By Lexy Hamilton-Smith
The Brisbane duo famous for launching the world’s first free mobile laundry for the homeless are trialling a shower van as their latest charitable venture.
Nic Marchesi and Lucas Patchett were honoured as 2016 Young Australians of the Year for their efforts — which have now spread nationwide — to help Brisbane’s homeless.
Known collectively as Orange Sky, they turned on the shower tap for the first time this morning, having built the van from scratch thanks to $100,000 from the Shine On Foundation.
It means homeless in Brisbane now have access to a free hot shower every day.
The van is being rolled out alongside Orange Sky’s free laundry van, which was stationed in Ivory Street, Fortitude Valley this morning.
“Twenty-two months ago we had a crazy idea to put two washing machines and two dryers in a van and wash and dry clothes for free,” Mr Marchesi said.
“So we then had an even crazier idea of putting two showers in the back of a van. We have water tanks on board, we have heating on board, we also collect our grey water.”
Mr Marchesi said while some charities offered showers at their drop-in centres, they were always “chockers”.
“We want to complement the amazing work they are doing with a portable service,” he said.
There was no stopping Dave ‘Bushie’ Brum from trialling the free shower yesterday.
“It was bloody awesome. It is so great to have a real shower,” he said.
Mr Brum, 60, has been living on the streets in Brisbane for more than 20 years.
He calls himself the swagman and said it was not uncommon for him to go unwashed for more than a week.