The Tinkering Travellers
via Mend It, Australia on Facebook @mendaussie

Karen Ellis has always been fascinated by the resourcefulness of individuals who mend, fix and repair their things. "As a child, I vividly and affectionately remember moments of my mother mending and making do, such as turning my father’s thinning work shirt collars.”

“Whilst I have always been mindful of not being wasteful with my things and with my money, it was not until I took early retirement a decade ago, that I found time to share my mending and resourceful ways with others on Facebook at Rude Record."

Karen’s husband Danny has trade qualifications and has many transferable skills. He is retired these days. “Danny is an all-rounder when it comes to repairing. He is competent to fix mechanical and/or electrical items. He is also certified to use Portable Appliance Testers and tag electrical items.”

When the couple was blindsided by bureaucrats and prohibited from informally volunteering their mending, fixing and repairing skills in their local community, they decided to travel to other Victorian communities, and share their passion for reuse and repair.

“And at this time we also made a decision to become more vocal about our right to repair, and that of others. We are currently campaigning for Australian right to repair legislation. We tweet about our right to repair activism on Twitter @MendItAussie”.

We are also on Instagram @menditaussie

"Together, Danny and I founded our brand Mend It, Australia in 2017. We are self-directed, self-funded and self-resourced volunteers who currently travel to organised community repair events around Victoria. There is also a volunteer role for us in supporting and helping out at launches of new community repair and fix it initiatives. We are affectionately known as The Tinkering Travellers.”

Karen administrates their Facebook page Mend It, Australia which features stories from their travels to community repair events. She also shouts out about other individuals, groups and repair businesses doing great things, related to keeping good stuff out of the landfill. “My all-time favourite quote is about thrift by G.K. Chesterton.”

“Thrift is the really romantic thing, economy is more romantic than extravagance…thrift is poetic because it is creative; waste is unpoetic because it is waste…if a man could undertake to make use of all the things in his dustbin, he would be a broader genius than Shakespeare.”

Mend It’s 2019 video
https://youtu.be/b6siHQChYpY

Mend It’s feature on Restart Radio Jan 2020
https://therestartproject.org/podcast/mend-it-australia/