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In February, the Curtin Library piloted the Mobile Makerspace initiative for the first time as part of the Regional Changemakers Innovation Lab in Koorabup. Part of Curtin’s Go Local initiative, the Regional Changemakers program creates opportunities for Curtin students to engage with Regional WA communities to explore, learn and give back through a 25-credit elective unit that immerses students in a community with the goal of creating innovative solutions to a real-world problem. Over two weeks in February, the Regional Changemakers students, in partnership with the Great Southern Universities Centre and the Koorabup community, worked on developing solutions to a pressing sustainability challenge currently impacting the South West and Great Southern areas: tourism.
Our Makerspace Officer, Kylee Silman, travelled down south with a mini–Mobile Makerspace for the second week of the program, sharing her expertise and facilitating creative sessions with the group for the hands-on components of the lab. She brought with her a range of equipment from the Library’s Makerspace: a 3D printer, laser cutter, laminator, 3D doodle pens, a sewing machine and overlocker, badge maker and more. Kylee’s role was to guide participants through the process of hands-on experimentation, helping students and the community to visualise and test their ideas. The Mobile Makerspace became a key enabler of co-creation, allowing students to bring their regenerative tourism ideas to life, rapidly prototype initiatives, and transform abstract concepts into tangible solutions.
Since the Innovation Lab concluded, the Regional Changemakers team has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from the community, including a particularly strong endorsement from the Denmark Shire Town Planner, who praised the work as exactly the kind of initiative Koorabup needs. The town planner also shared an updated Tourism Strategy for the Shire, which aligns closely with the vision and recommendations co-created during the lab. Both the Great Southern Regional University Centre and the Community Resource Centre have expressed strong support for the Mobile Makerspace, specifically requesting that it be embedded in the full two-week program moving forward so that community members—not just students—can actively participate in workshops and hands-on making.
This first pilot has reinforced just how vital creative thinking, and hands-on making can be to the process of real-world problem-solving. The Makerspace team was thrilled to be involved in the Lab to demonstrate how a Mobile Makerspace can be embedded into regional education, innovation, and community-led problem-solving. We hope that there will be opportunities for more engagement with regional communities in the future.
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