A temporary housing prototype designed by three university students has passed its first test after it survived the elements in Rockhampton during Cyclone Marcia's battering last week.
Last year CQ University students Angus Hughes, Mattison Rose and Jessica Kahl came up with The Shelter Project, a concept to provide temporary housing relief in the form of 'pallet home' flat-packs.
The Shelter Project was entered in The Big Idea competition and won the prize for best social enterprise plan.
It proposes to use recycled wood pallets and employ disadvantaged Australians to construct the pallets into flat pack homes, which are then distributed to those who have lost their homes in natural disasters.
Engineering student Angus Hughes said the Australian attitude to rebuild and 'get back on your feet' after disaster inspired the project.
"I've found that in Australia there's a lot of people who have had their houses destroyed in a disaster but they still want to rebuild their homes on that same block of land," he said.
"(The flat-pack) could be put up a week after disaster occurs so that a family who have had their house destroyed can live comfortably in a small home on their property whilst rebuilding."
Mr Hughes admitted he didn't expect the prototype in Rockhampton to withstand Cyclone Marcia, which ripped through the region destroying about 350 homes.
"I was a bit worried because I was in Melbourne when the cyclone hit ... I wasn't expecting it to still be there when I came home," he said.
The tested durability of the prototype has prompted the students to move forward to the next stage with a research project and further prototypes to be completed.
The students are working with business developers to bring the idea to life but Mr Hughes could not say when they would be available.
Lecturer of Building Surveying at CQ University Darryl O'Brien believed the product would become part of disaster relief in Australia and globally.
"This won't replace all types of temporary shelter following a storm event but what it does do is provide a much broader range of options," he said.
"These could be palletised in pallets and sent off overseas in aid in Fiji, Bangladesh and those areas."
