By Jenny Lindsay

I’ll go to great lengths to get a fix.
 
I guess I didn’t really think it through when I volunteered to head over to another Repair Café across town. They were short an electrician, and I decided to tag along with James to share ideas and bring back some tips around what others do at their sessions. So, we found ourselves road-tripping across Melbourne to participate in Ringwood's Repair Café session. After the recent pop-up in Williamstown and our regular session in Yarraville, we were going for a hat-trick.
 
Feeling every bit a part of a community, we experienced a familiar buzz of activity among friendly faces. Marie and Tim were fabulous hosts. Marie recently had a video made about the Repair Café, just posted it online the day before, and already it had heaps of likes. Accordingly, the session was inundated with new fans – I mean, visitors – bringing all manner of items for fixing. 

The “fixers” at Ringwood Repair Café were kept busy throughout the session, with plenty of gems:

• A visitor’s wardrobe was given a new lease of life at the hands of one of the skilled menders. There were a few items she needed repaired, and good quality warm socks that gained extended life with a bit of darning. Oh, the tale of horror that her mum had thrown out a pair of her expensive woollen socks that only needed mending! Not everyone in the family was on board with our thrifty visitor’s commitment to rejuvenating her clothing. Well done to the sewing machine warriors!
• A “stick” model blender had stopped working after only 2 or 3 years of use. It came with an array of attachments, so getting rid of the head unit would have meant throwing away all of the matching parts. There was no manufacturer servicing available. Despite our fixer’s best efforts, the unit was impossible to open without cracking the plastic housing apart. Always disappointing when appliances are not built to be maintained and repaired.
• Early fault diagnosis on a “Roomba”-style vacuum bought online from USA saved a family an expensive service consultation. They had learned the only manufacturer’s option was to send it from Melbourne to the Gold Coast - for just a quote for repairs! But, if it was an easy fix, that would have been a wasted cost. A fixer pulled it apart for a closer look. Says Tim, “I might have lifted the lid but wouldn’t have attempted to pull it all apart like that!”. Sadly, the prognosis was grim, there was no clear cause for the fault, and manufacturer servicing was required, but a local initial diagnosis was a saving and a relief for the family to know the way forward.
• A microwave almost made it through “surgery” if not for one small broken part. Unfortunately, because the part was broken, the owner didn’t think to bring that bit in. So, that limited the fixer’s ability to mend or create something similar to replace it. Looking to the future, even 3D printing of replacement parts could save the day, but it would need to be modelled on the broken component. Lesson learned – bring in all your bits!
• Another visitor who brought in a printer was a sewing pattern maker by trade. She spotted a healthy queue of sewing jobs awaiting the team of menders – and was ready to jump right in and lend her skills with hand sewing while waiting her own fix.
• And then there was the helicopter technician – yes, that’s right! The story goes that people thought he brought experience from fixing the remote-control ones, but nope, that’d be the full sized helicopters, mind you. A good sport, he’s got heaps of mechanical and technical talent to offer the fixer community.

 
Ringwood Repair Café was a place where neighbourhood connections were growing. Having just started in November last year, there was already a thriving community of fixers and visitors, and some folks even stopping by for a coffee and a chat. (We have coffee machine envy at Yarraville!)
 
I became involved in the Melbourne Repair Café (Inner West) to help my local community group. Now I feel more part of a movement.
 
I’ve seen how the “other side” (of Melbourne) mends. It’s with the same sense of energy around helping each other, sharing our skills, saving waste from landfill, and building awareness around sustainability. And I love it!
 
*puts cappuccino machine on Santa’s list at Yarraville* 

​What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than supporting community-led sustainability efforts in my area. I joined the crew of the Melbourne Repair Café (Inner West) for a pop-up repair session at the Hobsons Bay City Council’s World Environment Day Community Festival in Williamstown last weekend.
 
Some folk came along prepared with their broken household items, while others were pleased to learn what a Repair Café does.
 
Brain-busting troubleshooting tested the skills of our fixers on an array of broken and tired appliances and tools. There was an eager queue awaiting their turn and all the visitors were good sports about taking their place in a busy line-up. We took on a surprising amount of fixes in the 2-hour session.
 
One terrific piece was a 1970’s era desktop fan, which had been no more than a table ornament for over 30 years, according to its owner. It turned out the switch mechanism was in need of some repair which was swiftly fixed. Then, although a little sluggish after decades unused, the fan came back to life. Hurrah! Another fix, another item saved from landfill, and a treasured family piece with a second life.

Photos by Michelle Fisher