Sarah Tedder (OM 2007)
This article was published in July 2025.
On a map, Thursday Island (Waibene) in the Torres Strait (Zenadth Kes) looks like the kind of place you could stroll around in an afternoon. Located 40 km from far northern Australia, it is just 3.5 km2. But getting around on foot isn’t always practical — especially when you’re juggling grocery shopping or school drop-offs in the island heat and with young children in tow.
For some years, walking, private cars and taxis have been the go-to modes of transport for many caregivers. That is, until Sarah Tedder (née Pulling, OM 2007) arrived with her young family in 2023 and saw an opportunity to reimagine mobility on the island — one bicycle at a time.
“I was surprised by the situation I saw,” Sarah recalls. “Parents would be queuing up outside the supermarket with kids and bags, waiting to pay for a taxi home. Even private vehicles are expensive to run on the Island. Walking can be slow and tiresome, but bikes — even though the island has bike lanes and wide, safe roads — were uncommon, especially for adults.”
Rather than jumping straight to a solution to the problem she saw, Sarah listened. “I wanted to work out what the underlying issues were, so I set up a conversation stand outside the supermarket to learn from the community,” Sarah explains.
“Some people were interested in bike riding, but their experience with bikes was not great. Freight costs meant that bringing up a suitable bike from the mainland was costly. The only other option was buying a cheaply made product from a large Australian retailer and having it rust very quickly, or break in a way that made repairs impossible.”
Then Sarah came up with a clever community-focused initiative – Mobilise TI, and change began.
Looking at new ways to solve old problems
“I wanted to expand the transport options people have on Thursday Island,” says Sarah. “Mobilise TI’s aim is to cultivate a bicycle ecosystem that gives more people mobility and freedom.”
Under Sarah’s leadership, the “Torres Strait Ride Revolution” drew on crowdfunding, local support and philanthropic donations to fill an entire shipping container on the mainland with quality bikes for the community. “We bought 50 adult bikes, 50 kids’ bikes, 2 cargo bikes, 30 baby seats, 38 rear racks, and 50 baskets,” Sarah explains. “I was stubborn about funding the accessories, because without them, the bikes wouldn’t have been a viable alternative for families and enable everyone to carry what they need.”
In late May, the shipping container arrived on Thursday Island, and bikes were allocated to their new owners through a needs-based application process, making sure they reached the people who would benefit most. “It’s not about forcing anyone to ride,” Sarah says. “It’s about giving them the freedom to choose.”
The journey ahead for Thursday Island
Having successfully delivered the bikes to the community, Sarah is now focusing on the question of maintenance in an environment where saltwater and rust are ongoing challenges and there is no dedicated bike repair service.
“We’ve reused the shipping container that transported the bikes and will turn it into our ‘bike hospital,’ where people can come to learn how to do basic maintenance themselves,” Sarah says. “In the near future and with further support, we hope to fund a local resident to receive intensive training in bike maintenance and repair. This would not only create a livelihood for that person, but also ensure all bikes brought to the island can be looked after over the long term.”
Sarah is also running her own bike skills course, beginning with basics like steering and braking, to make sure riders feel capable and confident. “We need to support new riders so they are more likely to ride, and can then inspire others in the community,” she says.
Through her initial conversations, Sarah also discovered that some locals considered bike riding an embarrassing activity for adults to engage in. “We’re really indebted to the mayor of the Torres Shire Council, Elsie Seriat OAM, who has been instrumental in starting to shift this attitude,” Sarah says. “She became our ambassador, and now joins us for our bike-to-school bus, where we collect children and adults from around the island, and ride to school together. Elsie has helped us show people that bikes are functional for adults too, rather than being just for kids or recreation.”
“What I dream of is a bike ecosystem, not just on Thursday Island, but throughout the Torres Strait,” Sarah adds. “Through initiatives like this, my hope is that bikes become a reliable and accessible transport option in the region, that not only liberate people from the fluctuating price of fuel and fares, but also contribute to achieving the Closing the Gap objectives and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We want to mobilise whole families and communities, and this project is just the beginning of a mission to make that happen.”
To find out more about Sarah Tedder’s work, Mobilise TI, and how you can help, visit linktr.ee/mobiliseti.