By Mikayla Van Loon
The Montrose Men’s Shed monthly meeting had some added flair for September, celebrating 10 years of the shed’s creation and supporting social connection in the suburb.
What started as a conversation between Max Lamb and the Rotary Club of Montrose after the Montrose Football Club hosted a “Bloke’s night forum for men”, it was decided a Men’s Shed was needed for the area.
“Rotary were interested in doing something and so that’s when I joined Rotary,” Max said.
Initially planning to combine with the Croydon Men’s Shed, when Yarra Ranges Council offered Montrose a building Max said “there was no need to amalgamate with Croydon, we could establish ourselves”.
And so by September 2013, the Montrose and District Men’s Shed was registered as an organisation with Max named the founding president.
The rest of the committee was made up by Richard Fennel as treasurer, Robbert Kop as secretary, Harald Helmer as Vice President and Geoff Brown as a committee member.
Moving into the former fire station and then St John Ambulance base on Leith Road, Max said there was a lot of work to do, as grass started growing up the walls and the roof needed replacing.
“We renovated. We had a member at the time called Geoff Brown and he took a leading role in getting it to the way it is now.”
Starting with around 15 members 10 years ago, the Shed now has around 30 members, a number that dropped after the pandemic period.
Two members who have been with the Men’s Shed from the start, George Gredler and Reg Wright, said it has been of great benefit to the local community to have a place for men to meet and socialise.
“I was looking around for a purpose and even though I had a lot of work at home, it’s not the same, you need company,” George said.
“I think that would be 80 per cent of the reason for people to join groups like this because the social aspect is probably the most important.”
Not only is it about making friendships or building things with their hands, George said it allows men to open up about all sorts of things, particularly their health.
“We talk about our health and our problems, you wouldn’t believe the things we talk about, we go through the whole list from politics to health.
“It just goes to show that it has lasted so long, that something must be right.”
Members of the Men’s Shed shared lunch together and raised a glass to a long future of the Montrose Men’s Shed on Friday 29 September.
New members are always welcome to join and can inquire by sending an email to montrosemensshed@gmail.com
