The repair café where nothing gets written off
Once a month, volunteers with soldering irons and sewing kits fix whatever the neighbourhood brings in.
On the first Saturday of each month, the hall behind the local library fills with toasters, torn jackets, wobbly chairs and bikes with flat tyres. By lunchtime, most of them are on their way home again, working.
The repair café runs on a simple idea. People bring something broken, sit with a volunteer and fix it together. Nobody pays and nobody is made to feel silly for not knowing how.
The volunteers are retired electricians, a dressmaker, a couple of uni students who like taking things apart, and a regular who mostly makes the tea.
“Half the time it isn’t the kettle people come for. It’s the chat while we fix it.”
Repair cafés like this one run in towns and suburbs across Australia. If there’s one near you, it’s worth a visit, even if nothing’s broken.
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