Mount Waverley Community Store
Over 40 years ago, a ground-breaking business appeared on a street in Mount Waverley, in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. One of Australia’s first opportunity shops, it was established by the Brotherhood of St Laurence’s Women’s Auxiliary and remains a successful business as well as a meeting place for the community.
In the late 1960s, the Brotherhood’s Women’s Auxiliary was supporting the Brotherhood through a variety of fundraising activities. Dr Morna Sturrock was a member of the group and remembers organising ‘card parties and suppers in private homes’.
‘All of a sudden the notion of an op shop came up at one of our meetings and I don’t think people understand today how revolutionary that idea was’, Morna explains. The auxiliary had ‘quite a bit of debate’ about the idea: many were concerned that the business ‘would be taken away from us volunteers’.
Forty years later the op shop is still run by dedicated volunteers, led by store committee secretary Lyn Donald and president Dinah Wall. Most volunteers work three hours a fortnight but, according to Lyn, a few work six hours a week.
Throughout those decades the shop has demonstrated the importance of community stores both as a source of income for the Brotherhood’s work and as a community strength in itself. It’s a welcoming public space; sales of recycled goods reduce the amount of goods that go to landfill; and its bargain prices are a boon for people on low incomes.
Equally important is the role the community store plays in connecting people, customers and volunteers, some of whom otherwise might be quite socially isolated. Lyn organises regular sales but also reckons their success is in the ‘huge variety of donations’. And Morna Sturrock is still a committed donor. ‘I still take items in there when I can—clothes, shoes, handbags, anything I can spare.’