While it’s not the end of the world that Campbelltown suddenly does not have a single men’s shed, it is sad that is the situation we find ourselves in 2023.
The concept is without doubt the result of one of the best ideas about what we do when we retire.
So many men felt lost, and indeed useless, at retirement because they had nothing to do.
After years of being gainfully employed, to suddenly wake every morning and have no idea what to do is not conducive to good mental health.
Also, very few men bother to plan their retirement simply because they are looking forward to not having to go to work.
So when men’s sheds came along it was a welcome option for those either transitioning to retirement or after leaving work.
As well as giving these men a place where they could learn new skills and be productive, men’s sheds were also an opportunity to talk.
It is well known that men are not comfortable talking about their feelings, or even anything in their lives that is bothering them.
Men’s sheds were an opportunity to slowly change how men thought about these things through talking with other men.
Their popularity over the past two to three decades is testament to how successful they have been, and why there are so many men’s sheds across the country, in every suburb and regional town.
Except right now here in Campbelltown, a city whose population will soon reach 200,000.
There is not much point in going over the reasons why there’s no men’s shed here right now.
On the positive side it is good to see the local member of parliament, Greg Warren, working with Campbelltown Council to find a long term solution.
Both the council leadership team of the mayor, George Greiss, and general manager Lindy Deitz, and the member for Campbelltown, deserve to be commended for devoting part of their valuable time to helping establish a men’s shed.
Let’s hope the result is a Campbelltown men’s shed up and running sooner rather than later.
We had one in Airds for many years with lots of great things they would make and sell at local stalls.
Also, people would take stuff there to be repaired so it was not thrown away and kept it out of land fill – they also fixed lawn mowers, it was a fantastic place – was not good when they were gone.
Dawn, thanks for excellent points, there’s probably a lot of other things a men’s shed can do, so it will be great to have one going again.
I have a lot of musical instruments and thought about having a mens shed for retired musicians where maybe we could fix keyboards guitars etc and donate them to local schools we could also run song writing classes for young people and assist them with anything they may need musically. Perhaps once a month we could have a musical afternoon. open to the public. I saw on YouTube recently where in USA they named a park Strawberry Fields and on the anniversary of John Lennon’s death they bring their guitars and sing and play his songs.