Re the kinder - here in SA kindergarten is free from about 4 years (or just before old) for 4 terms and it's either 4 half-days or 2 long days (depending on the kindy). If you child has special needs you can apply to start them earlier when they're 3. School proper (reception or prep) starts the term they turn 5, but they have to do a minimum of 4 terms and a maximum or 7 terms before they can move up to grade 1. So DD1 whose birthday is in the middle of the year, did 18 months of reception, which gave her a really good grounding in literacy & numeracy etc before moving into grade 1. Works quite well.

3 year old kindy here is usually just long-day-care - it's the big issue I have with sending DD2 to a cc centre, because after she turns 3 and moves up the "kindy room" (ahem!) the ratio changes from 1 in 6 to 1 in 9 (!!) and they're childcare workers not teachers. In real 4 y.o. kindies the staff are trained early childhood teachers. And there's a big difference in my mind from sending a 4 yo to kindy for half a day and sending a 3 yo to a long day care with the same staff ratio for the better part of a long day. For only 1 day of the week I will do it (reluctantly) if I have to but I'm not convinced it is the ideal environment for my child.

BTW start work next Tues, will be working in the section that was my 1st preference which is great - best matched to my skills plus it means they listened to me when I blarped on about how fabulous I am LOL.