Since the Margaret River Men’s Shed has made its resources available to females, several ladies have joined the Shed.

Having undergone the necessary safety protocols and led by Honor Denby, the group has been busy executing a number of personal projects on Tuesdays – the day the Shed is purely dedicated to females. It is expected that under Honor’s guidance, the group will become comfortable without any male involvement, other than the occasional training workshop.

Projects include creating wooden puzzles made by Jane Hilton; a number of refurbishing jobs undertaken by Gitte Eyres; and some highly creative hanging spheres made from wine barrel hoops in which potplants are to be suspended designed and created by Honor.

The women were drawn to the Shed by the opportunity to learn new skills, express their creative urges as well as gain access to skills, tools and equipment which would not otherwise be available to them.

The Shed is located in the old Blacksmith building within the historic settlement precinct off Higgins Street. Ladies wishing to join the Shed need only click the blue join button to complete the online Membership Application form.

After four years of planning, negotiating and fundraising, the first step in the construction of the new MR Men’s Shed has begun.

Supervised by local builder, Gordon Temby, a crew from Margaret River Engineering worked with a specialist team from Capel Cranes to lift the iconic water tank and its base from the steel support frame on Wednesday 1 July.

Working at height and following a dedicated plan, the engineering team carefully severed all of the links connecting the base of the tank from the steel frame.

The crane specialists used a sling to lift the tank and its base from the frame and successfully lowered the combined unit to the ground safely. The entire operation was witnessed by a number of MR Shed members including Terry Hutchings, the Chairman.

The steel support frame is to be retained and modified as an entrance statement for the new shed. When completed, the Shed will comprise some 930m2 of space and include meeting facilities for a wide range of community groups to use as an affordable, versatile and accessible meeting place.

While more funding is needed to enable its total completion, Chairman Terry Hutchings said, “The new Shed will enable us to expand our activities, our membership including ladies, our skills base and to widen our offering to the Margaret River community as a whole. We also plan to continue and grow the positive resources to assist the mental well-being of those in our community experiencing mental health problems arising from isolation, loneliness, depression or anxiety.”

As many know, the Margaret River Men’s Shed presently operates from temporary premises at the Blacksmith’s Shed in the Old Settlement precinct. Due to both its physical constraints and current health and safety regulations, the temporary premises only has working space for nine people at any one time. With more than 100 foundation members and 78 active members, this is clearly inadequate.

MRMS chairman, Terry Hutchings said, “There was – and is an overwhelming demand for the new Shed and associated community facilities.”

Following finalisation of a lease agreement with the Shire for land adjacent to MR Tennis Club in Gloucester Park, Mr Hutchings announced that a building licence has now been issued and construction by local builder, Gordon Tenby has now commenced following the issue of a building licence,

The plans involve some 930m2 of space. This includes meeting facilities for a wide range of community groups to use as an affordable, versatile and accessible meeting place. The plans include retaining the iconic water tower as an entrance statement.

MRMS thanks the Shire, Rotary, Lions, LotteryWest, Bendigo Bank and the Wright-Burt Foundation for their financial contributions plus the many trades and suppliers who have offered services at discounted rates to enable construction to begin. Rotary – as a core sponsor of the Men’s Shed, has recently pledged a further $100,000 towards the final stage of the building program.

Although construction of Stage One has now begun, the MRMS is presently seeking substantially more funding to enable the new Shed to be completed

MRMS will continue and grow the positive resources to assist mental well-being of those in our community experiencing mental health problems arising from isolation, loneliness, depression or anxiety. However, the core focus is the provision and sharing of member skills, especially woodworking.

The new Shed will enable MRMS to expand its activities, its membership [including ladies], its skills base and its offering to the Margaret River community as a whole.

The Margaret River Shed opened a ladies day on Tuesdays with one of the men present to help with orientation and advise on equipment usage.

However, due to Covid-19 this was cancelled. Now, however it has recommenced. MRMS has always been determined to make this work, as it does in a number of Sheds. The objective is to encourage females to embrace, learn and share what may have been traditionally regarded as male skills – the use of power tools and other woodworking equipment especially in order to contribute to the Shed’s projects and community outputs still firmly in focus.

The MRMS is fortunate to find a lady who has both the skill and interest to see this happen. Honor Denby volunteered to run the Tuesday sessions with the understanding that inclusion of a Thursday session would be considered if the interest and numbers were present.

Honor has a wealth of creative skills. And although our current accommodation in the Old Blacksmith shop in the MR Historical precinct is charming it is limited. Nonetheless, it does have a good selection of woodworking equipment, machinery ands tools to support most projects.

If required, the MRMS will run ‘workshops’ covering safety and use of the various pieces of equipment. It would be great if you would visit the Shed any Tuesday between 9.00 to 12.00 and I am sure Honor would be delighted to show you around.

Since the MRMS has recently been allowed to reopen, we have persevered. We are really pleased with a turnout of four ladies so far.

To learn more, visit the Shed any Tuesday between 9.00 to 12.00. We are sure Honor would be delighted to show you around.

Come visit us to learn about our community construction projects, shared skills, mental wellbeing benefits and low cost wooden items we have for sale.

Date: Sunday 29 Sep, 10am to 12.30pm

Location: Historic Old Settlement Precinct, Eastern end, near Hairy Marron Coffee Shop – Access via Higgins Rd.