Workers arrived at the shed last Wednesday morning to find a hole in the back fence and the shed’s tool library door rammed.

“It would appear that it was a planned theft,” said Tracy Jackson from the Samaritans Information and Neighbourhood Centre.

“They have completely cleared out our tool library and even stolen our ride-on lawn mower.”

Ms. Jackson believes that more than $10,000 worth of tools and equipment have been stolen, including gardening tools, woodworking tools, air compressors and a drill press, much of which has been donated by the local community.

After a long period of hard work and a cleaning up of the site the project has been starting to bear fruit, with a social gardening group, woodworking group and mentoring groups already in operation.

“It’s just devastating for those involved in the project,” said Team Leader for Community Services at Samaritans, Helen Fielder-Gill.

“This is a project that is connecting our community, but without our tools and equipment it will make it very difficult to run our programs.”