In the beginning ... it was 1940, and a number of women who were part of the Mothers Club of Ainslie Infant's School identified that there are a large number of preschool-aged children in Ainslie who would benefit from something being made available just for them. The women suggest an empty classroom might be used for a nursery group. 

In 1942, Mrs Minter began a small weekly playgroup in the Griffith Mothercraft Centre. Miss Rosamonde Combes established a small nursery school in Duntroon. These activities stimulate further public interest in providing something for the large number of children who are too young to participate in the Infant School.

In 1943, Mrs. Goodes, Mrs. Monahan, Mrs. Burgoyne and Miss Combes identified how many women would take on a wartime job if their children were cared for and they approached the Mothercraft Society to garner support toward commencing a War Time Day Nursery. 

Later, in 1943, Mrs Bailey arrived with knowledge of Melbourne Nursery Schools, and the group became energised toward the idea of commencing a nursery kindergarten in  Canberra. It doesn't take long before Lady Gowrie hears about these investigations and becomes central to making this project a reality.

After gauging public interest, the Mothercraft Society calls a Public Meeting and [strategically] invites the [then] Minister for the Interior, Senator J.S. Collings, to participate as chair. Lady Gowrie grants her patronage and invites Miss Jean Wyndhan, the Principal of the Sydney Kindergarten Training College to address the meeting. A provisional preschool society was formed.

With Senator J.S. Collings and Lady Gowrie firmly behind the project, Mr Charles Studdy Daley is instructed to make the necessary preparations for starting Canberra's first Nursery Kindergarten School. The location will be an unused Isolation Block of the Old Canberra Hospital.

Miss Gladys Pendred is invited to help stimulate public interest. With substantial interest exceeding the capacity of a single Nursery Kindergarten School, Miss  Pendred is also asked to prepare a plan to economically extend the  Nursery Kindergarten Program across Canberra.

In November, the Canberra Nursery Kindergarten Society is formed, adopts a constitution, and elects the first permanent Council. 

In December, 1943, the Isolation Block of the Old Canberra Hospital is entirely re-furbished.

With the arrival of January in 1944, the Canberra Nursery Kindergarten Society organises four groups of parent volunteers to create all the necessary equipment for the Kindergarten: 

1. Sew sheets, towels, and feeders (bibs). 
2. To make a vegetable garden. 
3. To establish a library. 
4. To furnish the community room (soon to become the library).

In April 1944, the Canberra Nursery Kindergarten was opened, and the first groups of children were admitted via a limited and complex ballot system. 

Parent volunteers are organised to run a bus around nearby suburbs to pick up enrolled children and then drop them home at the end of the day. Parent volunteers are also busy preparing snacks and tending the vegetable garden, which is intended to produce enough food for 80 meals per day,  and others work at establishing, sorting and maintaining an early childhood development library. Parents unhappy with how a limited number of children can access the program have begun to push for greater access.

In July 1944, Miss Gladys Pendred presented her plan for the expansion of the Canberra Nursery Kindergarten School program by using decentralised play centres. Eventually, these play centres are to become the preschools we see today.

In August 1944, in keeping with all Canberra schools, a Parents' and Friends Association was formed to manage parent volunteer groups that have become so critical to the success of the day-to-day running of the Canberra Nursery Kindergarten School. 

However, many young children in the fledgling suburbs across Canberra were never to see the inside of the Canberra Nursery Kindergarten School.

Soon, the solution was unveiled - the establishment of more localised, suburban Canberra Play Centres that are to be established through a unique joint venture between a suburban Preschool Parent Committee and the Ministry of the Interior. 

With this plan, the Canberra Preschool program begins ...