National Heritage Week …..

PDMSInc will have our shed open for this event on

SATURDAY 19th May 2018

No 1 Fleet Street,

North Parramatta

We invite you to join us for a rare opportunity to learn about the history of the Parramatta North Heritage Precinct.

On Saturday, 19 May, there will be tours of the grounds throughout the day, and an opportunity to peek inside some of the heritage buildings that are not normally open to the public. Heritage and archaeology specialists will be on hand, and there will be displays of information, as well as historic images and videos.

What’s on

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  PDMSInc First Aid 2018 Refresher

PDMSInc do a First Aid Course

Members of Parramatta District Mens Shed successfully completed the Provide First Aid HLTAID003 course delivered through the Michael Hughes Foundation (MHF).

Our course presenter Kevin McSweeney instructed 14 PDMSInc members and 1 non member (through MHF) in the art of first aid. Kevin’s style was relaxed with a lot of personal experiences weaved into the instruction. This provided some very good context as to why First Aid is such an essential component for first responders / “good Samaritans” It also highlighted the need for these skills in all Mens Sheds. The course include CPR and AED (Defibrillators).

  Completing paperwork at start

                                  We got to practice everything as the course developed ……

  Rolling injured on their side

  CPR practice …. really exhausting!!!!

  Practice makes for quality

After lunch our participants were introduced to other First Aid activity, including what to do in case of snake and insect bites, scalding and electrical shocks. Of course then came the mandatory use of bandages and slings for immobilizing fractured limbs …… some of the participants really took advantage of this session to have a LOT of fun and some joking around!!!!!!

  now it’s your turn …..

  told you not to fool around…..

  Now we are getting serious … Right???

A huge THANK YOU to Kevin McSweeney and the Michael Hughes Foundation for running a great course …

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Men Care Too …. new website just launched ….

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PDSMInc wins grant for pilot Heritage Skills Initiative

  Some of the shed volunteers ready to learn

PdmsInc has been successful in winning some grant monies from Parramatta City Council (Community capacity building) for the development of a pilot program to develop heritage skill sets required in the Parramatta North Urban Transformation project area.

The executive of PDMSInc realised that here is a massive skills shortage for heritage restoration and in particular for brick pointing and sash window repair.

Over several months of meetings and discussions we are now well advanced in forming a collaboration with TAFE, Parramatta Skills Exchange to develop a program of providing initial training of local youth in these skills.

The concept is that TAFE will source the youth and provide education in on-site safety and basic tool use. This training will be nationally accredited so the youth actually walk away with some skill sets to make them more employable.

PDMSInc will then work in a mentor role with these youth to provide them with very basic skills in brick pointing and sash

  Some of the tools and specialised equipment

window repair.

So our men met on Tuesday 4th July with Mr Donald Elsmore (Heritage Architect and convenor of the Australasia Chapter for the Association for Preservation Technology International (APT)) for the first installment of getting our volunteers ready as mentors and trainers in the basics of heritage brick pointing and sash window repair.

  HERITAGE SKILLS INITIATIVE

Donald provided our members with a very detailed and interesting history of lime used as cement and why it is so important to use original techniques in modern day repair work of heritage buidlings. All of our volunteers also looked on as Donald showed how lime is prepared for use as mortar and we then examined a small section of brick wall to see first hand the deterioration and type of repair needed.

Our shed is getting close to completing a pilot program with TAFE and PSE with our first focus on providing some community based enlightenment sessions on the importance of heritage repair.

WATCH THIS SPACE FOR THESE EVENTS

THANK YOU PCC for enabling our shed to start such important community work.

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PARRAMATTA DISTRICT MEN’S SHED DELIVERS ON CHICKEN COUP

  Delivery to Courtlands of chicken coup

Courtlands Retirement Village contains a wing for Dementia patients, So as part of their care, staff at Courtlands decided to see how a Chicken Coup would work as an activity.

Courtlands approached our shed to build a custom coup. A couple of our men decide it would be a great challenge …. one of the men having never built anything like this previously. So after some plan drawing and minor changes from Courtlands’ “Sherene Noble” the project started.

After several months of steady work and some head scratching the men finished the coup to the absolute delight of Sherene …..

  Final resting place

  Patients can see the coup from the lounge area

Courtlands are so excited with their new chicken coup and will be introducing chickens to their new home quickly.

ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL outcome thanks to wonderful group of volunteers having fun!!!!!

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  Anzac day white crosses

ANZAC DAY Crosses delivered

Our shed was approached to construct approximately 20 white crosses. These were to then be individually engraved with the veteran’s name. The veteran was a Parramatta citizen.

The crosses had to be of specific dimensions and the crossbar had to be made so it could be engraved and then re-assembled.

This project was done in record time …. we had about two weeks notice from concept to delivery …..

ANOTHER JOB WELL RECEIVED, ON TIME AND LOOKING FANTASTIC.

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  LING’s Garden toolBox

Garden Box for Sorrel Lane Parramatta

As part of the close working relationship with Parramatta City Council and the UPCYCLE project, our shed was requested to make a Garden Box for the Sorrel Lane community garden.

The brief was that it had to be constructed from recycled materials. It had to be lockable and secured in concrete footings for the storage of garden tools.

Our inventive men set to work gathering old hardwood fences and surplus timbers from patios. They constructed the box and then delivered it to site.

  Garden Box for Sorrel Lane community garden

Locks were sourced and fitted. The timber was finished with weatherproofing varnish

and sanded and cleaned to make sure there were no exposed corners or items that could cause an injury by way of scratches on the like.

  Attaching the lock

On site holes were dug and the metal legs cemented in making sure that it will never be moved or removed form the site easily.

JOB WELL DONE BOYS ……….

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Geoff LEE (MP) visit

Geoff LEE (MP for Parramatta) VISITS OUR SHED  to take delivery of hand made pens on 28th November 2016

One of shed members (Frank Zelasko) has become an avid pen maker and has perfected the art to a standard where our Local MP ordered several of these boxed pens as momento’s. The honourable Mr Lee intends to give these pens as gifts on his upcoming visit overseas.

Our avid Pen maker FRANK.

One of the key factors that led to this purchase was the fact that Frank has included in each pen set a history detailing where the timber came from and the type of timber it is …. each pen is unique in it’s history and timber type.

Similar pen sets are now also available at the Parramatta Heritage and Tourism center, and of course from our shed.