Community & Business
17 September, 2025
Men’s Shed seeking new members
MAREEBA Men’s Shed is conducting a new membership drive in order to attract more men to utilise the organisation’s facilities and services at their Lloyd Street home.
“One of the main aims of the Men’s Shed movement is to provide a place where men can go to talk with other men of a like mind about all sorts of topics and at the same time learn or further develop new skills in various hands-on wood working, turning, and other pursuits,” president Robert Archie said.
The Mareeba Men’s Shed was launched in August 2010 and the former Scout’s building off Lloyd Street was rented to the group for a peppercorn rent which the Mayor at the time paid up for the next 20 years.
“Member numbers steadily built up and we now have approximately 20 who attend the shed on a regular basis from a variety of ages and backgrounds,” Mr Archie said.
The Men’s Shed movement started in Australia about 25 years ago when Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia all started sheds at about the same time and there are 14 sheds from Cardwell north.
“Doing projects for the community is a bonus for our members because a lot of them gain new skills using tools they may not have used previously and of course the local community benefits as well. I suppose you could say it’s a bit like the male equivalent of the CWA,” Mr Archie said.
“Generally, most members are retired have time on their hands and are struggling to use that time effectively, however we do have younger men who are not working full time for various reasons.
“A shed is not so much a place for men with some isolation issues to receive counselling but somewhere where blokes can come to meet with other blokes who are looking to fill a gap in their lives without any pressure being applied to them to take certain actions.
“We have several wheelchair bound and minimally disabled members with their carers who enjoy their time at the shed and join in the conversation.
“Some of the residents at the Endeavour Foundation have become members who learn some manual skills and have the use of all our tools and are covered under our shed insurance policy.
“Our aim is to have a safe workplace where men can come along and do a bit of handyman work for themselves or get involved in larger building projects for the community and learn new skills,” Mr Archie said.
“We assist Queensland Community Health, promoting men’s health and we also have different speakers address us on different health subjects.
“However, very little of this could be done without funding and we are very grateful to those entities who donate which makes it possible to purchase some much-needed specialised tools for doing more sophisticated projects efficiently.”
Anyone interested in learning more about Mareeba Men’s Shed can attend any of the regular sessions between 8am and noon on Mondays, Wednesdays or Thursdays or phone 0499 229 986 for further details.
