Trash to treasure for asylum seekers
Posted
The bikes help asylum seekers engage and be active in society.
In these troubled financial times, people are increasingly looking for cheaper and greener ways of getting around.
A love of push bikes has led to some of Melbourne's most needy getting a leg up.
Five years ago, Bill Bretherton was repairing old bikes and giving them to friends.
"We found heaps of bikes being chucked out in hard rubbish and just couldn't help but just start collecting them," he said.
"[We] ended up with a front yard full of bicycles. It was great fun, but seemed a bit aimless, a little bit pointless.
"We were approached by the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre who had some clients who wanted bikes and that gave direction to the program."
Soon after, the community cycles program, Human Powered Bicycles, got on track.
Each year, the city's disadvantaged and hundreds of asylum seekers receive free bikes from the workshop in Melbourne's inner north.
Asylum seekers from countries like Serbia often have no other means of transport except for the bikes donated to them by the unique program.
Joel Mayes, from the Human Powered Bicycles program, says it is vital for new members of the community to feel as though they can get out and be active.
"You still need to be able to get out and about so you can be involved in the community, have a bit of a social life, do your shopping and we feel that bicycles are an economical and ecological way to do that," he said.
Cycle power
Mr Bretherton agrees there is a huge importance for asylum seekers to engage in society.
"Being able to get places, to have that basic mobility, is pretty important in being able to engage in society," he said.
Every Monday, volunteers like Kate Barnard descend on the Human Powered Bicycles workshop to get abandoned bicycles off the rubbish tip and back onto the road.
"Just feeling like I'm having a positive impact on - well number one, on the lives of people who get the bikes, but also for the city to help there be more bikes and less cars," she said.
Joel Mayes says that to people of limited means, having a bike can make a big difference.
"I've had a number of clients say to us, 'The bike's changed my life. I can now get out and meet with people. I can get out and just go for a ride on the weekend. I'm not stuck in the high-rise apartment building that I live in or the flat in the noisy suburb where I live'," he said.
For Mr Bretherton, the satisfaction is in seeing what was once considered junk changing people's lives.
"One of the most satisfying things is when we hand over a bike to someone who can clearly benefit from it and they just ride away with a great big smile on their face," he said.
"That's really rewarding."
The Melbourne recycled bike program has been so successful the workshop will soon move to bigger premises.
It has also inspired other schemes interstate which similar programs in Sydney and Brisbane.
Based on a report by Hamish Fitzsimmons for Lateline
