Bridget Kennedy has been interested in the share economy for a while. She’s thought about starting a tool library for many years, the impetus being when she needed some power-operated gardening tools to do a bit of work in her new garden. She borrowed some tools from neighbours but realised that most people in the street had multiple versions of the same tools.  While borrowing tools was a great way to meet her new neighbours, it just didn’t seem to make sense on so many levels for most households in the area to have the same tools. In 2020, she decided to make her idea a reality. She visited Make-Do in Wollongong, and spoke to other tool libraries. She reached out to the local community to see if there was interest and put a proposal together to a supportive council….and here we are.

We are an incorporated Not-for-Profit association that runs a borrowing tool library supporting the communities of the Lower North Shore. We have a large collection (over 300 items) of extremely useful but only occasionally used objects, appliances and tools that are loaned out to the community for a short period of time.

Borrowing tools saves money, resources, space & waste. It helps build resilient & sustainable communities, thus strengthening community connections. Research shows that people who contribute & borrow from a tool library express a sense of belonging in the broader community.