Childcare to close after 120 years amid warnings Sydney is losing grandchildren

Sydney’s first ever public playground, which became one of the very first childcare centres, will close by the end of the year as the city faces becoming a “city without grandchildren”.

Parents at KU Lance childcare at Millers Point were told the more than 120-year-old centre would close at the end of the year, with the provider unable to keep operations going due to so few enrolments.

The centre, which has a 39-child capacity, has experienced a 30 per cent fall in enrolments in the past year alone.

On some days just six children attend.

Last year, NSW Productivity Commissioner Peter Achterstraat AM warned that Sydney was experiencing an exodus of working families, highlighting the imperative to build homes families could afford or risk becoming “known as the city with no grandchildren”.

“Many young families are leaving Sydney because they can’t afford to buy a home. Or they can only afford one in the outer suburbs with a long commute,” Achterstraat said.

When lawyer and mother-of-two Tendayi Chivunga moved to Millers Point after the suburb’s public housing sell-off, she was warned by other parents to expect a waiting list at KU Lance. Instead, enrolments fell so sharply that, in June, parents were told KU could no longer justify keeping the historical centre open.

“We are just devastated about it,” Chivunga said.

“Sydney has become extremely difficult to exist in with the prices of houses, people Airbnb-ing their properties and moving out of the city … you lose that sense of family, community, and it’s becoming more of a dead zone.”

According to the City of Sydney, the childcare centre is on the site of the city’s first public playground, constructed when Millers Point was redeveloped following the bubonic plague in 1901. The childcare building followed in 1912.

The public housing sell-off at Millers Point, the small suburb wedged between Circular Quay and Barangaroo, finished in 2018 and has turned many properties from working-class family homes into short-term rental accommodation, locals say.

In the latest census, one in every three homes were empty, and locals anecdotally report streets where more than half of properties are listed on short-term rental platforms.

Education Department data shows that this year 292 students were enrolled in the local Fort Street Public School, which has a capacity of 550.

It’s not just demographic changes threatening inner-city childcare centres. Working from home arrangements mean city workers are less likely to enrol children in centres near the office, benefiting suburban providers.

“Unfortunately, in some cases, the consequences are that services are no longer viable. This can be difficult for families who are displaced from services where they have established strong relationships with educators,” Australian Childcare Alliance president Paul Mondo said.

KU chief executive Christine Legg said there was an oversupply of childcare centres in the city for current demand, describing seven centres in a one-kilometre radius with three experiencing vacancies.

A City of Sydney spokesperson said potential future use of the Millers Point site was under review.

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