Besides Queensland and Victoria, there are no specific laws which dictate the age that children can walk to school alone. That's not to say parents aren't accountable if their child is harmed. Parents owe a duty of care to their children, meaning they're responsible for keeping them safe.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, parents should wait until their children are around 10 years old to allow them to walk to school (or anywhere else) unaccompanied.
“According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), kids are not ready to walk to school alone until about fifth grade or around age 10.” More specifically, from a developmental standpoint, 10 is the age “most children are able to judge the speed and distance of oncoming cars,” explains Gamino.
A 2019 Heart Foundation study found active travel such as walking and cycling is now the least common way for children in Australia to travel to school, with most being driven.
No legal age for leaving children home alone
There's no one law in Australia that says how old your child has to be before you can leave them alone. In Queensland, if you leave a child under 12 years of age for an unreasonable amount of time without supervision and care, you have committed a criminal offence.
From 14 years, children are considered fully responsible if they break the law. It doesn't have to be proved that they knew their behaviour was 'seriously wrong'. Children aged 10-17 years are generally treated as 'children' by the police and the children's courts.
When can I move out of home? There is no law about what age you can leave home, but your parents generally have to look after you until you're 18. The most important thing is you have a safe place to live.
In NSW, there is no specific law that dictates at what age children can be left alone, according to Family and Community Services New South Wales; as a parent, you need to use your own judgement based on your own family circumstances and the age and maturity of your children, they write.
Getting started with school
Primary and secondary school are compulsory between the ages of 6 and 16. School education is for 13 years, divided into: primary school for 7 or 8 years, from kindergarten or preschool to year 6 or 7.
Most children are still sent home with about an hour's worth of homework each day, mostly practising what they were taught in class.
The average age a baby starts walking on their own is around 14 months, but those first steps can come anywhere between 10 and 18 months.
By the time children are age 10 and above, they may be ready to practice walking alone. Each child is different. Some may not be ready until they are 11 or 12, or even older, if they have developmental challenges. Parents must err on the side of safety, even if the child protests.
"Just like deciding when a child's old enough to be left at home on their own, there's no set age when you know it will be safe for them to go out without you. "Obviously, toddlers and young children won't be able to stay safe without you watching over them - and even older children have different levels of maturity.
Children need to learn responsibility, which means as parents, you need to let them have responsibility. Letting your child walk alone grants them trust, enabling them to develop a sense of accountability and personal responsibility. This could even provide a reward mechanism for you to recognise them as trustworthy.
There's no hard and fast rule for the age your child should be in order to walk alone. Every family is different and every child is different, so you'll need to assess your own situation and set your own rules. However, a good guideline for starting to think about letting your child walk alone is age 10.
In general most kids begin walking to school between the ages of 9 and 11. However, if your child isn't very savvy with crossing the road and general road safety yet, then you could walk with them, practising looking both ways carefully until they seem ready.
Government schools are open and accessible to expats, but those living in Australia on a temporary residency visa will most likely need to pay the fixed tuition fee associated with their state or territory.
In Australia, every child is entitled to free or subsidised preschool for 15 hours a week (or 600 hours in a year).
A typical school day
School hours are generally from 8.45am to 3.00pm Monday to Friday. In a typical school day, there are five to eight lessons, ranging from 40 minutes to one hour. There are two breaks in the school day – a morning tea break (recess) and a lunch break, both of which are supervised by teachers.
Any passengers under the age of 14 should be accompanied by a responsible person aged 16 or over.
Most 4 and 5 year old kids can hike 2-4 miles fairly easy. At this age, they are also generally enthusiastic about exploring nature and will come on the hike willingly.
If it's your choice to be alone it's OK, and if it's not your choice to be alone, it's still OK. What is NOT OK is for people with a herd mentality, afraid to be alone themselves, to ostracize people who ARE sitting alone, either by choice or because there is nobody desirable to sit with.
Although the legal age of consent throughout Australia is either 16 or 17 years of age, legislation in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, the Northern Territory, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia makes it an offence for a person in a supervisory role to have sexual interactions with a ...
If the sex is consensual (and it must be enthusiastic consent) and the other party is also aged 16 years or over it is not against the law, although there are some exceptions: If the person is very drunk or under the influence of drugs, they may not have the capacity to consent so having sex with them is an offence.
At 14, your child can apply for a tax file number (TFN) without your help. Find out more about applying for a TFN on the Australian Taxation Office website. They may also be able to get a job. If they do and you get FTB, it won't affect your rate.