The bus that brings freedom to kidney patients.
If you’ve ever pulled into a coastal holiday park and spotted a bright red bus parked up alongside the caravans and motorhomes, chances are you’ve crossed paths with one of Australia’s most remarkable road trippers, the Big Red Kidney Bus.
For the tens of thousands of Australians living with kidney failure, the simple joy of hitching up the van and heading off on a road trip can feel completely out of reach. Dialysis treatment, which cleans the blood and removes toxins when the kidneys can no longer do the job, takes around five hours, with sessions required three days a week. That’s a significant chunk of life spent tethered to a machine, and it makes the kind of spontaneous, freedom-loving travel that RVers live for feel like an impossible dream.
Big Red Kidney Bus
That’s where Kidney Health Australia’s free Big Red Kidney Bus comes in. Two buses travel to coastal and regional destinations across New South Wales and Victoria, setting up at holiday parks for four to six weeks at a time, while a third bus operates on Queensland’s Gold Coast. Each wheelchair-accessible bus is fitted with three comfortable dialysis chairs and individual entertainment systems. All dialysis sessions on board are free of charge, and there’s no cap on session bookings, allowing travellers to stay for a week or even a month or more.
What’s more, many of the bus’s host venues are the very same holiday and caravan parks that RV travellers already love. In 2026, the bus is rolling into Victorian destinations including Echuca, Phillip Island, Torquay, Lakes Entrance, Daylesford and Mildura. While its New South Wales tour includes the holiday hotspots of Merimbula, Batemans Bay, Nelson Bay, Port Macquarie, Ballina and Coffs Harbour. For kidney patients with RVs, the setup is brilliantly straightforward: book your accommodation at the park, roll up in your rig, and walk straight from your site to your dialysis session.
“Everyone loves the bus,” says Big Red Kidney Bus dialysis nurse Corinna Hannan. “The focus is on the joy of a holiday, instead of being sick.
“I’m so proud to be part of this service. Friendships are made; experiences are shared. It’s something only people living with kidney failure can understand… it’s about choice and freedom, it’s about fun.”
Now in its 12th year of operation, the bus has delivered vital on-the-road dialysis to more than 1,800 patients since it started in 2014. The bus operates morning and evening sessions Monday to Saturday, with qualified dialysis nurses on board providing the same high standard of care patients receive at their usual hospital clinic.
For 28-year-old Victorian dialysis patient Kayleigh Cuthbert, the bus provides freedom to holiday and make up for lost time.
“The way the bus is set up is the best,” says Cuthbert, who has used the service at four locations in the past two years. “Being on dialysis is hard. But being able to do dialysis in a beautiful, fun environment, with people going through the same thing, makes it so much better and more manageable. With kidney disease, you never know how you’re going to feel from one day to the next. It’s hard to plan ahead, and I’ve had to sacrifice and miss out on a lot.”
So, the next time that cheerful red bus rolls into your holiday park, give it a wave, it’s carrying some of Australia’s most determined travellers.
Bookings and enquiries for the Big Red Kidney Bus can be made by calling 1800 454 363 or visiting the website: kidney.org.au/bus
DIY Dialysis Camper
On Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, avid vanlifer Stu McKenzie wasn’t going to let kidney failure ruin his travel plans. In 2020 he came up with a plan: a custom-built Mercedes Sprinter campervan, inclusive of a dialysis machine, that would allow him and his family to continue holidaying while he underwent regular dialysis until his kidney transplant in 2024.
McKenzie says a lack of “holiday chairs” in dialysis clinics, particularly in destinations such as Cairns and Darwin, inspired what he’d hoped would become a fleet of hirable motorhomes.
Insurance issues halted the fleet dream, but from the idea emerged his personal dialysis campervan, ‘Dialyscape’.
The custom camper features a queen bed, two swivel/reclining chairs and a kitchen, and allowed McKenzie and his family to ski at Mount Hotham and hit the road with confidence for more than a week at a time.
The roughly $47,000 project ($22,000 for the second-hand van shell and approximately $25,000 for the fit-out) was supported by crowdfunding. Now that McKenzie has a new kidney, Dialyscape has been passed on for other keen travellers to enjoy.
