Elsie Lange
If you bought an electrical appliance cheap and it broke, would you fix it?
Woodend Neighbourhood House’s Repair Cafe has just secured a $1425 grant from Macedon Ranges council to buy the equipment to help you do it, saving goods not only from landfill, but your money, too.
Neighbourhood House treasurer and cafe volunteer Anthony Montague said the program, which encourages people to come in, see and learn how to fix their household items, had become quite popular, except they couldn’t fix electrical items without the right gear.
“A lot of repair cafes around Australia… the items that are most commonly brought in for repair are household appliances that are mains powered and we’d made a decision not to repair them just because of the safety issue,” Mr Montague said.
“This grant is to get a piece of equipment and some training to enable us to repair those items safely.”
Toasters, lamps, food processors – you name it – soon they’ll all be fixable too.
“The aim behind [the repair cafe] is bringing the community together on something that is important to the community, which is sustainability,” Mr Montague said.
The Repair Cafe received the grant through the council’s Small Project Grants program.
He invited residents to come for a cup of tea at the repair spot, open on the first Saturday of every month, or to drop off their items between 9am-3pm, Monday to Friday.
“[We’re] exceedingly happy to be able to do this,” Mr Montague said.
