Issue:

Craft Your Heart Out!

Boomerang Bags and Craft Shop is a beloved community hub dedicated to uniting people through creativity. The shop offers a wide array of craft supplies and is adorned with charming homemade creations, from handcrafted seat covers to delightful crochet turtles. Each corner of the store reflects the spirit of local artisans, making it a vibrant space where creativity and community come together.

Founder Tina Everett, decided to start up the group after sadly losing her mum. The group started as an outlet for Tina to go out and meet new members of the community after feeling lonesome in the transient town of Airlie Beach. What started as a small group, soon transpired into a shop after the Whitsunday Shopping centre kindly offered one of their spaces to Tina for no rent.

Tina explained how the shop has been amazing for her:

“I've come out of my shell, and I've made a whole lot of great friends.”

According to Tina, people can often find coming to the shop intimidating to start with but end up loving the experience as “craft gives people their own little bubble.”

The shop is open Thursdays and Fridays for adult craft groups and Tina encourages anyone who loves craft to come along. Most of the craft supplies in the shop are community donations and anything that can't be used in the shop gets donated to schools, daycare centres and nursing homes.

“Bring your craft, if you haven't got craft supplies, we have many supplies here.”

“It's just gold coin donation which helps pay for tea, coffee and biscuits.”

Alongside her adult craft days, Tina also provides help to the boomerang bags initiative, which creates reusable fabric bags out of donated materials. The ladies at the Women’s prison in Townsville are provided with the fabric which they turn into bags for Tina to share around the community. This is a great program providing these ladies with so much more than just sewing skills.

If you are a keen crafter looking to make new friends, head into Boomerang Bags and Craft Shop Thursday or Friday at 9am-2pm.