The 105-place centre is being built on the top floor of a new retail building taking shape as part of the $10-million redevelopment of the Westpoint Shopping Centre at Windradyne.

Darlene and Andrew Wadham have been making regular trips from Queensland to Bathurst as they watch their passion project, Balance Early Education, come together and say they have fallen in love with the city.

Mrs Wadham is a former teacher, small school principal and general manager of a childcare company in Queensland.

Since 2010, she and her husband have had a childcare education consulting business that manages, supports and offers training to centres from North Queensland to regional Victoria.

“It’s been our passion for the last few years to get a baby of our own – to get a centre that we can put our uniqueness on and really make a family owned and operated service where everybody feels a sense of belonging, where everybody is just a part of our family,” Mrs Wadham said.

“And we knew that that would probably be in a regional location.”

Bathurst was not on their radar until the city came up by chance in conversation.

“We work with an architect in Queensland who specialises in early education and he happens to be the architect for the new Westpoint development,” Mrs Wadham said.

“As part of that, they’re putting in this beautiful early education care facility.

“So he had a conversation with myself and from there we visited the town [Bathurst] two years ago and we just fell in love with it.

“We’ve been back a number of times. We love it. It’s a beautiful town, it has a lot to offer and we’re really excited about starting this new facility.”

The Westpoint redevelopment – which began in November last year and has already led to a new business, Domino’s, opening at the centre – comes in response to the residential expansion in Windradyne and Llanarth.

“It’s a beautiful area of growth out there,” Mrs Wadham said.

The new retailers and expanded existing businesses at the centre will also be a positive for Balance Early Education, she said.

“It will make it easy for families at drop off and collection times to have those other facilities around.”

Having dreamed about running their own service for years, the Wadhams have very definite ideas about what they will be offering.

“We’re all about quality and doing things a little differently,” Mrs Wadham said.

The children’s furniture will be made out of Victorian ash rather than cheaper alternatives, they say, and they want the children’s meals to be “exceptional”.

The playground will be a “forest-type environment” and there will be a sensory garden with herbs and vegetables that will be used in the kitchen.

“Children will be involved in those gardening programs,” Mrs Wadham said.

The centre will have seven rooms: two rooms for babies, which they say is a real area of demand; three rooms for two- to three-year-olds; and two rooms for over three-year-olds, one of which will be a pre-school program.

The Wadhams say they will also be offering vacation care and some before and after school care.

They have been looking at real estate before they move to the city and say Bathurst’s location is another positive.

Mrs Wadham is a lifetime Queenslander and her husband grew up in Melbourne, so Bathurst “is halfway between both sets of parents”, she said.