Albury Men’s Shed was formerly known as Albury North Manual Activity Centre, or “The MAC”, and was built by Albury North Rotary Club, with operations commencing in 1978. The MAC was the brain child of Jim De Kruiff who saw a similar set up in his old factory in Holland on a return trip to his homeland. The management of his old factory discovered that their employees were retiring at 65 years and they were dying by the age of 67. To try and address this, they set up a disused shed with old equipment and told retiring employees that if they wished to, they could get these machines working and make whatever they liked in the shed at the back of their factory. Some of their employees retired, with pay, on Friday and returned to work on their own projects on Monday, without pay.
Albury North Rotary Club built the physical building, using members who were bricklayers, builders, metalworkers, transport operators etc.
In the years since the “Shed” has been operating, it has been run variously by The Albury North Rotary Club, Albury City Council, and Aged Concern. In 2014, the Manual Activity Centre was handed over to the Manual Activity Centre Committee run by Aged Concern and they became Incorporated in the same year. In 2016, we Joined the Australian Men’s Shed Association.
Albury Men’s Shed has continued with the “MAC's” philosophy of having members making their own projects and carrying out small projects for charities or members of the public. We do not believe in being in competition with businesses that earn their livelihood from making commercial projects.
The Shed has three main workshops, one for wood project assembly, another for wood working machinery, and a metal fabrication workshop. It also boasts a kitchen, meeting room, and facilities including disabled facilities.
Full membership of the Shed allows members to participate in all aspects of Shed life. Alternatively, a "Coffee Club" membership is available for men who do not wish to use the workshops. Facilities available in the meeting room are a TV set, DVD player, and a computer with free internet access.
Although the Shed normally operates on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, on occasional Thursdays, a guest speakeris invited to give a presentation on topics that the Committee think are appropriate and may be of interest to members and their spouses.
The wood machine workshop has the following equipment: bandsaws, thicknessers, jointers, compound mitre saws, a double drum sander, wood lathes, disc sanders, linisher, drill presses, scroll saws amongst other equipment.These machines are connected to dust extraction systems which the Shed built in 2016. There are also numerous hand held power tools and battery operated drills.
In the metal workshop, there are metal lathes, a MIG welder, a vertical milling machine, a magnetic bender, one pan break, bench grinders, metal cutting bandsaws, horizontal metal cutting bandsaw, a 20 ton press, bench shears and drill dresses as well as numerous hand tools and battery operated drills.
Albury Men’s Shed has a Full member annual fee and a Coffee Club member annual fee. This Full member fee covers the use of all machinery as well as the cost of maintenance of equipment together with common workshop consumables. Other timber & metal can be accessed by making a small donation to the shed. All members are covered for insurance purposes through insurances arranged by the Australian Men's Shed Association.
All members are required to undergo a basic induction process about the Shed's facilities, and additionally Full members are required to have instruction on the machines they wish to use together with a brief multiple choice safety test.
Members are also asked to make a gold coin attendance donation to cover morning tea, coffee and biscuits.
The Shed does not have to sell raffle tickets or conduct BBQ’s to raise money to keep operating. It relies on donations from organisations & members of the public when asked to make small projects that would not be profitable for commercial manufactures. Members with the appropriate skills may be asked to volunteer to assist with these tasks.