Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday it was by absolute privilege and pleasure to attend the official opening of the Parramatta District Men's Shed. It is an organisation which I saw form some time ago. I went to the launch a few months ago when they first got access to a wonderful space down in Fleet Street in north Parramatta. But yesterday we saw it all come together with an official opening. The rooms which were almost derelict until a few months ago are now filled with some very large tools—which I am looking forward to getting to use—and they have a wood area and a metal room, which is quite wonderful.

It is great to see another men's shed open in my district. I would like to acknowledge some of the people who worked so hard to make this happen, particularly Doug Mackay, Kerry Boyce—the president and treasurer respectively—who are now on their second men's shed. They were instrumental in opening the Northmead Men's Shed just a few kilometres north. Having done that one, they moved down to Parramatta and started work on another one. So they are well and truly veterans. I would also like to acknowledge Larry Flood and Rob Colless. I know that team of four, supported by a large number of other people, have worked tirelessly to open what is a really interesting space.

I would like to acknowledge also the land on which the Men's Shed sits, because it is an unusual piece of land. It was originally a sacred women's site for the Barramattagal clan on the banks of the Parramatta River. Then, 170 years ago as of last week, it became the Roman Catholic orphanage, the first purpose-built orphanage for girls, next door to the female convict factory, which was also the first convict factory for women. That site then became the mechanical institute for girls and the Parramatta Girls Home, so it has actually been a site for the incarceration of women for nearly 220 years. I would like to acknowledge Bonnie Djuric, who was one of the Parramatta girls, who has worked so hard to bring a space with a terrible history back into public use to be a place of hope and joy.

The presence of the Men's Shed is very much a part of that. It brings two classrooms, which the girls in the Parramatta Girls Home used when they went to school, back into the public space, and the men are committed to making the Men's Shed a very open community space as part of the healing of what is an incredible piece of Parramatta.

I was talking to one gentleman, who is a member, who summed up the purpose of Men's Sheds. He was saying he was recently retired and does not particularly like going to the pub and he looks for a place where he can go when he wants to have a chat to other men and enjoy himself, which is very rare in our community. So congratulations to the Parramatta District Men's Shed for a great job.