Tool skill volunteer teacher Bridget Bell’s (above) introduced some members to their first power tools.

BAYSWATER Women’s Hub marked Women’s Shed Week by celebrating all the projects, builds, repairs and repaintings its members have accomplished this year.

The BWH is home to a tool library and a women’s workshop. Over the past year or so they’ve transformed the old kiosk, changerooms and bunker at Maylands’ Shearn Memorial Park from a dusty cobwebby shell into the first dedicated space for a women’s shed in WA.

In that time members have learned home handyman skills, repaired furniture and learned how to start a terrarium. One member has picked up a power tool for the first time, and another has rebuilt an old bookshelf into a herb garden on wheels. 

Bridget Bell is one of the hub’s tool skills volunteer teachers. 

“Teaching a willing audience is the most rewarding feeling,” she says.

“The ladies come in eager to learn and leave with a sense of accomplishment. I wish I could say it was my teaching; realistically the women are like sponges, quick to absorb any information that is shared.”

Hub chair Michelle Slater says “as a 100 per cent volunteer-run organisation, we are so incredibly proud of the accomplishments of the workshop, and the impact that the programs they delivered have had in the community”.

Women’s Workshop co-chair Renee Cabassi says they’ve got big plans in line this year, to “expand our range of workshops to include tool maintenance, a chopping board workshop, furniture upcycling, plumbing, jewellery making, watercolour painting and more”.

The not-for-profit group’s currently looking to build up member numbers at their Central Ave hub. 

They have currently got a reduced-cost pilot membership of $60 for 12 months and are looking for women of all ages and from any area to join their ranks.