About Us
The Birchip Mens Shed was originally mooted in 2006 when the subject was raised at a Birchip Forum Meeting where it was decided to hold a public meeting to gauge the interest in forming a Birchip Men’s Shed. The public meeting was a success with about twenty men indicating they would like to see a men’s shed formed. A committee was formed from this meeting and they started looking for a shed site. At this time the Neighbourhood house project was identified as a host organisation and came on board to assist the formation of the Birchip Men’s Shed. The Neighbourhood house took care of the administrative and legal side of the men’s shed while it was being formed.
The men eventually settled on using the Birchip Lions Club Shed as their shed. This shed was in Abbott Street and had a few issues before it would be useful. There was no power to the shed and the Lions Club were using it to store bulky equipment therefore negotiations had to be carried out on how the shed would be used and developed. The men negotiated the storage side of the deal with the Lions club and then made a list of what alterations were required to make the shed a usable proposition.
An application to the first mens shed was developed from this list. The application was successful and the men started to clear out an area of the Lions Club shed and made some alterations to the shed in preparation for adding a room on the outside. This whole process had taken well over 12 months and the mix of people attending the mens shed had changed and those left decided that the Lions club shed was not the best site for the mens shed after all. All work on the Lions club Shed ceased and another site was sought.
Eventually after much searching and lots of negotiating a site in the main street was settled on. This site was owned by john Van Braam and although in a much better position it still required similar work to the Lions club Shed to ensure it would suit the men.
DPCD was approached to see if the grant could be changed so that the project alterations could be carried out at the new site. DPCD were quite happy for this to happen but the shed either had to be publicly owned or there had to be a long term lease associated with it.
The shed was privately owned by a benevolent ex Birchipean who was quite willing to allow the men to use it for a minimal rent or to purchase it outright but would not offer a long term lease. Unfortunately due to the worst and longest drought in living memory there was very little excess cash available to purchase the shed therefore the project was at a stalemate. The men tried to raise the money but the various schemes they came up with didn’t raise sufficient cash to purchase the shed. The men were on track to raise the money but it appeared that it would take considerably longer than was expected.
In mid 2010 disaster struck when the owner of the shed developed terminal cancer. This meant that his objectives had changed and he wanted to settle the shed as early as possible so that his affairs would be in order and his family wouldn’t have to worry about what to do with the shed. At this stage a prominent local businessman who was a good friend of the owner became involved and managed to work with the owner and find guarantors for the money so that ownership of the shed could be passed to Birchip Mens Shed Inc.
Ownership was only achieved by the Birchip Men’s Shed in May of 2011, and since then the original owner has passed away. Up to this point because of the ownership problem nothing has been done to further the grant project. Now that ownership is secure the men are in the planning process to start work so that the original project can be completed at their new shed. Some materials have been purchased to get the project underway.
It is planned to carry out all these works over the next few months and to have the project completed by December 31. The project will rely on a lot of in-kind labour from local tradesmen as well as the mens shed members so the completion date will be contingent on their availability, but at this stage this is the best guess that we can give.
. It is proposed to build a shed at the back of the existing building that will house a meeting and amenities room as planned in the original grant. A toilet will also be built as the nearest facility is 200 metres away at the Soldiers Memorial Park. The meeting room will include an area for light refreshments and washing as proposed in the original project. The roof on the existing shed is not weatherproof and will need replacing or extensive patching as part of the project. The roof on the existing shed will be the last area of the project as the type of fix will depend on finance. A new roof is preferred but it is expected that the majority of the money in the project will be used to complete the meeting and amenities room at the back of the existing shed. If there are insufficient funds available to replace the roof it will be repaired to a weatherproof state until money can be raised to purchase new materials to allow for its replacement. The front door of the existing shed also needs to be repaired or replaced to allow ease of entry for some of the older members.
