Country town to allow three-year-olds to ride buses to kindy ALONE without their parents because they say it is safer than doing it in the city
- Yarriambiack Shire in Victoria's wheatbelt has only 7,082 residents
- Three-year-olds will soon be attending kindergarten and community programs
- Council wants to allow them to ride the bus alone
Children as young as three could soon be catching the bus to school without their parents.
Yarriambiack Shire in north west Victoria says its country lifestyle ensured it was safer for young children to ride unaccompanied than in big cities.
There are only 7,082 people in the area known for its farming with 2,302 residents in the biggest township of Warracknabeal but as few as 150 people in other towns.
Three-year-olds will have early learning subsidised and the council are wanting them to travel alone to school (pictured is the town of Warracknabeal in the Yarriambiack Shire)
The local community groups and daycare centres will begin teaching three-year-olds next year after the state government announced it would subsidies classes.
Yarriambiack Shire Council wants to allows the young children to catch the bus alone after fears some would not be able to access the classes.
'If you're looking at it from a city view point, there's a lot of stranger and other issues but when you're looking at it from small rural and remote areas there's a different view point,' Gavin Blinman, from Yarriambiack Shire Council, told 3AW.
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Mr Blinman said the lifestyle in rural towns was a lot different to more suburban areas in the city and kids travelling alone were a lot safer.
He said the bus driver was often someone known in the community.
'Often the bus driver is the farmer that's down the end of the road, who drives the bus in, along all the neighbouring properties, and then picks up children along the way,' Mr Blinman said.
Yarriambiack Shire already has many kids as young as four catching the bus alone to school and many parents would then have to drive to town to drop off their younger children.
Gavin Blinman (pictured) says the decision will be very beneficial for parents in rural communities and the bus driver is often a local from the neighbourhood
'That's what we'd initially looked at, so that families have the ability to put their child on the bus with their siblings,' Mr Blinman said.
Mr Blinman said the choice to place three-year-olds on the bus was always with the parents but it would especially benefit those living on rural farms who are unable to take their kids to school.
'It's always going to be the parent's decision,' he said.
Victoria is the first state to introduce the subsidised program which will allow children to have two years of kinder learning.
The decision will mean that kids between three and four will have access to 15 hours of free learning each week in sessional kindergartens and daycare facilities.
