Troy Coburn contemplates the perfect steak on his Fire Barbie. Photo: Supplied.
It was Troy Coburn’s love of fishing, camping and cooking outdoors that inspired him to invent a portable stove that suited his needs.
“You look around online and there’s just nothing like this around anywhere,” he says.
Working in solar energy out of Albury, Troy started sketching out his idea a few years ago and his “Fire Barbie” was born.
“It’s a cross between a fire pit and barbecue, so it’s designed to use any type of fuel like wood or heat beads and is virtually indestructible,” he says.
“You can get something like a Weber, but you can’t put a red gum block in it.”
Troy took his initial sketches to a colleague with experience in computer-aided design (CAD).
“He started drawing up the individual pieces for me and then I took it down to a local engineering firm and they cut it out with a laser cutter,” he explains.
“Then a mate and I made the first-ever Fire Barbie over the weekends and then we just used it camping and in the backyard for quite a while.”
The extensive testing with friends and family showed he was onto something with his elevated fire.
“We found it so convenient cooking at a proper barbecue height,” he says.
“When you get to a campsite you don’t have to worry if the grounds are wet and also the smoke doesn’t follow you around like it does on the ground.”
With friends and family giving it a thumbs up, Troy started looking more into doing something more with his invention.
“We found it wasn’t going to be feasible to make them here in Australia. The sheer amount of labour that goes into one of them would just kill us so we had to find a manufacturer offshore and then got the first shipment about five weeks ago.”
Troy built the sort of barbie he wanted for camping trips and has now found a growing interest in his old-style stove. Photo: Supplied.
He says he was surprised by the amount of interest there was in an old school style fire stove.
“People say it takes them back to barbecuing with their dad in the early 60s and 70s,” he laughs.
“It’s also like a Spanish style of open fire barbecue and South Africans have messaged me, too, saying it reminds them of ones they had.”
Troy has enjoyed playing around with his BBQ and says it also makes a good wood-fired pizza oven.
“I lift the grill off, put the pizzas in for a couple of minutes and they come out cooked,” he smiles.
Looking ahead, Troy hopes to experiment with a few more designs and turn his side-hustle into a business.
“I’ve also got ideas for a larger, more permanent backyard model that has all the cooking features and a little portable one,” he says.
“The idea behind it was for contained fires so that you can take it to the beach and have a lot of fun and you’re not dropping any ash.”
In the meantime, Troy is looking forward to many more riverside cook-ups and hopes for a bright future for his nifty little Riverina invention.
You can find Troy and his Fire Barbie on his new website and social media.
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