Orange Sky has rebuilt our remote truck, ‘Rosco’, into our largest laundry vehicle to date! Now fitted with four washers and four Waru dryers, Rosco can carry the load of two of our regular laundry vans. The laundry truck was dreamed and built in just one day to support the growing need for our services in flood-affected communities across South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales. It is currently supporting families and businesses to get back on their feet by offering free laundry (and a chat!) from sun up to sun down.
Before Rosco became Orange Sky’s largest laundry truck, he was first the trusty vehicle that saw our team travel around Australia to connect with remote communities. The truck was named in 2021 as a homage to longstanding volunteer, the late Rob ‘Rosco’ Scoates, who helped Orange Sky deliver services to communities in need. The Rosco truck today continues to provide extensive support for people in need, much like Rob always did.
So, how did we dream up and build our biggest ever laundry truck in less than a day?
They say, ‘necessity is the mother of invention’. When the natural flood disaster hit the Australian east coast in late February, Orange Sky worked quickly, deploying all available resources to support the community relief efforts. In addition to deploying three remote vehicles and one laundry trailer, all sporting three washers and three Waru Dryers, we knew more was needed to support the laundry needs of flood-affected areas.
Orange Sky’s Innovation Team got straight to the drawing board to upgrade the existing van, Rosco, into our biggest laundry van yet. Orange Sky Co-Founder Nic Marchesi said, “the situation was rapidly worsening and we knew many homes and people were without access to laundry. Our goal was to build our largest mobile laundry asset and get it out to local communities as quickly as possible to support those impacted.”
Rosco has also been built without a need for mains power. This allows Orange Sky to operate in high demand situations and avoid power challenges that are common during natural disasters.
From Tropical Cyclone Marcia in 2015, to the 2019 Bushfires and Covid lockdowns, we are committed to helping people affected by extreme weather conditions and other devastating events across the country.
Currently, Orange Sky is working closely with communities, local authorities and specialist organisations on the ground to determine where the biggest need for our free laundry services are. Rosco will continue to support communities with a high demand for washing, whether that’s through our community recovery efforts or through our regular services supporting everyday people doing it tough.
