Colac’s tent ‘empire’ traced back to a single act of kindness
- deansimpson7
- 21 hours ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 15 hours ago
BY LERISSE SMITH
What started as a single call-out for a tent in Victoria’s Colac community to assist a person desperately needing shelter has exploded into a nationwide movement.
Otway TentCare, launched late last year by Colac Salvos in partnership with Vinnies Colac and Blue Sky Outdoor Experts, is giving real hope to those experiencing long-term homelessness.
It all began with a simple act of kindness – a call-out to assist someone in desperate need. But no one imagined that one request for shelter would grow into a powerhouse of compassion and collaboration.
Now, a year on, the response has exceeded everyone’s wildest expectations.
Tents have poured in from across the country, including Queensland, Northern Territory and South Australia, far beyond what anyone could have imagined.
“We ran out of room!” remarked Josiah Van Niekerk, Colac Corps Leader. “We would be easily sitting on over 600 pieces of camping equipment, and about 400 of those are just tents.”
The gear isn’t just stored. It is sorted, assessed, repaired, and when needed, repurposed. Damaged tents are not discarded; they are stripped for useful parts like poles and zippers to refurbish others. Nothing goes to waste.
And not wasting anything is the top priority for the project that began with humble beginnings.
Born out of a simple Facebook post by former Colac Salvos volunteer and support worker Susan Perkins, who had been prompted to put out a call for tents on Facebook as a client was facing homelessness without a suitable shelter, the worker asked for a simple request: If anyone had spare tents.
The reaction to her post was immediate and powerful.
About 40 people stepped up offering to donate tents. Seeing the flood of responses, Josiah offered to get involved. The pair then quickly discovered that many of the donated tents were not in working order, so he got creative. He approached Blue Sky Outdoor Experts in Colac, and the owner agreed to generously donate multi-room tents to the cause.
The larger tents were not just bigger – they gave people back a sense of dignity.
Josiah said these larger tents offered much more dignity to those facing long-term homelessness due to substance addiction or mental health concerns than a standard single-room tent. He said the problem of long-term homelessness was so complex that it required creative solutions.
A key to Otway TentCare’s success has been community collaboration. Several Colac institutions have stepped in, offering both manpower and enthusiasm.
“The only way that we can have any sort of lasting impact at the scale that is needed in the community is to collaborate well with that community,” Josiah said.
“So, we collaborate really well with the 3rd and 4th Colac scouts, the Colac Secondary College, Saints College Colac and Colac South West Primary School. The young people have all been fixing tents for a homelessness epidemic throughout the Barwon region.”
And that epidemic is growing.
A survey three years ago found 320 people without a home in the Colac region. Today, Josiah says, that figure is “well and truly over 400.”
The TentCare team now hand out a fully equipped tent every week. It’s a lifeline for many coming from nearby Geelong down to Colac because they have no options for safe camping.
“We are able to keep on top of it,” Josiah commented. “We are nearly at the point now where we can start accepting donations of tents and camping equipment again.”
Generosity keeps rolling in, too.
The local Quilting Association recently donated a substantial sum, helping improve storage and management of the growing inventory. The team has now started delivering gear across the state.
“We have the means to be able to do a bit of a run around the state and do some drop-offs,” Josiah said.
“So that might be something we do every six months, or so. We will just do a big run, get on top of our tents, send out a message to everyone and say, ‘Hey, do you need tents? Or reach out to us.’ It really is an exciting time for us as we see our community supporting a larger need.”
