Cubbaroo polocrosse players making an invisible issue impossible to ignore

Cubbaroo polocrosse players stood out on the field for all the right reasons at the weekend’s carnival.

The talented team is unwavering in its mission to improve the community’s mental health and wellbeing, and once again donned colourful TradeMutt shirts to ‘help make an invisible issue impossible to ignore’.

The social impact workwear brand is well-known for its eye-catching shirts that don’t just look good, they’re also designed to start important conversations about mental health especially with tradies, truckies, farmers, and people living in rural Australia.

TradeMutt was started by two Queensland tradies, Ed Ross and Dan Allen, the pair travelled to the Narrabri Shire last year and shared the story behind their decision to down their tools and dip their toes in the fashion world for a crucial cause – mental health awareness.

The best mates launched the brand in 2018, a few years after Dan tragically lost one of his close friends to suicide. Ed and Dan said they identified two glaring problems – the tone of the mental health conversation was too serious and ordinary Australians didn’t know where to go to first seek support.

“We thought this is a space that really needs to be shaken up and we already had the idea for workwear, and we thought ‘why can’t we tie these two ideas together?’ … and then TradeMutt was born,” Ed told the Wee Waa crowd during their visit last year.

In 2020, TradeMutt teamed up with mental health professionals who have a toolbox jam packed with free and realistic support services, helping to fund the not-for-profit support service TIACS, an acronym for ‘This Is A Conversation Starter’.

Ed generously gave his time recently to be part of the Narrabri Shire youth podcast project, Good Talk Great Mate, and he spoke to Narrabri High School students Piper Williams and Jesse Weekes about TradeMutt’s work with TIACS, “We’ve got 14 counsellors now on the books, we’ve provided over two-and-a-half million dollars’ worth of private sector mental health care to the Australian community for zero dollars,” said Ed.

The youth podcasters asked Ed about the Cubbaroo polocrosse players wearing TradeMutt shirts and he said, “It’s amazing seeing them out in local sport …my wife and family are mad polocrosse people, so they loved seeing those photos, and it’s just incredible hearing the stories of impact that are made just by people wearing a funky shirt to an event like that – it’s really cool.”

“Our decision to support TIACS again was unanimous,” said Cubbaroo player Emily Broddigan.

“The TradeMutt guys coming out to Wee Waa really proved how accessible their support services are in our rural community.

“Mental health is a topic very close to our hearts and our little club is just trying to do our part to break down the stigma surrounding it. Proceeds from our Cubbaroo Challenge will be donated along with whatever donations were made to our TIACS jars that were at the bar over the weekend.”

TIACS – www.tiacs.org. Support Line 0488 846 988 Text at any time or call Mon-Fri | 8am-10pm AEST. If you or a loved one are in immediate danger or at risk of harm, please call 000. For crisis support, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.