He sleeps outside on his third-storey balcony, his swag not always protection enough against the hard ground, the strong winds or - lately - the sideways rain.

By morning he sometimes finds himself "a bit soggy" as he unfurls himself, goes inside and gets ready for a day's work at Wollongong Hospital.

For a year now he has forsaken a warm bed like this, skipping only the very occasional night. This is his personal protest, aimed at drawing attention to the plight of refugees and asylum-seekers: his so-called Indefinite Sleepout to end Indefinite Detention.

"I've had many mornings waking up a little bit soggy," said Dr Badyari, 26, who works as a resident in the hospital's renal ward. "It's but a fraction of what these poor friends in detention are going through. They're sitting there rotting away, basically, and it's so detrimental to their mental health."

Dr Badyari initially staged his sleepout in Wollongong Mall, fielding inquiries from sometimes drunken late-night passers-by. COVID-19 forced him closer to home. By then, he had picked up about 200 supporters who also sleep rough. Some have slept a single night outside. Others, like a Sydney grandmother named Pam and Wollongong's Rahima Sarmed, an Afghani refugee, have devoted more than 100 nights to the cause.

Dr Badyari doesn't have any family ties to refugee communities, but says his passion for travel and the resulting exposure to different cultures has given him empathy for those who are "trapped" in detention.

Sleeping outside has not always been good for his personal life. When he looks to the future (he is quite sure he will spend years living like this) he worries about the strain it will bring to bear on his long-term relationship.

The coronavirus pandemic and climate change have pushed detention to the back of mind for many, and Dr Badyari knows now what he didn't a year ago: that he likely won't affect public policy. And yet, he finds himself more motivated than ever.

"I think my determination has become more entrenched, especially as we've started to form connections with refugees themselves," he said. "I'm now more driven by them - giving them some hope, rather than trying to influence change on a public level. I think that's kind of out of my control, so I've come to terms with that."

"The main thing is just that we're not going anywhere, and we really hope that the wider community will think more deeply about what's going on and hopefully act."