Lane Cove Toy Library Wins a National Award and Adds a Half Price Library of Things Deal

When In the Cove asked in 2018 whether Lane Cove needed a toy library, readers gave an overwhelming yes. Just over two years after it finally opened its doors on Burns Bay Road, The Lane Cove Toy Library has picked up a national award, its second award this year. It also has a new deal that makes borrowing everything from a trestle table to a popcorn machine half price for its members.

Here is what the award is for, what has changed since we last wrote about the toy library, and everything you need to know about joining, borrowing and volunteering.

A national award for working with everyone

The Lane Cove Toy Library has been named the winner of the Excellence Award for Collaboration and Connection at the 2026 Australian Toy Library Awards, run by Toy Libraries Australia. The awards were celebrated online on Sunday 11 October and announced publicly on 19 October.

Toy Libraries Australia said the Lane Cove Toy Library has shown what can happen when a toy library builds strong community partnerships. Its write-up points to partnerships with local government, community organisations, health professionals, businesses and schools. It credits those partnerships with soft play area upgrades, sustainability and recycling work, speech and occupational therapy resources and free memberships for families affected by domestic and family violence.

Toy Libraries Australia is the national peak body for not-for-profit toy libraries. Lane Cove was one of nine award recipients nationally, alongside toy libraries from Hobart, Mount Isa, Burnside in Adelaide and regional Queensland.

Two awards in one year

This is the toy library’s second award in 2026. In June it received the Lane Cove Council Sustainable Organisation Award at the Council’s Citizenship Awards, recognising the volunteers who keep toys, puzzles and games circulating around Lane Cove instead of heading to landfill. Two days later the library hosted the Toy Libraries Australia NSW Training Day, welcoming toy librarians from across Sydney and Wollongong to Burns Bay Road.

Earlier in the year its co-leader Karen Neville was named 2026 Lane Cove Woman of the Year, in large part for the volunteer network she has built around the toy library. That network includes retirees, teachers, parents and students, and partnerships that give people with disability work experience cleaning, checking and cataloguing toys.

What’s on the shelves now

When the toy library opened in June 2024 the goal was 750 toys. It opened with over 800. Today the collection has passed 2,000 toys, games and puzzles, covering ages 0 to 18, plus puzzles and board games that are squarely aimed at adults.

That includes the family games we wrote about earlier this month (Wingspan, Catan, Codenames, Exploding Kittens and the SmartGames single-player logic puzzles), ride-on toys, Bluey everything and the big-ticket items most families would never buy for a few weeks of use. If there is something you want to borrow that isn’t there, members can request it and the library will try to source it.

The whole collection is searchable in the online catalogue, which is also how click and collect works: reserve online, pick up during opening hours.

New: half price membership of The Sydney Library of Things

The toy library is run by The Sydney Library of Things, the not-for-profit that lends out the useful but rarely used stuff: tools, camping gear, party equipment, trestle tables, cocktail tables, eskies, popcorn machines and more. It shares the same building at 47 Burns Bay Road and has branches at Waverton and Cromer. Membership of any branch lets you borrow from all three.

The two have now joined up. Lane Cove Toy Library members can join The Sydney Library of Things at a 50% discount on membership. To claim it, email the toy library at [email protected]. A standard Sydney Library of Things membership is $85 a year, so the saving is real. With the summer party season coming up it is a good time to have access to both.

The Lane Cove branch of The Sydney Library of Things is open on Thursday evenings from 6pm to 8pm.

Opening hours, cost and how borrowing works

• Where: 47 Burns Bay Road, Lane Cove, opposite Harris Farm Markets. Parking is behind the building.
• When: Tuesday 2pm to 4pm. Thursday and Saturday 9:30am to 12pm.
• Cost: Quarterly $30 (concession $22), six-monthly $50 (concession $36) or annual $85 (concession $60). Join here.
• Borrowing: Five items at a time for three weeks, with a one week renewal available online. Late returns are $1 per toy per week. Count the pieces before you leave, because a missing piece is $5.
• Helmets: Compulsory for any child on a bike, trike, scooter or ride-on. It is a condition of the library’s insurance.
• Contact: 0478 254 122 or [email protected]. Tours can be arranged by email.

Donations of good quality toys are welcome but please use the donation form on the website first rather than dropping things off. It avoids duplicates and lets volunteers run a product safety recall check before anything goes on the shelf.

Volunteer four times a year and your membership is free

Everything above happens because of volunteers. And the toy library has a simple deal for anyone willing to help: do four volunteer sessions a year and your membership is free.

The most common role is toy librarian, which means checking toys in and out, counting pieces, loaning out new arrivals, keeping the shelves looking good and a bit of cleaning. There are also jobs for people who like fixing things, one-off helpers for open days and stocktakes, and behind-the-scenes roles in grant writing, sponsorship, social media, marketing and bookkeeping. High school students chasing community service hours, parents with a baby in tow and retired teachers and librarians are all regulars.

To volunteer as a toy librarian, sign up here. For the other roles, use the volunteer enquiry form. The Sydney Library of Things is also looking for front desk volunteers for its Thursday evening Lane Cove shift.

Why it matters

Around half of all new toys in Australia become waste within 12 months, and the average child loses interest in a new toy in about 36 days. A toy library turns that into a loop. One toy gets borrowed by dozens of families over several years. Nobody’s cupboard fills up and nothing goes to landfill after five weeks of use.

Toy Libraries Australia research by Think Impact puts the social value of a toy library at $4.22 for every $1 invested. On the household side, some of Lane Cove’s most frequent borrowers have saved more than $9,000 against retail prices since the library opened.

The small details tell the same story. The library’s latest borrowing bags are made from recycled CopRice feed bags, spotted by a volunteer in a community craft store in Adelong near Tumut and brought back so members can carry toys home without single-use plastic. The Rotary Club of Lane Cove has also named the toy library among the community projects that this year’s Rotary Fair will help fund.

With Christmas less than two months away, it is also a very good time to try a toy before you buy it, or to borrow the big thing instead of buying it at all.

How it started

Lane Cove had a toy library once before, based at the Riverview shops with more than 3,000 toys. When it closed the gap was obvious to anyone raising small kids in a unit. In 2018 In the Cove put the question to readers and Councillor Andrew Zbik ran a survey to gauge community interest. Lane Cove Council eventually funded the set-up costs, provided the premises at 47 Burns Bay Road and still provides annual funding, with membership fees covering the rest.

The library opened in June 2024. Two years, two awards and 2,000 toys later, it is one of the better arguments around for what a council grant and a room full of volunteers can do.

Disclosure: In the Cove founder and contributing reporter Jacky Barker is a co-founder of The Sydney Library of Things, which operates the Lane Cove Toy Library, and volunteers at the toy library. In the Cove publisher Renee Maxwell campaigned for a Lane Cove toy library in 2018. Neither was involved in the awards.