January

5^th Monday – Shed reopens

8^th Thursday 1200, BBQ Lunch

15^th Thursday 1000, BBQ Lunch, Committee Meeting

15^th Thursday 1200, BBQ Lunch, Member Speaker: Brian, “Cape York in 30 slides”

26^th Monday 0900, Australia Day Big Breakfast

29^th Thursday 1200, BBQ Lunch, Guest Speaker: David Smith MP, Lino Lunch

February

7^th Saturday, Bunnings BBQ

12^th Thursday 1000, BBQ Lunch, Committee Meeting

12^th Thursday 1200, BBQ Lunch, Member speaker: John Webster – “Victoria’s Silo Trail”

19^th Thursday 1200, BBQ Lunch, Guest speaker: Nicole Warren – “Aged care,” what’s available, what are the eligibility criteria, latest changes to the system, you and the law.

24^th Tuesday 1015, Visit by Beth Gow (AMSA) and Dept Health Officials.

March

12^th Thursday 1000, Committee meeting

12^th Thursday 1200, Member Speaker: Warren Jones – Flinders Ranges and beyond. Leno Lunch

19^th Thursday 930, Bus ride and visit to Canberra Railway Museum, Tour and BBQ lunch. All aboard!

26^th/27^th Thursday / Friday, Easter stall at Cooleman Court

April

9^th Thursday 1000, BBQ Lunch, Committee Meeting

16^th Thursday 1200, BBQ Lunch, Guest speaker: Gen. David Hurley (ret) 

19^th Sunday, Bunnings BBQ

May

2^th Saturday, Bunnings BBQ

14^th Thursday Evening. 1630-1830. Bunnings Tradies meet and greet night. We will man the BBQ for them.

14^th Thursday, 1000 Committee meeting, 1200 BBQ Lunch, 1230 Member Speaker: Terry, “Surprise slide show”

21^st Thursday 930, Bus ride and tour Murrumbateman wineries. Lunch at the Murrumbateman Hotel. (all to be arranged and confirmed).

28^th Thursday 1300, Legal Aid ACT, Introduction to OPALS session.

June

18^th Thursday 1200, Guest speaker Braddon Evans, Exercise Physiologist and the owner of Renew Rehab, a mobile EP service based in Canberra.

24th Wednesday 0800, Running a BBQ for the Master Builders Association’s Open Day. 

25^th Thursday 1200, Guest speaker Gary Paine, RAAF Airfield Engineer in Afghanistan. My time in Afghanistan.

July

13^th Monday 1000, Committee Meeting

16^th Thursday 1200, Sooper Soup Day. Volunteer cooks wanted! Bill is doing Potato ‘n Leak, Graham Lacey is providing Pumpkin, Mick Warke, Dutch soup surprise and Pat is on Pea ‘n Ham.

23rd Thursday, 1200 BBQ Lunch, 1230 Member Speaker: Terry, “Cars took me there.”

30thThursday, John Jenkins Presents: Best of British comedy half-hour

August

1^st Saturday Bunnings BBQ

6^th Thursday, 1200 BBQ Lunch, 1230 Member Speaker: Alex Zvargulis, My latest guitar project.

13^th Thursday, 1200, Guest speaker, Brad Butt, Men’s Health Downunder (one time from Coolo Pharmacy): Prostate, ED, mental health, being a bloke…. 

20thThursday, John Jenkins Presents: Best of British comedy half-hour

27th Thursday, Major (Ret.) Norm Beckett, The Salvos & old men

September

3rd Thursday, 5pm-7pm Bunnings, Tuggers Fathers’ Day Fam.Night

8th Tuesday, 1200-13:30  ShedFest at Aus. Parliament House

10th Thursday – C’ttee. Mtg. 10am; Lunchtime Guest Speaker Peter Rodda – Kokoda 1942 and Recently.

17th Thurs – Guest Spkr. Pat Smith: Copper/gold mining in the Gobi Desert

24th Thursday 1300, Annual General Meeting 

October

1st -Thursday – program tba

8th Thursday – Guest Spkr. Dr Sabrina Rahman Shanto, Red Cross, ACT Resilience

15th Thursday – Pres. Brian Black on Recent Roamings

22nd Thursday – Speaker, Michael Irvine, Physiotherapist

29th Thursday – program tba

November

7th Saturday Bunnings BBQ

19th Thursday 0930. Trip to Canberra Reptile Zoo. Bus trip, entry and show free to members, Café Injoy for lunch at members’ expense (NOTE:date may change – the Snakeman is getting wed.)

26th Thursday 1200. Christmas Lunch at the shed.

December

17/18th Thursday / Friday 900 – 1600. Annual Xmas stall at Coolo’

24th Thursday 2pm. Shed Closed for Christmas, reopens Monday 4th January 2027

Well how time flies when you’re having fun. It seems that apart from the 10,000 other things I was doing during the year, keeping the website up to date kept getting overlooked.

My bad, as young persons are wont to say!

Too late for anything from 2025, but hey 2026 is still going, so i’ll go and start again there. Bye

5th December 2024

I am so pleased that Bunnings, in the form of the Activities Organiser, Isabella, continue to ask the Weston Creek Men’s Shed to support their Family Nights.

From small beginnings a few years ago, the Bunnings Community initiative has really taken off. This last event saw over 1750 people come through the doors into the special events area set up in the woodshed section off the store.

Myself, Warren, John, Mick and Pat turned top at 530pm, to unpack the components for our build and set up the stall. This time around we were helping the children put together five pieces of wood to make a tea-candle holder. Assembly involved wood-glue and 10 small nails.

Some children could barely lift he hammer, sone were super confident already, but all seemed to enjoy the experience and beamed with joy and pride as they gave their creations to the lucky parental recipient.

We started on the dot of 6pm and apart from running to get some water to rehydrate ourselves, we didn’t look up until 8pm when they called time on the event. It was just as well as we had run out of materials only a minute beforehand.

I’ve done a few of these events now and thoroughly enjoy the experience of interacting with the children and the people in general. Well done to us, to the public and a huge well-done to Bunnings for making it all happen.

2nd December 2024

We were invited back by the Denman Prospect people to run the BBQ again this year at their Christmas Picnic that they put on for the community that has formed around the Denman Prospect development.

It was hot, we had lost our leading chef de snag because Lno had broken his wrist, and we had been pushed back from Friday to Monday. The postponement was a good call, Friday afternoon the heavens opened up and it absolutely bucketed down. But Monday was perfect. Did I mention it was hot! 3 hours in front of a blazing BBQ making just that much hotter again. But we can’t complain, we were out there mixing with the community, that’s our community, and we made a comfortable profit on the day.

A bit of a shout out to Gabriella Byrnes. Marketing Manager | Capital Estate Developments, for doing a fantastic job of organising everything, making it happen on the day, and of course, for inviting us. Thanks Gaby!

28th November 2024

Another great outing with the WCMS crew. We had our little bus again and 12 of us went out to the Hall Men’s Shed to have stickybeak around. They were very welcoming and showed us all around before insisting that we have a huge morning tea. They had arranged a private tour for us of the Hall School Museum, which is terrific. All the big boys telling tales about their school daze. Sounds to me as if they were all likely lads as boys, causing trouble and being up to no-good. All in all a really pleasant and enjoyable outing.

Big thanks to the Hall Men’s Shed men.

21st November 2024

As it has now become a bit of a tradition, we again had lunch at the Shed. We had roast turkey and cold ham, we had baked potatoes and pumpkin and all kinds of vegetables and we drowned the lot in gravy. Then we backed up for Christmas pudding and custard. Thanks to everyone for cooking and setting up and helping out and cleaning up. This is so much better than being at a club! Had a great day, looking forward to next year.

2nd November 2024

This is one of our community efforts for the year. We go and run the BBQ at the SJV fete. This is always great hard work but great fun and a fabulous way to interact with the community at large.

23 October 2024

A group of our men went in the bus that we hired and went out to visit the Tarago Men’s Shed, with a side visit to the Women’s Shed where they had lunch. From reports I believe that the men had a great day out, so thank you Tarago Men and Women Shedders

10th October 2024

A few of us visited Belconnen Men’s Shed where we joined a bunch of other shed blokes in an RUOK session, which was quite interesting and informative.

Belconnen Men’s Shed then put on a great spread for lunch, so thanks to them for hosting the day.

September 13, 2024

We were invited by Dell Corporation (large American company that makes computers) to give a presentation at their Wellness Day. This was a great opportunity to reach out to some younger men and tell them what a wonderful thing a Men’s Shed is, and ours in particular!

The talk went well and I think that they appreciated it. The things is, even if only one man took our card or a fridge magnet, or if one man went to get a check-up from his doctor, then it was worth while.

They also had a presentation given by the Women’s Shed Canberra. The ladies present, Sunita, Rachel and Pauline, gave an interesting overview of their Sheds history, its aims and dreams and how it affects the lives of many, many women in Canberra. Their shed has a very different business model to the traditional Me’s Shed. They have instituted many formal classes, both hands on and eLearning and attract many members, of all ages. It is a very active and enervated group of women! They also have a full time instructor, a man who used to work at Thors Hammer, who oversees the workshop activity and gives both one-on-one and group instruction.

Well done them!

Report and Images : Brian Black