Lord Howe Island preschool faces possible closure amid housing-driven staffing crisis

Lord Howe Island’s only preschool may be forced to shut its doors, as operators struggle to staff the facility due to the island’s housing shortage.

The Lord Howe Island Community Preschool, which opened in April 2024 after years of community advocacy, offers early learning for children aged three to five. Despite strong enrolment demand and community support, the service now faces a real risk of closure. The preschool’s committee has confirmed that ongoing difficulties in securing suitable accommodation for staff have made it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain qualified educators.

The island’s World Heritage status places strict limits on new development, significantly reducing available housing stock. This has directly impacted the preschool’s ability to maintain staffing levels, despite government funding support and strong community demand for early learning services.

With no long-term housing available for prospective staff, the service is at risk of closure unless a sustainable staffing solution is found.

The challenges at Lord Howe reflect broader vulnerabilities for early childhood services in remote communities across Australia:

• Housing shortages undermine workforce attraction and retention
• Limited staffing pools mean small teams bear multiple responsibilities, increasing burnout risks
• Operational fragility makes services vulnerable to disruption from even short-term absences

Without targeted support, remote communities face disproportionate barriers to accessing quality early education, despite clear evidence of its benefits for children’s development and school readiness.

Sector stakeholders have long called for place-based solutions, including:

• Purpose-built or subsidised staff accommodation
• Workforce incentives for educators in isolated locations
• Flexible regulatory models that acknowledge unique geographic and workforce constraints

Lord Howe Island’s preschool now stands as a powerful case study of how housing policy intersects with access to education. Without timely intervention, the island’s youngest children may be left without local early learning options, despite national commitments to universal access and equity.

The situation highlights the urgent need for policy innovation and coordinated investment to ensure early education is accessible to all children, regardless of postcode.

To read the original coverage of this story, as produced by the ABC, please see here.