The sleepbus® charity has now officially closed it's doors.
We would like to thank everyone that played a part in this journey; from a world first idea to 4000+ safe sleeps and counting; we could not have done it without you.
Wishing you and your family the very best nights sleep, from me and my family; Simon, Harrison, Ethan, Sarah, Emma, Emily, Sez, Aaron, Kael, Tam and Natalie.
Passing the baton
BALLARAT
On Track Foundation (Soup Bus)
BUNDABERG
Let Hope Arise Inc.
GEELONG
The Power In You Project
HERVEY BAY
Rotary Club Hervey Bay City
MACKAY #1
Chances House Mackay
MACKAY #2
Chances House Mackay
MACKAY/SARINA #3
Chances House Mackay
MAROOCHYDORE
Maroochy Neighbourhood Centre Inc.
QUEANBEYAN
Terry Campese Foundation
REDCLIFFE
The Breakfast Club Redcliffe Inc.
TAREE
Rotary Club of Wingham Inc.
Fundraising in your PJ's
We launched our first big fundraising idea… something fun and warm for winter. Wearing your PJ’s or a Onesie to raise money for safe sleeps. Now that’s FUN-raising.
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A sleepbus named Toby
Hervey Bay sleepbus has officially been named TOBY after the massive efforts our youngest volunteer puts in every single week. Toby is the first on the roster for Housekeeping, he shows up to events to help out and he is the perfect combination of well mannered positivity and sassy cheek.
Australia Day Award Honours
Queanbeyan Volunteers are shown some well earned praise, with an Australia Day award for Community event.
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Volunteers get branded.
The Branding Office came on board to show some love to our amazing volunteer crew, providing merch to recognise their commitment to providing safe sleeps. sleepbus merch is earrned, not brought.
Hervey Bay sleepbus build.
Harrison is hard at work sheeting up the newly installed sleep pod walls (while Simon watches and takes photos). Next job is to attached the sheet metal to the pod doors to get us to lock up stage (and less breezy).
School show and tell goes big.
Simon heads back to school in Queanbeyan to show the students the Canberra Pink sleepbus. After explaining the history and how sleepbus operates to provide safe sleeps, everyone was invited onboard to try out a sleep pod for themselves.
Maroochydore sleepbus build.
While Simon and Harrison wait for the metal fabricators to fit in the Maroochydore sleepbus, they get to work building out where each sleep pod will go and start laying 2.5 kilometres of electrical cabling to make it all work.
Queanbeyan sleepbus build
Queanbeyan sleepbus is painted and prepped for signage. The exciting part, watching it all come together in preparation for launch.
Covid hits, work continues.
Covid-19 and lockdowns put a lot of delays on deliveries and the ability to work to get the Queanbeyan bus ready for launch. During this time we faced a lot of setbacks, including donations. But... the show must go on.
Canberra pink sleepbus build
Work on the very first pink sleepbus begins for Canberra.
New warehouse.
Since last year we’ve had to move warehouses, but our new space is still free and awesome.
Laundry bus build.
Laundry Solutions Australia generously donated 3 commercial washer/dryer machines for our onsite laundry.
sleepbus for women only concept.
Introduction, campaign and build of the pink sleepbus begins.
With the increase in women and their children fleeing domestic violence, we’ve decided to build two new sleepbus just for them; operated by women, for women.
Free Warehouse.
After a radio interview with Steve Price and Tim Reid, we were introduced to property company Cadence who offered us free space to work out of.
Sponsors come knocking.
We sign some awesome corporate sponsors;
East Malvern Bendigo Bank, ResMed, Beauty’s Got Soul
First sleepbus finished.
After a massive effort, the very first sleepbus was completed and ready to begin controlled testing of the prototype to make sure it worked as intended.
Putting sleepbus to the test.
Testing was a success. Comfy mattress, warm space, privacy and lots of sleep.
Funding in 4 days. Concept gets global attention.
After a year of research and development, we launched a crowdfunding campaign to test the idea on GoFundMe.
It was a global hit, reaching our initial goal in just 4 days.
The prototype sleepbus builds begin.
The overwhelming support of the sleepbus concept, the first of it’s kind in the world, meant it was time to build the prototype and that’s exactly what Simon Rowe the founder did... in his backyard.
