Donnybrook will have a free repair service, starting from this Saturday at its grand opening.
Olivine Community Group, a group of residents living in Donnybrook’s Olivine Estate, are launching the Donnybrook Repair Corner – a free repair service where residents can repair their broken items such as bikes, electrical items, garments and more.
Skilled volunteer repairers will assess each item, trying their best to fix or repair items on Saturday starting from 10am, with a pause between 11am to 12pm for the formalities and launch of the service.
Currently five volunteers are on the repair team, with skills extending to areas such as electrical, garments and bike repairs, who will allocate around 45 minutes depending on the type of repair.
Residents wanting repairs will need to book using the QR code available on the Donnybrook Repair Corner Facebook page for this Saturday – including walk-ins – which will be the process for each repair service on every Saturday of the month.
Donnybrook Repair Corner co-ordinator Helen Franks said the service would provide opportunity for all good reasons.
“The principle is to reduce the amount of items going into landfill … give people an opportunity to potentially have items repaired that may otherwise throw out – so it’s a financial advantage as well for people,” she said.
“For them to develop some skills on how easy it may be to repair a garment or a chair or whatever it is.
“I think the other thing is there’s a lot of people, with a multicultural society and places that people have come from, they haven’t necessarily had an opportunity here to find out places where you can get small items repaired.
“Often people don’t want to repair the small items – broken furniture, computer issues, garment repairs – without it costing a lot, and that’s challenging for a lot of people in our current climate.”
The idea blossomed from neighbouring Mernda Repair Café supporting Ms Franks and the team to get started on their own repair service in Donnybrook.
Ms Franks said she was keen to get more volunteers to help with the workload, increasing the variety of different repairs such as furniture, shoes, jewellery and more.
“We’re definitely looking for more volunteer helpers because you don’t want to burn people out … so it’s good to have a bank of people who are able to help set up in the morning, support people who come along, direct them here or sit on the registration desk,” she said.
Ms Franks explained every item that comes through would be weighed, providing a total to Sustainability Victoria.
City of Whittlesea are also supporting the initiative, following its aim to help its community tackle waste.
The repair corner is located at Shared Space, 995 Donnybrook Road, Donnybrook.
The grand opening will be from 10am till 2pm, with a face painter and council attending.
For more information and to book, visit the repair corner’s Facebook page at Donnybrook Repair Corner.
