The median price for child care in the Dubbo region was about $7 an hour, or $70 a day for long day care. 

The average cost of child care in Australia had increased by 150 per cent in the past decade, jumping from $30 to $75 a day for long day care.

The AMP.NATSEM Child care affordability in Australia report found mothers from low-income families might keep as little as $4.55 an hour when they returned to work full-time, after factoring in the cost of child care, loss of government benefits and income tax.

A single low-income mother working 20 hours a week, who decided to increase her hours to full-time (40 hours), would lose around 80 per cent of her pay for those extra 20 hours, so her hourly rate for the extra 20 hours would be just $3.44, the report found.

Child care costs had risen by 44 per cent in the past five years, not as rapidly as electricity (79 per cent) or tobacco (70 per cent) but outstripping the rate at which the cost of petrol (36 per cent), education (32 per cent) and health (26 per cent) increased.

Regional areas tended to offer more affordable child care than capital cities. 

The most affordable child care in NSW was to be found in Fairfield, Inverell-Tenterfield, Moree-Narrabri, Campbelltown and Kempsey-Nambucca.

The figures were based on the median price of child care in the region for a couple with two children (one in long day care for 24 hours a week and one in after-school or before-school care for 16 hours a week).

Outside WA mining centres, Sydney’s affluent Mosman had the least affordable child care in Australia.

While more children now used formal child care than in the past, the report showed informal care remained the most popular option with almost 60 per cent of children being looked after by grandparents, relatives or friends.