The award, announced on Friday, was open to any playgroup in rural and regional Victoria. 

Parent and playgroup president Hannah Young said the committee set a goal to nominate themselves for the award.

“We’re just parents and volunteers who are doing it and we thought we were doing some pretty good stuff,” she said. 

There are 1500 rural and regional playgroups in Victoria. 

Ms Young said the committee was particularly proud of several aspects of the playgroup’s operations. 

“We go to (the Dimboola) nursing home once a term with the kids and we go on bush walks and excursions around the towns to get in touch with nature,” she said. 

“We have raised over $30,000 in three years to complete re-do our outside and inside, we have new toys and did our landscaping.” 

The playgroup hosts parent information nights where they bring in guest speakers to help parents learn about playgroups and parenting. 

Ms Young said the group had started hosting barbecues on weekends. 

“This encourages dads or other family members, grandparents, can come along and get involved as well,” she said. 

“I think what they particularly liked about this year was that we were really involved with the community.

“We are pretty rapt with the award because we were up against playgroups in Woodend and Ocean Grove.”