A letter to the Scottish Shedders…
August 2020
WORDS: Wendy Kennedy, Tasmanian Men’s Shed
Dear Scottish Shedders,
Greetings to you all from our tiny Island of Tasmania located almost at the bottom of the world – just under the mainland of Australia. It’s beautiful and diverse, not dissimilar to Scotland. Our population hovers at around 550,000. While the world has been thrown into chaos as a result of COVID-19, we thought it timely to reach out to some of our fellow ‘Shedders’ from far away!
The Tasmanian Men’s Shed Association has been running for 11 years now and we are the Peak Body for Men’s Sheds in Tasmania. One of our Member Sheds is right up there in being the oldest Shed in Australia.
There’s 60 Men and Community Sheds that are Members of our Association at the moment, this changes from time to time and we would estimate having approximately 2,500 Shed Members. It’s always a challenge trying to keep across just how many Shedders there are at any given time!
All Sheds are different as are the reasons for Men choosing to join a Shed. Some are transitioning into retirement, some have relocated and find that Shed life is a great way of making new friends. There are those that find themselves isolated and lonely for any number of reasons – and this seems to be the one of the main reasons why so many of our Sheds are expanding. Apart from being able to learn a new skill or pass your skills on to others – Shed life provides one of the best and most unique ways of keeping Men connected with other Men and their communities.
We are lucky to live on an Island that provides some of the most beautiful timbers in the world which results in some pretty amazing wood turning and products coming out of our Sheds. Some find their way into our well known tourist destinations like Salamanca Market, Woolmer’s or the internationally acclaimed Deloraine Craft Fair – all closed at the moment due to COVID-19 restrictions. Also, given our Maritime history, we have a number of Sheds that specialise in boat building. But on the whole - the focus of our Sheds and their Members is to give back to their communities finding purpose in doing so, while continuing to look out for each other.
Maybe one day when the world returns to some sort of ‘normal’ we could start our own Global Shed Tours! Until then we will continue to communicate in the old fashioned way. We all really enjoy receiving your newsletter and following your social media platforms - a number of our Committee members have joined your Association.
The Tasmanian Men’s Shed Association would warmly welcome any visiting Scottish Shedder if they should find themselves in Tassie at any time! Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Cheers from
Down under – Down under
Tasmanian Men’s Shed Association