Fixers find new home

THE Bendigo Repair Café has a new location and volunteers are looking forward to getting back to doing what it does best, restoring broken items and keeping them out of landfill.

Now stationed at Peppergreen Farm, fixers were back in action last Saturday.

Coordinator Elsie L’Huillier said moving on from their previous temporary spot at the Old Church on the Hill meant they now have a dedicated storage space.

“We made the decision to move to have a location where we could store our equipment and be in a space we can book for the day,” she said.

“It was mainly about storage and being in a location where there’s likely to be more members of the public around.”

Ms L’Huilier said despite not being able to run the repair café for a while, the response from the public was still strong.

“It was very busy, we had lots of people through, lots of vacuum cleaners, a few toasters, some sewing,” she said. “It was great, the new location is going to work really well.

“The fact we weren’t operating much last year, there’s still big interest and we were busy all day.”

The Repair Café currently runs with about 12 volunteers and has garnered a following of 1200 people on social media, most of who Ms L’Huiller said are locals.

“A lot of people are interested and have been following us right through, we’ve probably picked up a few more people who are wanting to try it,” she said.

“We’re always looking for more volunteers. The more volunteers, the more often we could be operating.”

The Repair Café runs every third Saturday of the month at Peppergreen Farm. Mending and basic bike maintenance workshops will also be held throughout the year.