“This idea of starting a Caloundra Women’s Shed has been in my head since I saw and also visited Nell Harvey’s Coolum Women’s Shed over 4 yrs ago, and have watched their progress over the past couple of years.   Last March, I saw that they had established an annual Australian Women’s Shed Week from 6-12th March, it reignited my enthusiasm to get one started here in Caloundra.

So at the end of January this year, I talked to a few girlfriends – we just sat around and chatted to see if it was something that we thought would be worthwhile pursuing, and putting the work and effort into, to create here in Caloundra.  The following week’s meeting we all brought a friend along too.  So, after deciding that we would see what interest we could get from the local community, I started a Facebook page and it has just grown and grown from there and we now have 40 paid Founding members.  

We were very fortunate to have some key people come on board with the skills we needed to become established as a Not for Profit community organisation. As a result of a GoFundMe page we raised enough money to pay establishment costs.  We also submitted an editorial in My Weekly Preview and as a result we were offered a “shed” as a venue for 3 days Friday – Sunday by Eliza Pike from Blackbird House and since then have started putting together our activities and classes that will draw women together from all age groups to learn, support, and have fun together.

We are planning where we want to be in 6 months and 2-5 years’ time and how we will achieve these goals and of course our primary objective will be to find a permanent meeting place for 5+ days a week that can cater to the sort of activities that we would like to offer for the number of members that we expect to attract.  

Our first Annual General Meeting was held on 24th June 2023 in Blackbird Nest, behind Blackbird House, 34 Oval Avenue Caloundra Qld.4551. This is where we now have classes and activities on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday, thanks to Eliza Pike who has kindly leased it to us for 6 months! 

As at the end of July, we now have nearly 70 paid members!”