Mother Duck has never been just a collection of childcare centres.

From its beginnings, Mother Duck has been shaped by people who genuinely care about early childhood education, children, families and the communities around them.

Ros and Denis built Mother Duck with a belief that relationships matter. That the people making decisions about a service should understand the children, educators and families within it. And that early childhood education is not simply a business — it is deeply human work.

As Mother Duck grew, there was an important question to consider:

How do we grow without losing what made Mother Duck special in the first place?

Our franchise model became an important part of the answer.

Rather than moving towards a large corporate model where decisions are increasingly removed from individual services, Mother Duck developed a model that keeps experienced early childhood professionals close to each community.

Today, that continues to shape who we are.

Our services are owned and operated by people who have built their careers in early childhood education and care. They understand the complexity of the work because they have lived it.

They know the children.

They know their educators.

They know their families.

And importantly, they are present.

More than 35 years after Mother Duck began, we continue to believe that local leadership and strong relationships matter.

For us, this is part of what being proudly independent and proudly local means.

It means growing without losing sight of where we came from. It means keeping decision-making close to the children, families, educators and communities we serve. And it means protecting the relationships and values that have shaped Mother Duck from the beginning.

Because as organisations grow, it is not only what we build that matters.

It is what we choose to preserve.

This Is Our Story & Why It Matters

Across Australia, small and medium-sized early learning centres have always been there. Independent-operators opened their doors because they care about children, about educators, and about the neighbourhoods they serve.

Today, 79% of government-approved early learning service providers operate just a single service. Many of these are small businesses. Real people. Real commitment.

Independent, locally-owned early learning services play a vital role in Australia’s early childhood education and care sector. They support children and families, employ local educators and contribute to the social and economic fabric of the communities they operate in.

Many have spent years – and in some cases generations – building trusted relationships with families, educators and local communities. They are deeply embedded in their neighbourhoods, connected with local schools and businesses, and understand the children, families and communities around them.

Yet too often, policy and funding frameworks treat independently operated centres as part of a homogenised sector.

The difference matters. Local centres operate differently. They think differently. And care differently.

Proudly Independent, Proudly Local is a campaign to change the conversation. We want policymakers, media, and families to understand what makes locally-owned providers special, and why they deserve to be seen, valued and protected.

Because when a local early learning centre closes, it’s not just a business lost. It’s a piece of the community gone.