How to become a nanny in Australia (2026)

Nobody issues nanny licences in Australia, and no course turns you into one. What turns a babysitter into a nanny is the shape of the work: the same family, the same days, week after week. That shape changes three things: the check you need, the way you are paid, and what families ask before they hire you. This guide covers all three, in the order they come up. It is not legal advice.

What makes it nanny work

Twenty hours in one week does not make you a nanny, and six hours a week for a year does. The line is regularity: the odd Saturday night is babysitting, and the same afternoons every week, with a say in how the day runs, is nanny work. Where that line falls, and why it matters legally, is its own guide: babysitter vs nanny in NSW.

Most working nannies did not set out to be one. They babysat for a family, the family asked for a standing arrangement, and the work changed underneath them. That is the normal path in, and it is why everything below is worth doing before anyone calls you a nanny.

The Check stops being optional

In NSW, casual babysitting arranged privately with a family is exempt from the Working With Children Check. Nanny work is not. A regular, ongoing role in a family's home is child-related work as the law defines it, you need a Check to do it, and the family is legally expected to verify yours. There is no version of becoming a nanny that skips this step.

You must be 18 to hold one in NSW. The application starts online at Service NSW, costs $112, covers five years, and comes back as a number a family can check in about two minutes. We have written up what they see when they do. Apply as a paid worker, not a volunteer: the free volunteer Check does not cover paid work.

Every other state and territory runs its own scheme under its own name and price, from Queensland's blue card to the Northern Territory's Ochre Card. The state-by-state table in our babysitter guide lists all eight, with each government's own page linked.

Qualifications, and what families actually ask for

No state asks a nanny to hold a qualification, and families rarely do either. The qualification people ask us about, a Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care, is the minimum for childcare centre staff and is real and respected. It is also a year of study that nanny work does not require. Hold one and it reads well on a profile. Enrolling only so you can nanny is money you do not need to spend.

What families do ask for is narrower and cheaper:

That list is also the Australian Nanny Association's minimum standard for a nanny: 18 or over, a current Check, current first aid and current CPR. Meet it and no agency or family can call you underqualified.

How to become a nanny with no experience

Babysitting is the door in. Casual evenings ask less of a family's trust than twenty standing hours a week, so they are where a stranger gets a first chance, and a term of regular Saturday nights with one family is nanny experience in everything but the name. How to become a babysitter covers starting from zero. Minding cousins and neighbours' children counts, and it is where your first referees come from.

From there, the move to nanny work is mostly a matter of saying you want it. Tell the families you already sit for that you are after regular hours. Set your profile here to regular ongoing work. Put the babysitting on paper: our babysitter resume guide has a one-page template that fits nanny applications too. And answer job ads with the days you can actually hold, because a family hiring a nanny is buying reliability before anything else.

What the work pays

Most Sydney nannies ask between $30 and $45 an hour, and where someone sits in that range follows experience, the number of children, and what the job asks beyond supervision. We keep the family-side arithmetic in what a nanny costs and your side of it in what to charge.

The number is not just a negotiation, because regular hours in one home make you an employee. Nanny work is covered by the Miscellaneous Award at Level 2, where the minimum for a casual in weekday daytime hours is $33.85 an hour from July 2026, and evenings, weekends and public holidays are higher. Super is 12% once you work more than 30 hours a week for one household, whatever the rate.

Finding the first role

Families looking for a nanny are in fewer places than families looking for a babysitter, because the search is rarer and slower. Four are worth your time.

The job ads here name the days, the hours and the suburb, and the ongoing ones are nanny roles whatever the ad calls them; babysitting and nanny jobs in Sydney lists what is open now. Local parents' Facebook groups carry the rest of the private market, and a post with your suburbs, your Check number and the days you can hold does well there. Agencies place nannies too, and the same Check, first aid and referees get you onto their books. The difference is that the agency sits between you and the family and charges the family a fee, where here they employ you directly. And the families you already babysit for remain the likeliest source of all: most nanny roles are a babysitting arrangement that grew.

Expect a paid trial shift before an offer. A family running the hire well will pay your agreed rate for it, and one asking for a free "trial week" is telling you something. What a careful family will put in front of you before the first day, from the written agreement to the review date, is in how to find and hire a nanny, worth reading from your side of the table because it is also a list of what you are entitled to expect.

What we do, and what is yours

Listing here is free and public: families nearest you see your profile first, and they message you through the site, so your number stays yours until you give it out. You can opt in to verification: we check a government ID against a matching selfie and check your WWCC directly with the Office of the Children's Guardian, and your profile carries a badge with the month we checked. Profiles without the badge say plainly which check is outstanding.

The rate, the hours and the agreement are yours. We never touch the money and take no cut: what a family pays you is yours, all of it.

Where these facts come from

The Check rules, the $112 fee and the 18 floor are the Office of the Children's Guardian's and Service NSW's, as published in August 2026. The first aid course code is the national training package's, and the minimum standard is the Australian Nanny Association's own. The award figures are the Fair Work minimums current from July 2026; they move every July, so check them at the point you agree a rate. The $30–45 range is what Sydney nannies on this site and around it are asking, not a rate card, and none of this binds you to a number.