Bargains for a good cause

Chloe Barber looks among the exercise equipment, long since abandoned in another’s quest for fitness.

Valerie Horton

THE EXPRESSION on his face was priceless.

A man from an antique car club came along to Hervey Bay Meals on Wheels monster garage sale on Saturday and organiser Denis Dack reckons the man couldn't believe his eyes when he spotted an old-fashioned piston ring sizer.

The instrument was used to reduce the size of the ring to fit the piston of old-model cars.

Mr Dack said the man reckoned it was such a rare find he was going to mount it on a plaque.

Hundreds of people flocked to the sale over the weekend, with many forming a line-up before the doors swung open at 6am on Saturday.

Volunteers worked from 4am to make sure the day would be a great success and said the crowds had been “steady all day”.

The money raised by the sale will go towards building a new kitchen for the organisation at its Islander Road premises.

Organiser Neil Churches said the generosity of the Fraser Coast was helping the cause.

“We just need continued generosity and there's quite a lot of it in Hervey Bay.”

He said plenty of people had been thrilled with their finds.

“One man's rubbish is one man's treasure.”

One top buy was an out-of-commission electric massage chair. Mr Churches said the man who bought it had been chuffed with his buy and certain he could get it up and running again.

June Male came to the garage sale to have a browse and was impressed with the number of items for sale and their quality.

“The stuff and the prices seem really reasonable.”

She lives near Islander Road and said she had noticed a large number of people coming and going and she wondered what all the fuss was about.

“Curiosity brought me down here,” she said

“There's a lot of variety. It's definitely not junk.”

Grace and Kim Darnell and their friend, Claire Rendall, also enjoyed looking around the garage sale, picking up a few good bargains.

Elaine and Rick Mayo, visiting from the Gold Coast, also had a look at the garage sale and bought a set of lawn bowls for $5.

“We'll take them home and have a game,” Elaine said.