Finding a Home (2009-2011)
–
Finding a Home
By 2009, the fledgling Shed committee had been loaned and donated several pieces of woodworking machinery and needed somewhere secure to keep them. Several existing buildings and vacant sites around Ku-ring-gai were assessed and rejected — inadequate, opposed by neighbours, or simply not favoured by Council staff. The committee settled on a derelict sports building at Howson Oval as interim storage: wall panelling smashed, floor rotten with termites, no power. Council upgraded the electrics; members repaired the floor themselves (after one fell straight through it) and made it workable. A donated 20 ft shipping container gave extra storage, and an early unsolicited grant from Bendigo Bank helped buy tools. It was here, at Howson Oval, that members turned out the Shed’s first community projects — Boccia slides for the Cerebral Palsy Association and nesting boxes for WIRES.
Choosing St Ives Showground
Council staff had favoured other spots around the Showground, and some members at Howson Oval worried the St Ives site was too far away to be practical. But a walk-around of the site won everyone over — it was close to amenities and could be readily connected to power. The Cowra Shed Company was engaged to design and build the new shed; most other builders approached wouldn’t take on the whole job (engineering, concrete and construction together). Council paperwork — survey, arborist report, fire safety, flora & fauna, security — was largely arranged pro bono through members’ contacts, saving an estimated $20,000+.
Raising the Shed (September 2010 – February 2011)
Construction of the shell ran from September 2010 to February 2011. The concrete slab went down in June 2010, with a concrete pump truck and a crew of members and contractors smoothing and edging it into shape. The steel frame went up soon after — by August, photos show the bare skeleton of the building standing among the gum trees, cladding and roof going on around it. By September, with its roof up but still an open shell, members had nicknamed the building “St Ives Cathedral” for its soaring, vaulted roofline. Fit-out — wall linings, window frames and electrics — was carried out concurrently, largely by members themselves working weekends.
Opening the Doors (January – March 2011)
By late January 2011 the shed stood finished and equipped: neat workbenches, a brand-new Nova wood lathe, and a wall of hand tools hung and labelled with the same care members had brought to the build itself.
First Community Projects
Among the earliest projects out of the new workshop were nesting boxes for WIRES wildlife rescue — demonstrated with a soft toy, “Percy Possum”, perched on a sample box to show visitors exactly how it would be used — alongside Boccia slides for the Cerebral Palsy Association. These small, community-minded jobs set the tone for everything the Shed would go on to make over the next decade.
