Green Island Shed

Tucked away next to St Peter Chanel Parish in Green Island is a collection of shipping containers. This is the Green Island Shed, a space to cultivate creativity, build connections and exchange knowledge.

Filled to the brim with tools, machinery and materials, the community space becomes a hub of activity on Monday, Friday and Saturday mornings as up to 15 members meet to hammer, saw, nail and screw together a wide range of items.

The Green Island Shed began after a local survey revealed interest in creating a men’s shed. When David’s wife volunteered him for the job, he took it on and found some land to get things started. The project quickly grew from there. Initially, two containers were secured through a grant, but one needed a new roof, and the second had to be cut in half to be moved.

Shed member Bruce Cromb said while some sheds catered exclusively to men, Green Island Shed opened its doors to everyone, regardless of gender.

"It has never been a man’s shed, it’s a community shed, we have ladies and everything here."

Since forming in 2017, the group have taken on many different projects, often benefiting local community groups. Recent projects include creating a wooden playhouse and a colourful blue imaginative play boat for a local kindergarten.

The group also make items to sell at the Green Island Market Day and the Brighton Gala Day, proceeds going back to keep the community group operating. Since then, the shed has been largely self-funded, with income coming from selling pallets for kindling at the rummage centre, as well as a contract with Puzzling World in Wānaka to produce their Einstein following faces .

Shed member David Mackle said it had been supplied with a vacuum-forming machine to create moulds of "following faces" for the amusement centre. These are plastic moulds of historical figures, including Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln, which seem to follow you when they are backlit by a light source. Income from this contract helped sustain the shed’s operations and ensured its future, Mr Mackle said.

Find the Shed on our directory: https://greatergreenisland.nz/directory/40/green-island-shed

Link to their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TheGreenIslandShed/