But the movement is also spreading across Maitland, with other groups established in Thornton and Gillieston Heights.

And a centralised Maitland shed is scheduled to be operational within months.

Catholic Care won a $1.1 million Federal Government grant to build the Maitland Men’s Shed in September, also covering the employment of coordinators for the centre and the Hunter Valley Cluster Group, which has 16 member sheds across the region.

The Maitland shed will be built in Jubilee Street, East Maitland, on Crown land gazetted to Men’s Shed Maitland, an incorporated community committee with membership from Rotary and Lions clubs across the city.

Peter Garnham is the committee’s chairman.

He said the establishment of the shed was a response to a need in the community to provide a focal point for men’s activities.

The committee signed a memorandum of understanding with CatholicCare Hunter-Manning in 2008 as the auspicing body to assist with securing funding.

CatholicCare Hunter-Manning community development manager Liz Macdonald said the organisation would be involved in the Maitland project as the holder of the grant for 18 months.

“We act in a caretaker role. We come in, we offer our expertise, in Maitland’s case we sourced funding, and we were successful,” she said.

The organisation boasts expertise in the running of men’s sheds, starting with the region’s first group at Windale, which opened in 2006 and has become an example to other groups.

Ms Macdonald said the members of the Windale group were successful at forming relationships with the community.

“They do things like repairing bikes, and they ran a project that involved local primary school kids with their parents or guardians,” she said.

“The kids came down, they made a bike, and they kept it.

“Then the police ran a safety workshop for bikes.”

But activities at other groups were wide and varied depending on the membership.

“They’re making baby cradles, miniature kitchens – it just depends on who comes to the shed, if someone is a woodturner, it depends on the skills the men have,” Ms Macdonald said.

Jack Thieme, appointed as the coordinator for the Maitland Men’s Shed, said its purpose would depend on the men who joined the group, what they wanted to do and what skills they had.

But while the Men’s Shed concept puts idle hands to work, David Helmers, Lake Macquarie coordinator of the Shed at Windale and Australian Men’s Shed Association executive officer, said the organisation fell into men’s health as a method of prevention, particularly targeting social isolation.

“Social isolation can lead to substance abuse and the issues that come with that,” he said.

“New health policies look at more preventative health and men’s sheds have fallen into that as a preventative of social isolation.

“For most men, working life and social life is the same thing.

“So when men retire, they become isolated.”

The Australian Men’s Shed Association has formed partnerships with Beyond Blue, Mensline and the Royal College of General Practitioners.

Mr Helmers said the groups were specially placed as a health initiative.

“We can do what a lot of other groups can’t, and that’s reach men at a grass-roots level,” he said.

“We have done surveys that show the work people do in Men’s Sheds is 10 per cent of the concept: the major attraction is the companionship.”

Mr Thieme hopes to have a core membership of the Maitland Men’s Shed before the building is complete.

Anyone interested in joining, or who can offer materials or sponsorship, can phone him on 0457 721 473.