Worth keeping in your pocket
TIACS — free counselling built for tradies
This page isn't selling anything. TIACS (This Is A Conversation Starter) is a free phone and text counselling service for Australia's blue-collar community — tradies, truckies, farmers, and the people around them. We donate to them, we talk about them on our calls, and we reckon every tradie should have their number saved.
How it works
Call or text 0488 846 988
Monday to Friday, 8am–10pm AEST. Text if talking feels like too much — plenty of blokes start there. No referral, no Medicare card, no GP visit needed.
Get matched with a counsellor
You're matched with a professional counsellor who suits what you're dealing with — and you talk to the same person each time. No re-explaining your story to a stranger every call.
Free and confidential, always
It costs nothing, ever — funded by donations and industry partners. Nothing goes to your boss, your family, or anyone else. It's your conversation.
The kind of stuff people ring about
- Work stress, burnout, or the pressure of running the business solo
- Money stress — quiet books, debt, the gap between invoices
- Relationship and family strain
- Feeling flat, angry, or not yourself and not knowing why
- The stuff you'd never bring up in the smoko shed
You don't need to be in crisis to call. Most people who ring TIACS are just carrying more than they should be, for longer than they should have to. A counsellor on the phone during smoko beats six months of "she'll be right."
Where it came from
TIACS was started by the founders of TradeMutt — the loud "funny shirt" workwear brand — after losing a mate to suicide. The shirts start the conversation; TIACS is where the conversation goes. In the construction industry alone, suicide takes far more workers each year than workplace accidents do. The whole point of TIACS is making it dead simple for a tradie to talk to someone before things get to that point.
If it's urgent
TIACS is not a crisis service — it runs business hours-ish, Mon–Fri. If you or someone near you is in immediate danger, call 000. For 24/7 crisis support, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636. Construction workers can also reach MATES in Construction 24/7 on 1300 642 111.
Why a marketing company has this page
We're ClearScale — we build websites and marketing systems for tradies, which means we spend all day on the phone with them. Some we can help, some we can't, and some just aren't interested — all good. This page exists because it's worth passing on either way. We also donate $100 to TIACSfor every business our referral partners send us that comes on board. If you want the details, they're at clearscale.com.au/partners. Otherwise — save the number, pass it on, use it if you ever need it. 0488 846 988.