Excursion to Castlemaine and Newstead 11th February 2020

Once again, a good time was had by all at the excursion to Castlemaine.

Some members decided to head up there by train, others by car.

First stop was the Paddock Eco Village, about 1.5 km from the centre. The intention is to create a beautiful place to live for people who enjoy a green lifestyle. Architect-designed highly efficient homes will be made from timber and some recycled brick, will range in size from 2 to 4 bedrooms, occupying sites between 84 to 120 square metres including a private front and back garden.

Then the group visited the Newstead Men's Shed, about 15km out of town. They gave us a very tasty BBQ lunch and we headed back to the Castlemaine Men's Shed where we were made very welcome before leaving to return to Melbourne.

Werribee and Westgate Park  8th October 2019

A fabulous excursion down to Envision in Werribee and then a BBQ lunch and guided tour around Westgate Park (where the pink lake is just below the bridge.)

Envision have a warehouse where they engage in all sorts of recycling activities. One area has a "machine", for making rope out of used drink pottles, another area is for dismantling used coffee machines and sending the components to other organisations for more value adding. And of course there's the prosthetic limb section which uses plastic bottle tops as its raw material.

Westgate Park was a pleasant surprise. Over the years it's been transformed into a true native garden with native plants and birds. In the water there are even turtles and yabbies.

Sale and Traralgon  8th October 2019

A group of us met at 8.30 at Caulfield Station and headed off to Sale via Traralgon. Not quite a fast train but much more relaxing than driving there.

By midday we were having a coffee at the Sale Men's Shed, a great $18 counter lunch (including a beer or soft drink) before a heritage cruise along the Thompson River to the historic Swing Bridge. A great day.

Thanks Gregor.

Outing to Dingley, Moorabbin and Cheltenham 15th August 2019.

The excursion to the Dingley Men’s Shed, Australian National Aviation Museum and Motor Cycle Café was organised by Gregor Howie and as expected, it was extremely worthwhile and enjoyable. 

The Men’s Shed has 180+ members and is extremely well set up in two large sheds, one housing the machinery and the other, the kitchen and the community areas.

David Alsop showed us around the Aircraft Museum which was fascinating.  A very wide range of aircraft and historical artefacts were on display and we were able to get up close to all of them.

The Naked Racer Bar Café was a memorabilia lover’s delight.  It was full of over 250  Indian and other historical Motorcycles.

Activities Day July 4th 2019

On Thursday 4th July 2019, ten members and friends travelled by Stonnington Council's bus to Victoria's largest desalination plant at Wonthaggi to experience how Victoria's water supply is being supplemented.

The plant has a guaranteed production capacity of 150 billion litres of water a year and the capability to expand to 200 billion litres a year - enough to fill 178 Olympic size swimming pools every single day.

Rosemary gave us an audio visual presentation and explined how the plant operates. She also conducted a site tour (in our bus) around the plant, indicating what activity occurred in the numerous buildings.

All agreed that the ninety minutes was well spent and we all had a much better idea of what benefit Victorians are receiving because of this facility.

Following this visit, at lunch time we feasted on fish and chips adjacent to the Phillip Island causeway and then proceeded to the National Vietnam Veterans Museum on the island. This was a fascinating place consisting of many outstandingly presented displays of Australia's involvement in that conflict. There were numerous static exhibits of aircraft, helicopters, vehicles and other equipment used in the war, each with their own story explained by our volunteer guide.

The museum is a working museum, meaning that volunteers continue to work on restoring existing and new exhibits.
Regrettably, our time there was too short (just about sixty minutes), but one could well spend at least a good half day there to do justice to the numerous presentations and stories that the volunteers have so carefully put together.

Further information available from www.aquasure.com.au for the desal plant and from www.vietnamvetsmuseum.org for the National Vietnam Veterans Museum.

Paul Rankin