The popular repair cafe movement has reached Newcastle where a monthly event has popped up for residents to give their busted items a new lease on life.
Newcastle Libraries has launched the free Newcastle Repair Café with the expertise of Newcastle Toy Library, Upcycle Newcastle and local repairers. It runs at the recently re-opened Lambton Library on the last Saturday of each month until June.
"We think there's a huge unmet demand for this sort of thing where people really want to contribute in a grassroots way to recycling and to being more sustainable, but don't actually have the skills or the knowledge to do that in their own household," Ward 3 councillor Margaret Wood said. "So this is a great opportunity for members of the community to come along with their items to get them repaired, and keep using them rather than going to landfill."
The first event in March focused on clothing, hand tools and bikes. This Saturday's will offer toy, clothing and bike repairs.
Bike repairer Nick Grinpukel will be on hand to help people keen on cycling, an activity he said has "exploded through COVID".
"It's become so common and bikes are one of those things that are really simple to repair," he said. "Local bike shops are great, but a lot of the stuff you can do yourself."
May is textiles and clothing, and June is furniture, hand tools, clothing and toys, as well as a plant and seed swap. Repair cafés started in Europe and have become popular in Australia, including Lake Macquarie. Council said this is the only free repair café in Newcastle.
