Community
8 October, 2025
Playgroup celebrates 40th year
PORT Campbell playgroup is celebrating 40 years since its inception, and its very first president Sue Younis has many memories of the group to share.
Mrs Younis said playgroup was a unique opportunity for a social gathering which brought the Port Campbell community together when it was formed.
“This was a memory from one of the original playgroupers,” she said.
“She said, ‘It was such an important group. It gave us all a ticket to belong and contribute to our fledging community’.”
“When you read the memories that people have, playgroup was a really active social group when we started it 40 years ago.”
Mrs Younis said the groups members came together and raised money on their own, allowing them to run the playgroup from the Port Campbell recreation reserve.
“We didn’t have gas companies in the area or funding, so we had to actually raise money to purchase equipment and all of the things that we did,” she said.
“How we started, with the assistance of the Victorian Playgroup Association, we got second hand furniture from the Timboon Primary School.
“That’s how we started, in the recreation reserve, in February of 1985.
“We didn’t even have a playground at the recreation reserve when we started – we built a storeroom, we built a playground and we did lots of interesting things around the town.
“It was very much a group that we ran as a community thing together.”
Mrs Younis said despite being a small town, playgroup gave her the chance to meet new people in town.
“Just knowing a few other people in town with young children, we just sort of talked to each other and decided a playgroup was a good idea,” she said.
“The very first day, people walked in and I thought, ‘I don’t know who you are,’ and Port Campbell is tiny.
“One of them was the national park ranger’s wife and she’d been in town for 18 months and I’d never met her.
“It was a really great opportunity to be able to meet the people in the community.
“That’s the role of playgroup, I see – it’s for parents and kids to meet in the community.”
Now, 40 years later, while smaller than it used to be, the playgroup is still running in the Port Campbell Recreation Reserve.
“We did lots of different activities and different people brought different ideas into the group,” Mrs Younis said.
“Someone’s got to have an idea, and it doesn’t work unless a group of people go, ‘Yeah, let’s do it’.”
“I think as far as the fundraising activities, one of the more significant ones was starting the Port Campbell markets.
“It was a lot of fun doing a lot of different social activities as well as the activities in the playgroup.
“It was a really important group in the town, especially for making people feel included in the community.”
Anyone interested in becoming a part of playgroup can join the Port Campbell Playgroup Facebook group for more information.
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