Repairing household items, teaching repair skills and connecting our local community.
The Woodend Repair Café is an activity of the Woodend Neighbourhood House.
The Woodend Repair Café repairs most household goods – if you can push it or carry it to our door, we will have a go at repairing it!
Our fantastic fix-it volunteers are willing and able to repair a wide range of items, from knife sharpening, textile mending to household furniture and electronics. Our list of example repairs tells you what you need to know before we repair them. Generally, we will:
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Sharpen your blades - knives, scissors, garden equipment, chainsaw chains (by arrangement)
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Repair your textiles – clothes that are ripped, torn or simply worn out in places, cushions, curtains, bags and toys. We do both hand stitching and machine repairs.
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Repair your bicycles, tricycles, monowheels and even penny-farthings! We do both mechanical and electrical repairs
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Repair your household electrical and electronic appliances, including lamps, fans, vacuum cleaners, coffee makers, radios and bread makers. We will even look at your computers!
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Everything else including furniture, clocks, toys, garden tools (including lawnmowers), workshop tools (hand, electric and battery), leather items and baskets.
The list goes on....!
If a repair requires a spare part, we will ask you to purchase the part and bring it in with you so that we can fit it. If you don’t know what you need, we are happy to advise you (and if you are really lucky, we may even look it up on eBay for you).
And if you are unsure if your item can be fixed at the Woodend Repair Café, please email us at repaircafe@woodendnh.org.au (please include a photo of the item and what needs repair if possible). A repairer will contact you to discuss likely outcomes (typically via email).
Are we always successful?
Sadly no!
Most repair cafes, ourselves included, have a successful repair rate of around 70-95%, and a little lower for electronic goods at around 50%. This is due to most household items stopping working because of blockages, broken wires, dirty contacts and a lack of grease and oil. Electronic items can be a little more tricky with faulty components, and we don’t always manage to find the problem.
It's always worth trying to repair something before sending it to landfill. You can drop your goods off for repair during our monthly sessions, or at the Woodend Neighbourhood House during the week. And if you're interested in learning more about the repairing process, you are welcome to drop in to learn how repairs are made, or simply stop by for a coffee and a chat!
When is the Repair Café held?
Repair sessions are held monthly on the first Saturday of each month, concurrently with the Woodend Farmer’s Market. We are open between 9am and 1pm.
If you want to watch the repair or drop in for a coffee and a chat, then this is the session for you.
We are centrally located in Woodend for the Macedon Ranges townships of Kyneton, Macedon, Gisborne and Romsey, and we work from the Undercroft at the Woodend Neighbourhood House.
If you can't make it to one of our regular Repair Café sessions, you can drop off your items to the Woodend Neighbourhood House during office hours (for current hours click here). Goods dropped off in this way will typically be held and repaired during the monthly repair session.
Once repairs have been completed, we will send you a text to your mobile phone telling you it has been completed and is ready for pick up!
View Upcoming Dates
Finally, three very important things you need to consider:
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You must fill out a Repair Request form before we will attempt to repair your goods. You can do it when you drop the goods off for repair, or you can fill it out beforehand by printing this Repair Request Form. Please note the “Terms and Conditions” in the form that you will need to agree to. Importantly, you will need to agree that the repair is done at your risk. We don’t guarantee we can repair your item, nor do we guarantee the serviceability and safety of the repair going forward.
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The service is completely free. We do have a lovely donation box if you care to make a donation, but this is completely optional on your part. We use any donations given to us to buy more consumables (more glue, screws, nuts and bolts, minor spare parts), more tools, improvements to our workspace and if there is anything left over by the end of the year, a beer or wine for the volunteers
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If our service is not convenient, there are other Repair Cafés located nearby in Bendigo, Castlemaine, Sunbury and Ballarat. They all operate on slightly different bases, and at different times in the month, so please look them up and consider using them (view a summary of other Repair Cafés here)
We look forward to seeing you soon!
Links to other Repair Cafés:
Bendigo Repair Café
Ballarat Repair Café
https://repaircafeballarat.com.au/
The Ballarat Repair Café website has an extensive section on how to dispose of unwanted goods (in the FAQ section)
Castlemaine Repair Café
Sunbury Repair Café