Garden Hotel Fishing Club raises $15k for charities including Tradies in Sight | Photos

The Garden Hotel Fishing Club hosted the raffle to raise money for Tradies in Sight and other charitable donations, with the big winner, Mark Knaggs of Dubbo Meat and Seafood Centre, winning a fishing boat.

"He's pretty chuffed with it - he's never won anything like that before," Alan Herbert, president of the fishing club, told the Daily Liberal.

The members of the fishing club wanted to support men's mental health in their major raffle of the year - and Tradies in Sight was an obvious choice.

Mr Herbert said through his work owning a railway building company, he had become "more and more aware over the years" of the importance of talking about men's mental health - both in the workplace and socially.

"Being a bloke from the bush, and having blokes not having that conversation they should be having and how hard it is having blokes open up to anybody, let alone another bloke," Mr Herbert told the Daily Liberal.

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"When blokes are feeling under pressure to be able to talk and get it out in the open and look after themselves instead of the other option which is suicide - and no-one wants that."

He said his work crew travels a lot and R U OK? Day had become an important day every year to open up to each other and check in with each other - particularly when they were away from their families.

"Having Tradies in Sight to back us up will give us a local place to talk and pick up the phone and have a yarn. It's not just for tradies - it's for anybody," he said.

The event on Sunday was a hit with around 50 people turning up for a drink, a chat and a sausage sizzle - and to raise awareness about men's mental health.

"I think the openness of blokes to talk about this is improving - it's not frowned upon anymore. Nobody looks down upon anybody if they come out and say 'Look, I'm struggling here'," Ms Herbert said.

Tradies in Sight founder Bruno Efoti said it was "humbling" to have the community's backing.

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"I feel like we are meeting a need, and to have different organisations and different businesses rally around what we do is mind blowing and I'm really grateful for that," he told the Daily Liberal.

The money raised will go towards the Tradies in Sight Inspection Pit mental health program for TAFEs, and also for the food trailer which Mr Efoti hopes will help reach more tradies in their places of work.

The Inspection Pit program is being rolled-out to carpentry students next week, and will be introduced to more trades - including building trades - when grant money arrives from the NSW government.

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"Our main message is to continue to look out for each other and have the conversation very early before things do get out of hand," Mr Efoti said.

"We do have the support accessible and it's just a matter of being brave enough to come around here and start the conversation.

"And if you see someone maybe not going well, ask the question and we can direct them to the right sort of support and intervention."