Men’s shed: a man cave of skills

By Celeste Brittain

Cape Woolamai resident Brian Walmsley had a long career as a motor mechanic and when he retired, it came as a bit of a shock.

“When you retire – well this is me – you’re never quite ready for it,” Brian says.

“And you think I’ll go fishing, I’ll go do this, I’ll do that; but you miss the camaraderie or the companionship of other people in the work place, or I did. That leaves a little bit of a black hole.”

So six years ago he joined the Phillip Island Men’s Shed and he is currently the shed coordinator.

The Phillip Island Men’s Shed, open three days a week, has been operating for about 14 years at the Cowes RSL and has about 40 regular attendees. 

For Brian, job satisfaction is important and with the shed he enjoys helping people “restore or repair their precious belongings”.

He finds the interaction with other blokes just as important.

While the shed provides an opportunity for men to interchange ideas, to skill-swap and develop skills, there are also men who come to the shed just for a cuppa and a bit of a yarn.

Brian – who admits he used to be “a rotten carpenter” – says he has learnt new skills in woodworking since joining and has graduated to being an “average carpenter”.

Tony Ashton, who has been a member of the shed for about six years as well, says he has always dabbled in wood carving and furniture making, and at the shed “it’s good just to have interaction with other guys”, including at the shed’s monthly barbeques.

Tony, from Cowes, recently restored a dresser which took him, alongside other projects, 14 months to complete. 

“I think when you do a job like that – the dresser, we’ve done a couple of things like that, there’s a tremendous amount of satisfaction in doing it,” Tony says.

“You know, you think it’s somebody’s heirloom, its somebody’s family treasure and you get it back and it’s still got some history in it, but it looks new, it feels new, but it’s not and you can see the history in it and its very exciting stuff to do that.”  

Members of the shed work on repairs and restorations and are also able to bring projects of their own in to complete. 

The shed is also involved in local projects such as making wooden toys for children at hospital and running a women’s group.