Mobile Showers

[Kallie TurnerParticipant]

Hi,

I was wondering if there’s any information on what showering facilities are currently available at various campsites and if there aren’t any, what workarounds are they doing? The project opportunity states there’s a toilet and rainwater tank onsite but didn’t go into much more detail.

I was also wondering what size rainwater tanks are at the various campsites and if this differs between the sites what might the average size be?

Many thanks.

[Luke BarbagalloKeymaster]

Hi Kallie,

We don’t have much standardised information about what showering facilities are used, as each site is different. Assume that there are not any showers at any of the remote sites. Some of the larger ranger bases have existing shower facilities, but this design area relates to sites that are either being constructed, or a rarely used, so installing permanent showers isn’t a good use of resources. It would also be safe to assume a combination of river/creek bathing (where crocodile risk is low) or road bathing (wet wipes/damp cloth) is the current methods of bathing.

Your solution should be exploring a simple to use and set up solution that could potentially attach directly to a water tank or plumbed system, and dispose of waste water in a environmentally appropriate manner.

In terms of tank size, use the photos in the design area to ascertain what your design should be compatible with. It will likely rely on gravity for flow, and the sizes of tanks could be as little as 1000 litres and up to 10,000 depending the site and the existing infrastructure. Your solution should work with the minimum setups, which could be a ground level, 1000 litre tank. Can the solution operate without a gravity fed water system?

Reach out if you’ve got further questions.

Luke

[Hannah RudmanParticipant]

Hi there!

I was wondering what kind of vehicles do the rangers drive and how much space in the ute tray (assuming they drive a ute) could be used for other purposes? ie loading the design onto the back of the ute.

Thank you,
Hannah

[Luke BarbagalloKeymaster]

Hi Hannah,

The most common vehicles used in the peninsula are the Toyota HiLux, Toyota Landcruiser or the Toyota Troopy. Generally, HiLux’s come with factory options of two lengths of tray – I’d suggest having a look at the short and long tray specs on vehicles released from 2016 to now.

Another option you could explore is a small trailer based option, however this would need to be suitable for use on rough tracks and in water crossings.

A further consideration is whether your design will remain on the ute tray/trailer when in use, or needs to be moved on and off. If it needs to be moved, how many people are required to safely do so?

Reach out if you’ve got further questions,

Luke

[Elizabeth HuytonParticipant]

Hi,

I understand that in another topic the use of greywater trenches are looking at being potentially phased out due to cost of installation, is it just the cost of installation and maintenance being the expensive part of these systems or something else?

Would a different type, extremely small scale and basic trench (talking 3m long and 1.5m deep) that would be cheap to install in comparison to larger, traditional, greywater/septic capabilities be something that could possibly be researched further into at these campsites, providing the concept meets feasibility criteria?

Also, what types of soaps are these Rangers using out in these environments, I suppose none if there are no showers at the moment, but are they using soaps in river washes? Would we be correct in assuming that they would just take affordable, basic, store branded soap with them once given the showering facilities?

Thankyou for your time!

Libby.

[Luke BarbagalloKeymaster]

Hi Libby,

Thanks for you question!

With regards to the phasing out, the main challenge with maintenance and installation is the labour and equipment costs. Getting the appropriate machinery on country is only achievable by a select group of contractors on the Cape, and this is reflected in their pricing. If and when it breaks, there are the same cost factors where the simple cost of transporting the required equipment can make these systems costly to maintain.

You could certainly consider smaller scale designs, and potentially ones that were achievable with minimal machinery inputs and low-labour required. The labour costs of installation and maintenance of these facilities should be factored into your design considerations and solutions. My final thought on this question is if you’re creating a smaller scale solution, do you need to install multiple at the same site to cope with visitor numbers?

In terms of soaps, assume that most of the soaps are no different to what you or I might purchase in the supermarket. The cost of goods and transport of those goods to the Peninsula is high, therefore eco/earth friendly soaps, or grey water friendly soaps cannot be guaranteed to be the sole soap product in use on the Peninsula, due to their cost per bar. You could proceed with the assumption that a product like black and gold brand or basic palmolive brand soaps would be in use.

Hope this helps, and do reach out if you’ve got further questions.

Luke

[Nicholas WehlParticipant]

What is the state of affairs in the community now with respect to your problem?
i am currently answering this question. i was wondering if anyone could help guide me to find what the community are currently doing without showers atm. sorry just kinda stuck atm

[Luke BarbagalloKeymaster]

Hey Nicholas,

If the community are on a homestead, or at a ranger station, there will generally be access to basic showers.

With the mobile shower solution, this is more targeted towards remote camp sites/sites under development, and for when community are away from their main bases for days at a time.

Where there isn’t a shower, folks would be using creeks/rivers (where safe to do so and away from crocodiles), or going without until at camp.

Luke

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