm primarily focusing on regional areas," he said.
How Lloyd came to choosing Parkes as his next location for a childcare centre was quite off-the-cuff - a man who had been painting his centre in Orange and who was from Parkes suggested he build a centre in Parkes so he didn't have to travel.
Before he knew it, Lloyd laughed, he was looking at a couple of sites in Parkes.
Then came Woodward Street and its 9000 square metres.
"I bought it sight unseen," he said.
"It just made sense to me.
"I like the country, Parkes is a good place."
What we see on the axe-handle block in Woodward Street is only half of the original development.
A second building to house the same number of children, 152, is planned for the back of the property, behind the current building.
Lloyd said that was dependent on staff as to when construction would begin.
He decided to build the development in two stages after it was approved by Parkes Shire Council in October 2022 to meet the demands of the industry.
Earthworks began in April 2023 and the construction fencing came down last month.
Lloyd has spent the last 18 months living in Parkes, watching his project come to life.
"It's been a process of delays," he said, adding that the floods that devastated the region a month after his DA was approved understandably halted progress for a period.
"But now we're here, once we get the boxes ticked we can open the doors."
0 comment
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Read and post comments with a
digital subscription.