The Hawker Men’s Shed has evolved to be an integral part of the North Canberra community, and its popular repair café and local market will return to Hawker on March 17, reports KATARINA LLOYD JONES.

The Hawker Men’s Shed was founded in 2019 by Jon Wells, and Rob Gill, after requests from members of Softball ACT.

“Jon rang me one day and said: ‘We’ve got a demountable’,” says Rob, Hawker Men’s Shed committee member. 

“So we went and dragged this demountable out of its weed-infested paddock. That was the start of it.”

President Jon says: “We made an agreement that it’s not just a men’s shed. 

“It’s a men’s shed in name and purpose, and we operate under the national umbrella body of the Australia Men’s Shed Association, but we were the first shed in the ACT to welcome women as members.”

Rob says they set up the shed just before covid restrictions were introduced, slowing down the process of getting it properly established.

“But over time, through fundraising, a lot of it through Bunnings barbecues, we purchased four containers and a garden shed,” says Rob.

The Hawker Men’s Shed has since evolved to be an integral part of the North Canberra community, and its popular repair café and local market will return to Hawker on March 17.

“We get a very strong community response,” says Rob. 

“I swear there must be tens of thousands of blunt secateurs around town, because I seem to do all of the sharpening.”

Rob says they are able to repair furniture, rebuild and repair pushbikes, do leatherwork, and mend fabrics.

“We also have a trained electrician who does some tagging and testing for us,” says Rob.

“People bring in gear, if it’s fixable, we’ll fix it, and then we’ll also get it approved for reuse.

“We can’t guarantee it will work, but we repair stuff to the best of our capabilities. 

“The tagging and testing is an important part of it, people can go away knowing their gear’s been tested and it’s safe to use.”

A lot of the items brought to them hold immense sentimental value, says Rob.

“A few repair cafes back, a bloke came and said, ‘I’ve got this concertina,’ you know, a squeeze box, ‘I can’t make it work’, and so I learned an awful lot about concertinas, we got the thing working, and this guy was thrilled to bits,” says Rob.

“And Rob’s done a crook – that would belong to a bishop,” says Jon.

“Yes, a woman, in front of me, down the community garden at Hawker here, she said: ’My father was a bishop’. I thought: ‘Where the hell is this going?’” says Rob. 

“But she had the crozier, the top of the crook, and she said: “Can you make me a staff that I can break down so I can carry it?’”

Rob estimates that they are averaging more than 100 items a session, a big jump from the 15 to 20 item average they were receiving in 2019. 

With a repair success rate of 89 per cent, Jon says they have saved about 600 items from landfill at the repair cafés.

However, the work of the Hawker Men’s Shed expands beyond the repair cafés and markets, say Jon and Rob, with many members using it as a chance to relieve some of the mental pressures they are facing or have faced in the past. 

“People will offload to somebody they don’t know, just to get it out,” says Jon.

“All they want is that opportunity to get it off their chest.”

“That’s what this side-by-side working in a men’s shed is all about.”

Rob and Jon say it is crucial that the people coming to the Hawker Men’s Shed are comfortable and feel safe.

“They’ve got to feel that they’re not going to be judged. I think that’s huge,” says Jon. 

“We have people here that in their day have been very either skilled or confident people, and they can walk in here and they’re the shell of the people that they were.

“Which is sad, and it’s disappointing, but that’s life.”

In 2023 the Hawker Men’s Shed received a $50,000 collaborative grant from Hands Across Canberra, the Snow Foundation, and the John James Foundation, which Rob says they will put towards building a permanent shed.

They have also become a registered charity with tax-deductible gift recipient status.

The Repair Café and markets, 10am-1pm at the Hawker International Softball Centre, 45 Walhallow Street, Hawker. Entry fee is a gold coin donation.