She asked me if I could build her something

A Brisbane couple built a world-first immersive travel room for aged care residents — named after a nan who loved to travel. Now they’ve taken out a global award in Singapore.

Che Turner’s nan Olive loved to travel. When she moved into aged care, that world — the rush of a new city, the quiet of a mountain, the strangeness of somewhere unfamiliar — quietly closed.

“She asked me if I could build her something,” Che says. “The idea came to me in a dream.”

Twelve months later — evenings, weekends, every spare hour — they had a working prototype. Today, Olive Express operates across Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales, has transported more than 10,000 Australians to the Swiss Alps, Japan, China and Europe without anyone leaving their chair, and has just won Innovation of the Year at the World Ageing Festival 2026 in Singapore.

This is a story worth sitting with, not just because it’s a good one (it is), but because of what it reveals about where person-centred care can go when someone decides to start from a completely different place.

“We built Olive Express to bring joy and dignity back into aged care, and to prove that an Australian social enterprise can hold its own on the world stage.”

The concept is deceptively simple. A purpose-built room, wheelchair and daybed accessible, seats up to eight residents for a 30 to 45 minute immersive session. Virtual windows sweep them through their chosen destination while morning or high tea is served. It’s not virtual reality. It’s something more considered: a carefully designed sensory environment built around how older people actually experience the world.

The results have been validated by the University of Queensland. A pilot study led by Associate Professor Gabby Walters and Professor Nancy Pachana across three Bupa aged care facilities found measurable improvements in resident wellbeing, including for residents living with cognitive decline. That kind of rigour matters. It’s the difference between a feel-good feature and a genuine clinical contribution to quality of life.

Bupa Villages and Aged Care Managing Director Andrew Kinkade puts it plainly: “We are proud to have partnered with Olive Express and the University of Queensland on a program that has been clinically evaluated and shown to improve the quality of life for our residents, and is now available to older Australians living in aged care right across the country.”

For co-founder Kim Chatterjee, the Singapore win is both personal and pointed. “This award validates years of weekends, late nights and belief,” she says. “We built Olive Express to bring joy and dignity back into aged care, and to prove that an Australian social enterprise can hold its own on the world stage.”