Harvey Men’s Shed has ‘one duck lined up’ being allocated a plot of land to establish a permanent shed

The Harvey Men’s Shed opened the doors to its temporary space in March this year, and for the past few months has been working to make the space a home.

But now, the crew can start planning their permanent home with the Shire of Harvey voting to support the shed with a plot of land in town.

The Shire of Harvey and the Men’s Shed proposed two locations to erect the new building with Lot 8 next to the Harvey Bowling Club on the corner of Roy and Wright streets being the members’ ideal spot.

However, councillors instead opted to vote unanimously for the vacant block next to the Harvey Italian Club on Young Street.

Giving a deputation to the council at the August meeting, shed secretary Paul Beech expressed disappointment with the outcome because their business case had been designed with Lot 8 as their future site.

However, he said they were ready to move forward and embrace the decision.

“The Harvey Men’s Shed seeks no more and no less than what has been previously offered to the Leschenault, Brunswick and Yarloop Men’s Shed,” Mr Beech said.

“We do hope to not be a financial burden on the shire and will do our very best to get this funded from other sources.”

At the meeting Cr Wendy Dickinson said she commended the Men’s Shed and its community for putting forward the proposal.

“It (Men’s Sheds) is very good for mental health, and as we have seen with the other Men’s Sheds in the shire it can be a hard yard to begin, but they become very well supported,” she said.

Cr Craig Carbone said the land approval would give members security to go forward with the development of the shed.

Cr Joe Capogreco said he wanted to be the first one to put his hand up to join.

After the vote, Mr Beech said they now had “one duck lined up”.

Men’s Shed president Jeff Gale said design work would start soon.

“We’re happy with progress, even if it’s been a little bit slow,” he said.

“We’re getting there and we can’t do much more than that.”