![Flashback to 2017 and Mungindi Community Preschools major fundraising event, Agrismarts Evening Under the Stars. Flashback to 2017 and Mungindi Community Preschools major fundraising event, Agrismarts Evening Under the Stars.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/HqKfNWeMNcUiyNaZWaJHFZ/b10ac018-9ee3-4169-b1c1-e71edf4fe4ad.jpeg/r1_0_299_168_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
MUNGINDI Community Preschool will re-open after being thrown a lifeline for the next 12 months.
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At their latest meeting, Moree Plains Shire councillors resolved to operate an interim mobile pre-school until at least December 2024.
Mungindi Mobile Daycare Facility will run five days a week and cater for up to 20 children under the age of five.
"This is a good result for the Mungindi community," Moree Mayor Mark Johnson said.
"Preschools are not Council's core business, however, when our community has a strong need, we have to step out of our core services and intervene.
"We have been very clear, this will be no more than 12 months and no cost to Council."
The preschool has been a feature of the tight-knit Mungindi community for 50 years.
But funding changes made by the Queensland Government meant an uncertain future for the facility, which closed in December last year.
So the community approached Council in October 2024, Mayor Johnson said, seeking its assistance.
"The closure of the facility ... exacerbated existing difficulties in securing childcare services experienced through the community of Mungindi and neighbouring regions," the report said.
The nearest, similar facility was 105 kilometres away, in Dirranbandi, Balonne.
Councillors have been mulling the preschool's future for the past 18 months, recognising the critical need for such a facility among the community.
There are about 26 two-year-olds and 17 three-year-olds living in the preschool's catchment, the report said.
"As a first step ... Council has proposed the establishment of a temporary mobile preschool, while a longer-term solution is being planned."
The matter came before Council three times in the past year, with concerns a long-term solution would be financially unsustainable, Mayor Johnson said.
"There was also a concern the preschool would restrict other uses of the hall," he said.
Council turned to the state and federal governments for help and they obliged, collectively providing $900,000 in funding for the mobile preschool service.
"We [Council] had to get certification, which has just occurred, including the ability for existing users, such as tai chi classes and netballers, to also use the hall along with the preschool," Mayor Johnson said.
"Facilities such as the preschool are important in retaining workers and employers to the community. It's difficult attracting people to the town when we don't have facilities."
The community also contributed $300,000 to ensure the facility's longer term.
In May, there will be a fundraiser to raise funds in support of the community preschool.