Volunteers arrived at the op shop early Wednesday morning to set up for the day when they discovered new damage to the facility. 

The store has spent the months since the fire operating out of sheds and shipping containers at the rear of the premises, which were the target of the new vandalism. 

“I got a call from one of our volunteers and they said it looked like someone had tried to break in,” deputy mayor Bobby Bourke said. 

“When I did a walk-around, I could see that they’d tried to lift up the roller door [on the shed] and they’d tried to get the locks off the door.” 

He said it appeared that the culprit had used a crowbar, sledgehammer and fire extinguisher to try to gain access. 

The damage caused by it was enough to prevent the op shop from being able to operate on Wednesday. 

“It is another day that we don’t operate now with the damage,” Cr Bourke said. 

“We can’t operate when it is raining or if there is inclement weather.” 

Making the damage all the more devastating, the sheds and the shipping containers had been donated to the op shop by the government and Dawsons Removals respectively so it could keep operating. 

“Thankfully there wasn’t too much damage to the containers,” Cr Bourke said. 

He said that neither he or the volunteers could understand “what imbeciles” would want to cause damage to the op shop, a charitable organisation. 

Everything contained in the sheds and containers would have been of little value to the culprits, Cr Bourke said, and now the op shop would need to cover the costs of the damage.

“We’re a charitable organisation, so we are not insured and we’ve got to pay for it ourselves,” he said. 

The incident has been reported to police and forensic analysis of the site was expected to be conducted on Wednesday to help determine who was responsible. 

Cr Bourke has urged anyone thinking of damaging the op shop to stay away.

“The culprits that have done this, just leave us alone,” he said.

“There is nothing here that is going to benefit you and the costs come back onto us.” 

The op shop is currently undergoing repairs after it was devastated by a deliberately lit fire on May 27.

The repairs are being carried out by Nick Harvey Constructions Pty Ltd and will come at a cost of $116,310. 

As part of the work, a new roof was being placed on the building on Wednesday. 

Cr Bourke said once the structure is repaired, closed-circuit television (CCTV) would be installed at the premises to discourage further vandalism. 

At this stage, the op shop is expected to be fully operational again in December. 

The op shop is still taking donations of quality items from the public during the repair period.