April 2nd 2024

Today was the big day, His Excellency, the Governor-General of Australia, The Honourable, General David Hurley, and his wife, Her Excellency Linda Hurley, came to morning-tea.

First they were greeted by Brian and John representing all members, and then by Lindsay and Val Dempsey, Val presenting Linda with a bunch pf flowers from her garden.

We then proceeded into the meeting room, where they were introduced to the members. His Excellency gave a short address of appreciation for the work we, and all, men’s shed do.

He then gave out some 10 Year Service Certificates to the ten original members of the WCMS from 2014 that are still current members. Those men are: Bramley Barton, Brian Blackburn, Allan Booth, Tony Burns, John Burrowes, Alan Castle, Ray Gulson, Bruce McKenzie, Peter Rowell, Duncan Souter.

Sadly, not all of them could be with us today, but we thank them all for their contribution to our Shed over those ten years.

Linda was then introduced and asked if she would join us in her favourite sing-song, You are my sunshine. After a short address regarding what that song means to her, we did her proud with our rendition. Thanks to Robin for having the forethought to provide us with the song-sheets! Linda then entertained us with a rendition of a song that she has written especially for us, The Weston Creek Men’s Shed. At its conclusion she presented the words, emblazoned on Government House paper, to the President. For this she received a resounding applause!

Linda then entertained us with a rendition of a song that she has written especially for us, The Weston Creek Men’s Shed. At its conclusion she presented the words, emblazoned on Government House paper, to the president. For this she received a resounding applause!

Brian then presented each of them with a special edition mug that we had made for the occasion. The mugs have our WCMS logo on one side and a suitable inscription for each on the other side. The presentation boxes were made by David and Lindsay. So thanks to them. Both of their Excellencies looked quite pleased with our efforts when they took a second closer look and discovered the wording and its heartfelt message.

We then conducted them on an extensive tour of the workshop where they enjoyed interacting with Bill, Dennis, John and David who chatted about their projects and gave short demonstrations of their skills.

Finally we returned to the meeting room where Mrs President, Judy, had prepared quite the morning-tea, worthy of The Hyatt, I’m sure.

For the remainder of the time, their Excellencies seemed to enjoy the informal chats they were having with many of the members present, sometimes in group, sometimes one-on-one. In fact they seemed a little reluctant to leave!

But finally they were escorted off the premises to their waiting car and whisked away to their next engagement.

I would like to say thank you to both of their Excellencies for visiting our shed and for being such gracious and friendly guests. They are welcome back anytime!

Report : Brian Black, Images : David Cornforth

March 21st 2024

The lovely people at Bunnings Tuggeranong invited us to come and man a table at their annual Easter Family Night.

This followed on from a similar event held last September for Father’s Day, when ShedMen helped a whole lot of young people put together a wooden crate using cordless screwdrivers and screws.

The recipe for Easter was a book-stand. Originally it was designed to be nailed together, but we were able to convince them that screws and screwdrivers would be a whole lot more fun, engaging and easier for the children.

And so on the night for two hours, Warren and John and John and Allan and myself sat there helping the children make their very own book-stands. All we had to do was hold the pieces steady and instruct the child in how to put the screw in using the drivers. It totally surprised me how quickly even the shyest child picked up what they had to do. The first screw was usually a bit hesitant, but with gentle coaxing and guidance, by the time they had reached the third screw they were driving them home like pro’s!

A huge thank you to Bunnings for inviting us, and an even bigger thank you for donating the fabulous Ryobi Cordless Drill Kits to us after the event.

Report and images: Brian Black

March 14the 2024

We were invited by the nice people at Coleman Court Shopping Centre to come and run our annual Easter Stall

Dennis and the workshop crew had worked long and hard to have enough product for us to put on a good display and to sell.

Traffic to the Stall was a bit quieter than usual, but still a in the end a worthwhile contribution was made to the Shed’s budget.

It is also a great way to meet people, all of who have someone in their lives that could benefit from being a member of the shed and taking advantage of the facility that we have to offer. We have at least one new member as a direct result of our presence during those two days.

Once again a big thank-you to the workshop crew, especially Dennis who made it all happen despite a few hurdles thrown in his way.

Report and Image: Brian Black

March 4th 2024

We have been asking the Shepherd Centre for some time if there were any thing we could do to help them out, such as make toys, fix furniture and the like.

So we were happy but a bit supervised at their first request… come and put a teepee together. What? On investigation it turned out that they had received funding to buy this fairly large wooden structure in the form of a teepee (a tent used by indigenous North Americans).

Allan took the job and after some three-hundred screws had it all together ready for a test run.

According to the staff at the Centre, the kids just think it’s the best thing ever. We are so pleased to have been able to help and bring a little light into so many lives.

Report and Image: Brian Black

Allan received this email from the people of Quaama:

Allan,

So many people shook my hand and congratulated me on this exercise- I assured them it could have not happened without the cooperation of Weston Creek Men’s Shed, and in particular you as their driving force.

It has been a very fruitful and interesting exercise and a great community rebuilder at a most critical time.

So, please pass on all our sincere thanks and gratitude from the Quaama and wider community.

Don , Kym and Lydia

Container Team for Grandparents Treasure Chest

Report and image: Don, Kym and Lydia

For those that weren’t aware of the Containers for Good program, which is what we called it at our end, here is a brief outline:

The scheme came into existence after the extensive bushfires on the South Coast of NSW. In a nutshell, a container was found followed by some funding. The container was shipped to Canberra, to the Weston Creek Men’s Shed. At the time there were large amounts of donations being received, which, due to the calls for help to the public for donations of useful items, soon became a flood. That first container was soon chock-a-block and arrangements were made to ship it back to Quaama. So here we have a situation where there are whole communities that have lost absolutely everything , and into that community lobs a container stuffed full of all kinds of household items, tools, building materials, you name it, it was probably in there. Yes, even the ubiquitous kitchen sink. Don and his team arranged a clearance day and ensured that the items were dished out to those that needed them. That container lasted a half day before it was empty! The people on the South Coast were delighted, as we were at WCMS knowing that we could help in such a practical way.

Meanwhile a second container had been found and shipped back to the WCMS, and we gladly filled it as well. And another. and another. In all seven containers-full were sent to the people of the South Coast, and in the end, people in need were coming from as far away in Victoria to see if they could get something to help them through the darkest of days..

Sadly, all things must come to an end, and as the original funding and subsequent funding dried up, the scheme had to come to a close.

But a brilliant well-done to those that conceived the idea, those that made it happen and those that had enough humanity to fund it.

Report: Brian Black

February 3rd, 2024

Our first Bunnings BBQ of the year saw hot and windy weather and our first ever price hike on cold drinks. Bunnings had announced that all drinks are to sell now for $2 each, up from the previous $1.50.

Crowds are good with us selling our quota of snags and a bit more, so we were pretty happy with that. I have to say that its great to see many members turning up to pull their shift, it can be a pretty long 4 hours, but “many hand make light work” as the ancient Chinese electrician was wont to say.

Well done to all of us and as usually a zillion thanks to the public for supporting us and to Bunnings for giving us the opportunity to run the BBQ.

January 26th 2024

Our first ever for the year was the second annual running of the Breakfast BBQ for all members and guests, held at the shed.

We had a large turn-out of members and guests and all who attended enjoyed a great meal and a nice morning chatting with old and new friends and inspecting all the changes that have been made around the premises since this time last year.

While John and Lino cooked and Allan and Dennis and a swag of others played host, Mike Hardy gave some guests one of his traditional tours of the Shed. Some found the vegetable garden, others the chillies, a lucky few found the blackberry bush and tucked into a few late blackberries.

Not to be outdone by Tony Burns who turned up at the shed at the last Committee Meeting on his first day out of hospital from heart surgery, John Warren made an appearance on his first day out from 167 days or so in hospital. Well done to both and to all our members who are pushing on through whatever life is throwing up at them.

Everyone was duly impressed with the new doors and the even newer decking and veranda, with many suggestions made for its future use, including yoga classes and ballroom dancing!

Thanks to all who made the morning happen with an extra thank you to John Webster for carrying the ‘plan’ through.

December, 2023

Well, it may have taken three months and bit more cash than we had bargained on, but our new ‘space’ is now officially complete.

A vision that started out as a ‘bit more room’ for the workshop, has materialised into a first-class area for all members to use. Many, many thanks to all the men who helped bring the vision to reality, it is a credit to one and all.

December 2023

A special vote of thanks to Don and Terry, and others, who took up my challenge to build a platform and erect the small shed we had donated to us.

It might not seem a big deal, but having this shed to put donated items into that we can re-home rather than re-use, opens up the way for us to get the new storage container operational, which opens up the way to get the current timber store cleaned out and turned into a workshop, and get the yard cleaned up and get a new floor installed in the #2 cinder-block shed.

So thanks again, and if nothing else the witty repartee and cheerful banter between them kept us amused on the other side of the container while we were slaving away building the deck. Thanks shedders.

Thursday 14th December 2023

We had an invitation from Denman Prospect to come and run the BBQ at their annual Christmas Party, held at Ridge Park. I don’t know how we came to be invited, but I’m very pleased that we were. I hope that it was because the name of Weston Creek Men’s Shed is getting out there and we are becoming know for our community involvement and spirit.

And I’m also pleased that I had no trouble getting support from members to come and help on the day.

The proposal sounded like it was too good to be true. Denman Prospect would supply everything, all we had to do was turn up, cook and serve. And true to their word, the Denman Prospect crew supplied everything we needed and even went to fetch a few more onions when it became apparent that we were going to run short early in the day. They were really great on the day and a huge vote of thanks goes to them!

The BBQ was a big success, we made a healthy contribution to our finances and we got to take our brand of community out into a wider audience. We even discovered that the community now has quite a few vegetarian members and we cooked and sold all the vegan patties, along with a number of onion only sandwiches.

Thanks Leno, and Bruce and Dennis and Graham and John, well done!