News

Shirts get the conversation started

By Bree Harding

Mar 14, 2026

Volunteers at the Tablelands Fire Recovery Hub wearing their new social impact clothing. Pictured are Catie Hill (left) and Colleen Furlanetto (right). Photo by Megan Fisher

Volunteers at the Tablelands Fire Recovery Hub are starting conversations with their bright new ‘uniforms’.

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The boldly patterned high-visibility shirts are TradeMutt brand, which is a social impact company started by two carpenters after a mate of theirs died by suicide.

The shirts are designed to be a light-hearted and colourful icebreaker to heavier conversations about mental health between the people they’re made for.

Fifty per cent of its profits go to TIACS, a free professional mental health counselling service for tradies, truckies, farmers and blue collar workers, which has funded 9811 zero-cost counselling sessions to date.

Whether the conversation is deep or not, hub volunteer Colleen Furlanetto said the shirts sure were a talking point.

“It’s a great initiative to just get people talking about your shirt,” Ms Furlanetto said.

“Then you can talk about other stuff instead of heavy stuff if you like, so it’s just been a really good conversation starter.”

Every shirt has those words — this is a conversation starter — across their back, with a QR code tucked inconspicuously under the left chest pocket, which leads directly to the TIACS site.

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You can watch a video of our visit to the bushfire zone here: