Brotherhood of St Lawrence Op Shop Tour

Six Nyah West Op shop volunteers braved the early train from Swan Hill to Melbourne to tour the Brotherhood of St Lawrence Sunshine warehouse and 3 of their op shops as part of their ongoing skills training.  We were met at Footscray station by Debra Saffrey-Collins in the Brotherhood’s new van and went directly to the warehouse where the bags we send to the brotherhood are sorted.  After lunch and a talk about the operations we visited the book sorting area, saw the kindling and house packs for immigrants areas, and then down to where cloths are sorted and packed for op shops or to be shipped to Africa.

One of the initiatives of the Brotherhood is bagging kindling from wood off-cuts ready for sale.

The Brunswick store was huge, with furniture, white goods and a wonderful record collection.

At All Saints Northcote we saw the Op Shop they ran in their hall. One of the wardens, Betty showed us around. It the photo we have the Northcote Betty and our Betty.

The Hunters and Gatherers Store in Fitzroy was very elegant and rivaled the other collectables shops in the main street.