Adults and children in Creswick, Central Victoria, win first PWF Community Gift

“By moving Creswick’s Occasional Childcare to the Pre-school, we will be able to offer the community a more suitable location and better facilities as well as another day’s childcare per week (up from 3.5 days to 4.5 days)” says Creswick Neighbourhood House and Adult Learning Centre (CALCAN) Coordinator, Tony Redmond. “One of the most immediate needs to speed up the move is storage boxes, which is where we will spend the $500 Community Gift.”

Creswick, in Central Victoria, fifteen minutes north of Ballarat, is in the popular ‘Goldfields’ regional tourism area and CALCAN is a very busy Centre with 8000 student contact hours over a wide range of courses. Another benefit of the Childcare move will be greater adult access to ‘lifelong learning’.

TONY’S STORY – Tony lived in remote Bendoc in Far East Gippsland near the Victorian-NSW border for seventeen years. Twelve months ago, after he had completed a Masters in Community Management through the University of Technology Sydney, he replied to CALCAN’s ‘Position vacant’ advertisement, made the eight hour drive for an interview and got the job! He has only recently sold the property, so now his wife, who has been holding the fort at Bendoc while working at Bombala in NSW, can finally join him in Creswick.