Our Story
About Cabanamate
It started in Noosa
Cabanamate came about after a beach day in Noosaville. I wanted a decent mat to use under our cabana, but everything I found had the same basic design: a hole in the middle for the umbrella pole. The problem was obvious. The shade moves, but the mat doesn’t.
I remember thinking, why can’t you just open the mat from the edge, put it around the pole and keep going? It seemed like such a simple solution that I was genuinely surprised it didn’t already exist.
From there, the idea stuck. I started looking into whether it was possible to make, how the design could work and, importantly, whether anything already existed that did the same thing. The more we looked, the more we thought we might have something worth pursuing.
So my partner and I decided to invest in developing the idea properly, including taking it through the PCT process and pursuing patent protection. There were plenty of prototypes, tweaks and testing along the way, but the basic idea hasn’t changed: a beach mat should be able to move with the shade.
Meet the founder
From Scientist to Accidental Mat Inventor
I’m Sarah, a mum of two, a research scientist and the founder of Cabanamate. I also founded Rockabye River, my baby and kids’ play mat brand, so I already knew a little about turning an idea into a real product. Cabanamate, however, was a whole new challenge.
My background as a research scientist probably means I’m inclined to overthink things, test them thoroughly and keep tweaking until they work properly. That came in handy with Cabanamate. With the support of my partner, we worked through the prototypes, materials, manufacturing and all the practical details that come with bringing a completely new product to life.
Somewhere along the way, I inadvertently became a beach mat specialist. It wasn’t exactly the career progression I had planned as a research scientist, but I’m pretty happy with it.
Cabanamate and Rockabye River are both Australian-owned, family-run businesses, and that’s important to us. We’re still a small team, and a lot of what goes into these brands happens around family life. We’re building Cabanamate one step at a time, with the same focus we had at the beginning: make something genuinely useful, make it well and make beach days better.
And there’s plenty more to come.
Family owned
Owned and operated in Brisbane, Australia