Cobargo's tool library bustles with people getting advice on rebuilding after Black Summer fires

Jan 17, 2024

Monica Considine and a few other Cobargo locals dreamt about creating a tool library in their community.

Like a whisper in the wind, the idea was never picked up, community members found it hard to envision and it never came to fruition.

But that changed when the eyes of the world were gripped on the Far South Coast of New South Wales as unprecedented bushfires, now known as Black Summer, tore through communities such as Cobargo in late 2019 and early 2020.

Millions of dollars of donations poured into bushfire-affected communities, giving life to the idea for what is now called the Triangle Tool Library, a project which was always front of mind for Ms Considine.

As one volunteer at the shed described it, "the whole of Australia went apesh*t with generosity".

"Originally to the community, it didn't make sense to people, they had never seen a tool library, they didn't know what it meant, and we didn't have any money to start it up," Ms Considine said.

"Without the bushfires this wouldn't have started and now that we exist people can start imagining its potential and what other things it could be."

A yearly $50 membership grants people access to more than 450 tools, advice on how to tackle your next project, but most importantly, social connections.

Membership is booming with the tool library's numbers climbing from 200 to 300 in the past 12 months.

Tiff Brown had just arrived at her new home in the Cobargo area in 2021 to find recent wild weather had flooded it.

She was new to the area and felt "hopeless" but was told about "this place" that could lend her some tools for practically peanuts … so she checked it out.

"I came straight over here and they hooked me up with all the things to make home, home," Ms Brown said.

"I was really supported and able to connect with really helpful, lovely people and all the tools I needed during a really tricky and challenging situation.

"It was heartwarming to know there was a whole community of people ready to help me out and support me in that way."

Since first discovering the co-op 18-months ago, Ms Brown has fixed her flooded home, built a kitchen from scratch herself and is now focusing on beautifying her garden.

"I feel quite accomplished in what I've been able to achieve but wouldn't have been able to do it without the tool library," she said.

Nader Naderpajouh, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney, praises the tool library as an epitomising example of how a disaster can trigger collective action in the community.

"We have this trigger event that happens and then suddenly everything changes," Dr Naderpajouh said.

"Suddenly our behaviour changes, we face a problem and we try to see how we can do things differently and help us see what we've been missing in our community.

"It pushes us to see that we can borrow and share our tools with each other."

As project manager Monica Considine said, community members struggled to see the value in a tool library before the bushfires struck, or how it could possibly function.

Dr Naderpajouh said the importance of social capital was becoming more apparent with more climate disasters occurring.

"It's a matter of how many people you can call upon when these disasters are hitting," he said.

Three years since the group started, Ms Considine said volunteers were now "scenario planning" for a future crisis.

"Basically, it's planning ahead for the next natural disaster or supply chain disruption," she said.

"What if we have 15 days in a row of 40-degree temperatures? How are we going to work through that? Where do we fill our gaps?

"This isn't an immediate response to a natural disaster, this is the longer term.

"[In] what capacity can we help this community in response to those sort of climate changes that might happen in the near future?"

Back at the Triangle Tool Library, people are coming and going, checking out tools and receiving advice.

It's a bustling place at 9am on a Tuesday, tools clanging and tea cake being shared around.

The project's treasurer, Alan Clarke, is wrestling with an earth compactor, leading it up a ramp to one of the shipping containers which homes hundreds of tools.

He and his wife followed their daughter to the area four years ago, leaving their Sydney life behind.

They settled into their new home right before the bushfires struck.

Mr Clarke's quiet demeanour brings a sense of calm.

"Our place was damaged, but not the house; we were very fortunate," Mr Clarke said.

"Fires are still a constant chat around here, it still pops up in conversation and will continue to do so for some time.

"It was a defining moment for the state."

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