Queensland’s rental crisis is so bad I have to live in a tent with my two kids

“Before the tent, I moved into a property with lots of dwellings, but the culture was a hard one to adjust to … there was a lot of prejudice towards single mums with kids.”

Alexandra Feiam

2 min read

August 15, 2023 - 8:05AM

Lucy lives in a tent with her two daughters. Picture: Lucy Aura

Family Life

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Queenslander, Lucy Aura, has lived in a 10-man tent since February.

The mum to two daughters, five-year-old Asa and seven-year-old Alana, felt like she had no other option after escaping a financially-abusive relationship and coping with the rising cost of living and the ongoing rental crisis.

Before the tent, Lucy was “couchsurfing and living with different friends” but found the lifestyle “unsustainable and hard.”

This was especially hard for her, as the friends she stayed with were “parents too”, and she discovered they “parent their kids differently to how I parent mine.”

Mum-of-two “had a lot of fear to process” after moving into a tent

“Financially, things were tough, and I wanted to live close to Kuranda to send my two children to school there,” she told Cairns Post.

It was a tough choice to move to a tent, she confessed. However, she instantly saved money and could “commit [her] time and presence to [her] children.”

Their first experience living in a tent was on a campsite in Gordonvale, which “wasn’t meant to be permanently lived in, and it’s our job to respect that.”

Packing up her two kids, they moved to Kurunda, where she pays $110 a week to rent space on a private property.

“At first, I had a lot of fear to process … especially when it came to men walking around campsites,” she explained. “But we soon learnt there is something special about being fully connected to nature in this part of the world.”

The kids "love" living in a tent. Source: Cairns Post/ Lucy Aura

Family living tent learned to “celebrate the small things”

The family-of-three now learns to “celebrate the small things” such as electricity.

“It’s comfortable, and we have everything the kids need and want, they’re connecting to nature, and we are living a simple and loving life,” Lucy said.

She set up a GoFundMe page to raise enough money to create a better life for her kids. In the long term, she hopes to develop a space “where people who cannot cope within the current system can come to heal.”

Growing up in London, Lucy was used to living in a loud and unstable environment, but staying in a tent would never be the solution.

“Before the tent, I moved into a property with lots of dwellings, but the culture was a hard one to adjust to … there was a lot of prejudice towards single mums with kids,” she said.

Now she and her kids are embracing what they’ve got.

“The kids are starting to really love it, and I’m trying to put out positivity,” she said. “I’m harnessing all it has to offer. It’s about living in nature instead of being scared of it.”