Call on your SHED mate - Think on Good

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Call on your SHED mate

Episode 10 • 18th April 2026 • Think on Good • Think on Good

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Think. on good. Hello and welcome to Think on Good. Coming up, do you feel lonely or are you

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experiencing social loneliness? According to a Relationships Australia survey, 1 in 5 Australians

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said they often feel lonely and 28% said they are experiencing social loneliness. Today we find out

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how one community group is gaining momentum to connect people across the Sunshine Coast,

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Australia and even the globe. Think on good is the place to share inspirational stories and learn

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about building a healthy mind through community connections, therapy programs and resources. As

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loneliness is being reported to be on the increase, we look to one community group offering

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the benefits of friendship, connection, learning skills and having a little fun at the same time.

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Growing from the small local drop ins in the 80s to registering the Australian Men's Shed

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Association in: 2007

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reliable and rewarding local group connectors of our time. To find out more, we say hello to Peter

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Siney, who leads the Maroochy Men's Shed on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Welcome, Peter. Siney. How

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are you today? Excellent. Thank you. Why did you get involved with Men's Shed? I lost my wife seven

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years ago, and somebody came along and said, you ought to come along and have a look at the men's

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shed. And that I did. And yeah, it was a great thing to have done about probably five years ago. Yeah,

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five years ago now. So you've done a lot in that time. What are some of the things that you've seen

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at Maroochy Men's Shed in this time? Yeah, we've done a lot of things that the local government

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have come along and asked us to do things. Birds, cages and what a feral cat cages recently,

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30 tables that they want for a function that's happening down at Mooloolaba. Um, various things

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like that. So we do a lot of those things. Um, and there's a lot of people coming in with wanting

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the leg of a chair fixed or small items that you couldn't get done elsewhere. So that's

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that's a lot of the enjoyment of seeing all that. We've had a few of the rocking horses that they

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used to have like 100 years ago to 50 years ago that have been restored. And they brought them

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in here and the guys have done magic jobs with things like that. Yeah. And so what are some of the

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skills that are being learned? Not so much learned here. It's not a class situation, but the guys that

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there are tradesmen there. And when they have projects they do them. And if some guy is keen to

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find out a bit more about how and what's done, they can assist. But we don't run any such thing

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as classes or anything of that nature in the workshop. There's probably 30 odd

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guys involved with the workshop, probably 20 odd guys involved with the administration side of it,

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and there's about 160 odd members. The rest of them don't do much. But that's the ethos of men's

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sheds, so they're uniquely different in every area. Aren't they about the people that are actually

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members? How do you become a member? Um, I prefer that somebody comes along to a couple of meetings

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beforehand to check it out and see what they think of it, and then consider an application. The

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guys here, if I'm not about they'll just give them an application form and say fill that out. So

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there are various ways about it, I guess. But a lot of the guys that come here because their wife has

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said, why don't you go to the men shed and just get away from under my feet for a while? So that's

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how we get a lot of them. We have a sign up here which says husband minding $5 a week. Uh, that's

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probably pretty accurate in some instances. Yes. It's pretty straightforward, isn't it? So then when

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you're looking at things like IT and sharing information every week, how does that help? Like

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when you're looking out for, say for instance, scams or how to operate a computer. Although the

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sort of things that that happen at Maroochy Men's Shed, they are in fact Neil that you saw earlier.

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Uh, he's one of the IT guys, and without him, I would be lost. I wouldn't be on here now, actually,

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if it wasn't for Neil. But yeah, it's really good to have guys like that. And we've got them doing a

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guest speaking role for us on this coming Tuesday, which is to do with the AI.

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And they've helped us out with a lot of stuff with, uh, with computers, but with AI, that's

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something that we are just blown away with the advances that are being made. And Neil and one of

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the other guys, Gary, will be, um, doing a half hour, 40 minute talk on, on what AI

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is actually doing. And that'll brighten lifts our views on things as well, I imagine. That's great.

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And you also have a singing competition going on from time to time, and in particular in Queensland.

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How does this work? It's it's a songwriting competition as well as a singing. It is actually a

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songwriting competition. Just one of our members here is involved in one of the barbershop

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quartettes in around the town here up in Buderim, and he's into the music a bit. And he

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was one of those involved in the singing group last year when Coolum ran their singing song fest.

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And our guys, about 11 of them, I think that there were participated in that. But Merv, one of the

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guys from here, thought it would be good if we could have some of them compose their own songs.

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So he threw it out there and, um, called for applications. I'm not sure exactly what the

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response is at this stage is that we've had quite a few applications have come in. A little bit more

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behind the scenes when we have things like disaster events. How does the Men's Shed group get

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together and support each other. Probably, um, not so much during the

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event itself, but at a later date. Possibly so after the event, we're spread from

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Caloundra to Coolum, which is a pretty vast area, and most of the guys

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from Maroochydore, Bli, Bli areas close by, but the guys are spread that far and wide, so it may

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not necessarily affect all of the guys. At the one time we've not had anything like that with the

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shed itself. We've had a couple of storms and things like that since we've been in this

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premises about, what, 21? I think we came in December 21st. Um, but we've had nothing that's

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affected us in that way. The only thing, not so much that but with Covid, when that started

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and, um, one of the guys is now 94. Um, but he, he lives for

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the shed and he burst into tears and said, when we were told that we cannot meet anymore. That

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he said, well, I've got to have the company I've got. He's got to be able to see you guys. So we

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picked an area in a park where half a dozen guys would go down there, take a kettle, and

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there. All their thermoses or whatever. And it started off with five, and then they enabled us to

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have more people meeting. We finished up with 20 or 30 blokes down there and we said, well, this is

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yeah, until we can go back into the shed again. But that was, that was very, very important to, to one of

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those old guys that reckon he couldn't get by a week without seeing the guys from the shed. What

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would you say to other men who have retired or are looking at retirement or, or simply living by

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themselves? What would you say to them about Man's Shed and how it helps with loneliness? Yeah, well,

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just to to go and find out, go online, find out what shed may be near you. When? None. None of the

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two are sorry, you wouldn't get two. That would be the same. They would all vary, so you may go to one

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and not necessarily like it. Well, then go and check out at another. Um, but you will find that, uh,

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the comradery that is shown from men's sheds is great. You may have a couple of grumpy old blokes

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in each shed. And if that's the first person that you talk to. Probably not a good impression, but

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yeah, I have found it fantastic here. There's probably half a dozen guys that are real

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personalities that stir things up and make things happen. And but without them, it just wouldn't be

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the same. Um, but yeah, I love it for the blokes that are in it. And can you give an example of a

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life saving scenario that's happened in men's shed, like, um, sharing health information, say, for

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instance? Yeah, there's an organisation called it's a Blokes thing and they deal

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specifically with It's prostate and or prostate problems and prostate cancer, etc. and

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we've had a guest speaker from there, Ruth Logan, who has been here three times over the nearly

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four years I've been president. Um, and she is such a delight. Handles it well. But she came along at

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one time, and she was so insistent that you guys should know your PSA. Do you know your PSA in

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about four hands went up. Uh, so she said you should have that checked out. And a couple of the

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guys did go and do just that. One of them had a lot of resistance from his doctor and said, oh, you

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don't need that. No, no, don't worry about that. But he insisted. And in fact, the PSA was not good. So

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they did further test and it was the life saving situation because he then had surgery done and

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was it came out okay. Um, and he attributes his life now to, to

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that particular day when this woman said, you guys have got to have your PSA checks. So and there was

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another one at a later time as well. Had the same scenario. So it helps to share some information

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doesn't it helps to have the chat weekly chat. But it's for friendships and mateships But it's also

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good for helping with information about health. Health is a big thing. They do say men's sheds are

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for the purpose of men's health. That's the ethos of the whole thing. So whether it's

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a combination of medical things that you're finding out or the guest speakers that we have

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predominantly to do with health, um, whether it's somebody doctor coming along talking about

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looking after your skin better or whether it's, uh, somebody coming along and speaking about dental

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or. But yeah, predominantly our guest speakers are along those lines, but we do have others to do

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with the, the tech. And I try to get a few either sporting or, um, celebrity

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entertaining people coming in now and again just to break it up a little bit. But it is prominently

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health. Um, that's that's the most important thing of the whole thing. And even just conversation

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with the other blokes is a big thing towards health. Yeah. Mental health. Yeah, that's very

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important. And thank you for sharing all of that information with us today. It encourages others to

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get along and check out Men's Shed. There is a Queensland Men's Shed Association of which we are

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a member, and also the Australian Men's Shed Association, of which we have less to do with. But

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we do work in very well with the Queensland Men's Shed Association. So even to flick onto there to

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find out, they would have probably all the clubs that are members to find out what might

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be near them to to go and check it out. And I advised that they should. Oh that's great Peter.

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Now, just briefly, before you go, what's your favourite quote or saying? It's funny you say that

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because when I started as president, I used to sign everything off with Keep on Smiling. But in

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more recent times I've had to add a bit to that. So I generally finish off whether it's on the

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bottom of a report or correspondence of some time with um, for Pete's sake, share the

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load, but keep on smiling. So that's that's my tagline, I guess, and maybe remembered for that,

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that guys will try and share it around a bit more rather than the same guys doing all the work.

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Um, and also keep on smiling. And we do tell a lot of jokes here and have a lot of fun in that way,

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which is also great for the mental health. Sounds good. Sounds good. Peter, thanks for joining us

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today. It's been my pleasure. Australian Men's Shed Association began in

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harity growing with more than: 1000

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including one in Maroochydore, Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Each shed reflects the unique skills

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and abilities that the local men bring to their group. Some of the group projects to get involved

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with include woodwork, repairs, IT and singing, or simply a weekly chat. Go to the national

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website to find the links to the Shared Wireless podcasts about success stories with JPY (John Paul Young).

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Research from the Beyond Blue: 2013

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Health and Mental Wellbeing provides an overview of the many benefits to being part of a shelter. A place

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to discuss health issues including mental health symptoms without stigma or judgement, as well as

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building general wellbeing through connection. Single or retired men get to share and learn new

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skills, give back to the community and meet new friends. It's easy to join. Go to the website of

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Maroochy Men's Shed or the Queensland website, or the National Men's Sheds website to find a shed

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local to you. All men are welcome to register membership. There are some sheds that hold a group

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for women, however, this depends on the location. The national website is mens shed.org. There are many

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free events in your local communities. Some additional resources to get connected can be

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found at your local libraries and council. Listening to community radio for local free

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events and for the young men lads connect on Instagram. Think on good is a program offering

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information for mind health and is not intended to replace medical treatment, professional advice

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or diagnosis. If you or someone you know is experiencing mental health symptoms for immediate

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: 1114

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thanks to our sponsors and contributors. Until next time, we hope you find the right connections

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and think on good. Think on

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good.