Willow, what do you have preschool, kinder, grade 1?
In Vic preschool and kinder are used interchangebly for early learning before kids start at school.

In Vic, school starts at Prep, and kids have to either be 5 (min) or turn 5 by 30th April in the year they start. Then grade 1 next, etc

The immediate year preceding prep is 4yo kinder which is govt subsidised, but still costs depending on your council area and how many hours/week the program runs. In my area its 10-14 hours a week, and about $600-$900 a year.

The year before that you can do optional 3yo kinder, but I thought that was all run at
only private centres?

As DS goes to childcare I'm not sure about 3yo kinder. I think his centre has 4yo kinder but if I can work around it I want him to go to proper kindergarten as its a lot more hours a week.