Dozens of sales on the garage trail next month

DOZENS of events in the Moorabool Shire have already been locked in for the national Garage Sale Trail, which takes place over two weekends in November.

When she spoke to The Moorabool News earlier this week, trail general manager Barbara Gill said 36 individuals, clubs and other organisations had registered for the trail on the weekends of 8 and 9, and 15 and 16 November.

“I would hazard a guess there’ll be between 40 and 50 in total by the time the weekends come around,” Ms Gill said.

The Garage Sale Trail joined forces with the Moorabool Shire Council this year – the first municipality in the region to do so – to promote and organise the local trail.

“We call it Australia’s biggest second-hand treasure hunt,” Ms Gill said.

Nationally, more than 11,000 events will take place on the two weekends, with over three million items going up for sale.

Sales and similar events can be registered right up until the trail weekends and it is free to participate. The organisation also provides support, promotional materials, and tips and tricks.

Ms Gill said the concept began in a single Sydney suburb 16 years ago with the motto of ‘don’t dump it, sell it’.

“Its origins are in reducing what’s going to landfill and extending the life of the stuff that we own,” she said.

“We now work with 90 councils across Australia.

“It’s open to anyone and everyone. Mostly it’s households that do it, but community groups, sporting clubs, they list to sell things.”

Ms Gill said neighbourhood houses also frequently get involved in the trail, and this year many hotels were signing up to hold events.

“We want to make the program available to as many people as possible because it’s a great way to make sure stuff isn’t ending up in landfill,” she said.

“Equally, with cost of living pressures, it’s a great way for people to make a bit of money, and my favourite bit is all the new community connections that come about.

“There’s all these beautiful spinoff benefits from the simple act of having a garage sale.”

To see events and sales happening in Moorabool, people can go to garagesaletrail.com.au/Moorabool.