“I would say you can be standing in knee-deep water, feeding manta rays on Saturday, driving past herds of cattle to get to Kmart on Sunday.” 

Childcare Career Growth in Nowra

For Amanda Bittar, building a childcare career in Nowra has meant more opportunity, not less. After 38 years in the Georges River area of Sydney, she relocated to the South Coast and became Centre Director for ECTARC at Clipper Road, bringing years of early childhood leadership into a community where inclusion, family support and children’s education matter deeply.

“We wanted to buy our own home,” she explains. “We did some research and we felt like Nowra had the infrastructure and it was the perfect balance of country meets the sea.” 

The decision to relocate wasn’t simple. Amanda was nervous. She didn’t want to take any backward steps in her career. She had worked too hard to get where she was. 

“I was very, very comfortable,” she says. “I thought it would take a lot longer to adjust and to establish myself. I was a little bit nervous because I didn’t want to take any sort of backward steps in terms of my career.” 

But the opportunity to buy a home and establish herself before her eldest started high school was too valuable to ignore. And then a drive across Sydney made everything clear. 

“I was sent to do some training one day. What was meant to be a 50-minute drive took over two hours. I sat in the car and rang my husband. We were tossing up, should we, shouldn’t we? Is Nowra too far from Sydney? I sat there and said to him, it’s just taken me two hours to not even drive across Sydney. Two hours to Nowra is absolutely fine. And it’s a much nicer drive than what I’ve just done. I said, we’ll be fine.” 

That clarity became the turning point. The CEO of the organisation Amanda had been working for had been in contact with the CEO of ECTARC, who mentioned they were reopening Clipper Road. Her CEO said, “She’s moving to Nowra, she’d be the perfect fit.” Instead of having to move backwards professionally, it was the opposite. 

Now, as a Centre Director for ECTARC in Nowra, Amanda has not only maintained her professional standing but has found new opportunities to grow. She is pioneering an integrated service model at Clipper Road where children can access allied health services and family supports during their days of enrolment, all while balancing staff wellbeing and retention. 

“The progression for me is being able to take what I’ve learnt in terms of inclusion and extend that to a community where there is a need for that,” she says. 

For Amanda, leadership isn’t about titles. It’s about the people she supports. 

“I enjoy supporting my staff and their career progression and building their skills. For me, that’s success. If I can see someone developing professionally, that’s success for me.” 

The move has benefited her family in ways she never anticipated. Amanda has four children, and her three older ones are all neurodiverse. In Sydney, she was constantly advocating for their needs, often feeling like she was going into battle for them. 

“Here, it’s been the opposite,” she says. “I meet with schools and they already have experience and training and inclusion support resources. They come to me with what they can do to support my children, as opposed to me saying, this is what my children need, can you do this? They say, well, we’ve got this available and we could do that and let’s try this. It’s refreshing.” 

Her 13-year-old son, who is autistic, started at a new primary school for just one term before transitioning to high school. Amanda was worried the disruption would be too much. 

“He handled that change really, really well. I think that’s credit to the school for supporting him and meeting him where he was at. They went above and beyond to make it still just as special for him. Now we’re getting reports back from Nowra High. He’s top of his class. He’s doing exceptionally well. We never thought we’d go into a parent teacher interview and be told that actually he’s doing really, really well.” 

The community itself has been a revelation. Amanda’s ten-year-old daughter loves to be out and about, riding her bike and skating. In Sydney, they used to get calls asking if they knew where she was. 

“Here, she’s got half the neighbourhood now. They’re out together, looking out for each other, playing together. She knows the rules. She has to be home when the street lights come on. You don’t get to do that in Sydney. It’s not safe.” 

Through her daughter, Amanda has gotten to know most of the neighbourhood families. 

“All the families just tend to have this open backyard policy. I often look out my back window and I’ve got 14 kids climbing on the play equipment. Mum, we’re all hungry, can you make lunch? So we line up and feed them all. It’s just really nice.” 

Even her three-year-old now attends Clipper Road, something that was never encouraged at her previous roles in Sydney. ECTARC subsidises his fees and encouraged her to enrol him. 

“That was really refreshing,” she says. “I never did this at any of my previous jobs. Now I actually have one of my own children benefiting from my program.” 

The transition into a new community can be daunting, but Amanda found early support through the Welcome Experience. Through their support, her family was able to connect with other local families at social events, which made a huge difference in building a sense of belonging. They also supported her in linking the children into extracurricular activities, helping them form friendships and feel part of their new environment. 

The transition overall has been remarkably smooth. Staff at the local food works knew who she was within two weeks of moving down. She’s seen owls in the wild and echidnas along the highway. The two-hour drive back to Sydney to visit family feels like nothing compared to the hours she used to spend stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic just to cross the city. 

And professionally, her career hasn’t just survived the move. It’s thrived. 

“My professional aspirations weren’t compromised by moving regionally,” she says. “If anything, there’s more opportunity. The communities are far more grateful because they value children’s education. I’ve felt that in this role more than ever before.” 

For anyone in Sydney considering a similar leap, Amanda’s message is simple and direct. 

“You can be standing in knee-deep water, feeding manta rays on Saturday, driving past herds of cattle to get to Kmart on Sunday. When you get up to go to the gym in the morning, you’re going to see the same two kangaroos on the side of the road. People are just nice.” 

Amanda’s story is part of Think Regional’s growing collection of South Coast career stories, showing how skilled professionals are building meaningful careers across regional NSW.

About the Welcome Experience 

The Welcome Experience is a free NSW Government program that helps essential workers and their families connect with local communities before and after they relocate to regional NSW. From finding schools and childcare to linking families with sports clubs and community groups, the Welcome Experience makes moving feel less overwhelming. Learn more at:  www.nsw.gov.au/regional-and-primary-industries/makethemove/welcome-experience.

In the Shoalhaven, the program is delivered by the Multicultural Communities Council of Illawarra. Visit www.mcci.org.au/about-mcci/new-shoalhaven-hub for more information.