Jumbo Operator at Prominent Hill

Q: You have started you own clothing company called DHD. Tell us about that.
Steve: Yes. It started when I made up some t-shirts for our crews years ago. From there I saw that there was a need for quality street wear for miners. So I started DHD back in 2017. We started with just one t-shirt style and now we have over 170 different products.

Q: Obviously the company was small when you started it. Did you start it in your garage?
Steve: No, the company started in the kid’s bedroom. In fact we had to buy bunk beds and move both of our kids into one room so we could use the other room as a stockroom. The kids still share the same bedroom sleeping in their bunk beds!

Q: Every year DHD make a special shirt as part of mental health week, which is 9-16 October. How did that come about?
Steve: A good friend of mine who was a Byrnecut employee from Prominent Hill took his own life several years ago. As a result of that we came up the idea of support mental health week. So every year we have designed a special shirt, all profits from the sales go to the Black Dog Institute, and everyone that buys a shirt goes into the draw to win a prize pack. To date we have donated over $21,000 to the Black Dog Institute (https://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/). Last year alone we donated almost $11,000 and this year we are on track to exceed that number.

Q: Do you have any other fundraising campaigns or products?
Steve: We do have our “In memory of our fallen miners” sticker. The profits from that product go to the Miner’s Promise charity run by Helen Fitzroy (https://www.minerspromise.org.au/). It supports families of miners who have dealt with tragedy.

Q: How can people find your company and buy one of you mental health week shirts or the “In memory of our fallen miners” sticker?
Steve: Byrnecut have already bought shirts that will be sent to every Australian site to be handed out as safety awards / prizes. However, if anyone wants to buy themselves a t-shirt or a stick we have a website that you can visit - (https://www.dirtyholedesigns.com.au/collections/fundraiser). We would really love to get as many of these t-shirts out there as we can.