Watershed moment coming
Men’s Shed moves closer to completion
It’s taken a while but the Gordonvale Men’s Shed is finally on its way to completion. The space will be dedicated to giving men an area to build, create and talk.
IT’S been a long time coming but the Gordonvale Men’s Shed is finally on its way to completion.
The space dedicated to giving men an area to build, create and talk is just waiting on a roof and walls before it’s ready for use.
Gordonvale Men’s Shed secretary Peter Noonan said it had been “a long journey”.
“At the moment most Men’s Sheds usually take about four years to establish, but our group is only one year old,” he said.
“But it’s been a long journey, where we were told ‘no’ a lot before we were told ‘yes’.”
The 10m by 18m shed will host men from the Gordonvale community who need a place to feel they can be themselves.
“Gordonvale does have an issue,” Mr Noonan said.
“If you go out onto the street at 9am, you’ll only see women, there are no men out socialising.
“It’s an old town with an ageing population.”
The shed will provide refuge for three types of men.
“We have a few kinds of men who come in to visit the Men’s Shed,” Mr Noonan said.
“You have fly-in fly-out workers, who spend a week away being useful but don’t know what to do in their week that they have off, then you have pensioners and people who are living with disabilities.”
The Gordonvale Men’s Shed’s next hurdle is getting electricity into the shed, which currently doesn’t have power.
“The hot rod vlub has donated $4000 to deal with our power, so hopefully that’s working soon.”
The Men’s Shed is expected to be finished in the next few weeks.