Skinks and geckos are lizards – the only two native families of lizard found in New Zealand.
Our skink and gecko species have been around a long time – at least 20 million years. They occur only in New Zealand. Some species are restricted to habitats found only in Otago.
As these habitats change, our skinks and gecko’s are threatened.
This week the team at the MenShed have been finalising the design of a prototype home to aid our lizards.
It will offer a living space safe from predators.
The design will be trialed in our region to determine whether it can make a positive contribution to the future of our local reptiles.
The Upper Clutha is home to an amazing array of insects. Many are unique reflecting our dry and alpine environments.
Iconic among New Zealand insects is the Weta.
Species of Weta are found among our highest alpine peaks down to forests along the shores of our lakes.
Recently the team at the MenShed have been fabricating safe homes or refuges for tree weta from recycled materials – material which would have otherwise been dumped.
Furthermore each is designed to enable kids (and adults) to see and check how the Weta are progressing.
A great initiative to promote awareness and interest in the insect world.
A weta home is assembled
This week our first weta homes were assembled during the monthly visit to the Wanaka Community Workshop by MINT.
MINT is a community agency that supports those in our community, right across the upper Clutha area with intellectual disabilities.
This month Di dropped in to give the team at the MenShed a hand.
She joined JimBob in creating a small table – a table for kids to try out their woodworking skills. A table upon which a hammer may be used, a saw or a screwdriver.
Thanks to JimBob, the design of the table is simple and sturdy.
The materials are all recycled. Without the Wanaka Community Workshop they would otherwise have been dumped.
Its great to support the interest of children in woodworking. Encouraging an early interest in building and re-use is something we can all be proud of.
Its great to experience what the Friends of Bullock Creek have established over the years.
The restoration of the natural environment and the development of of walkways and informative signage is a joy.
The Friends are more than this however.
The Friends act as guardians to ensure the natural waters of Bullock Creek and our Lake are protected and enhanced. For this future generations will thank the Friends of Bullock Creek.
The team at the MenShed this week completed a second batch of timber for the Friends of Bullock Creek. The timber has been used further extend the boardwalk.
A raised section of the new walkwayThe walkway extension leads to a great lookout
You owe it to yourself – get up and have a look at what the Friends of Bullock Creek are creating. Join them and make a difference.
Wanaka Backyard Trapping is a community organisation all about giving the local native wildlife a hand. They do this by enabling residents across the Upper Clutha to trap predators in their backyards.
Wanaka Backyard Trapping manages a trap library. People can borrow for free traps from the library to target rats, stoats and other predators that threaten our endangered wildlife.
The trap library is hosted at the Wanaka Community Workshop. The library is easy to find. Its located right out front of the Workshop on Gordon Road.
While the MenShed team built the library it is managed day to day by Wanaka Backyard Trapping.
Until recently all the traps were out and about in backyards across the Upper Clutha. A few are now back – contact Wanaka Backyard Trapping to pick one up.
Together we can make a difference for the wildlife across all our backyards.
fabricate is located within the Wanaka Community Workshop. Fabricate is providing opportunities for members of the community to learn skills associated with textiles and clothing.
Its early days for fabricate and final fitting out of the workspace is underway.
The team from the MenShed right next door is helping out.
New shelving for donated cloth and textiles being eased into place.
This month desks have been built for newly arrived sewing machines.
Shelving has also been built and installed to store within easy reach cloth and textiles which continue to flow in from community donations.
The donations will make a real difference for those learning new skills. Its also a great way to use, upcycle and recycle materials.
The team at the MenShed gathers each Tuesday and Thursday mornings. During this time we make stuff – often from recycled materials and always for the community.
However during this time there is always time for a brew.
Its a great opportunity to catch up and solve the worlds problems. This week we also welcomed back Sue. Sue started what I am sure will be a new tradition – Sue returned with scones!
An organisation made up of passionate people working toward empowering communities to understand natural waters such as lakes and streams, their environment, and their impact.
The team from the MenShed regularly work with WAI Wānaka.
This week the team delivered a interactive display board that will be used to help explain to school children the importance of the natural waters that occurs within the environment. The board was designed together and then built by the team from the MenShed.
Lets hope the kids enjoy it – and learn things as well!
Disks to measure water clarity will aid the WAI Wānaka team monitor the health of of our natural waters.
The display board was not the only delivery this week to WAI Wānaka.
Six disks have been created. When painted they will help measure the clarity of waters in our streams, springs, lakes and rivers.
We very much appreciate the opportunity to work with WAI Wānaka. Together community groups can make a real difference for our natural environment and the wellbeing of future generations.
This week the MenShed team from the Wanaka Community Workshop prepared a small seedling tray The tray is the first of a dozen or more that will be distributed to pre schools across the Upper Clutha.
The idea is the brain child of Jo from the Te Kākano Aotearoa Trust.
Te Kākano Aotearoa Trust is our community-based native plant nursery which specializes in propagating plants of local origin for the restoration of local habitats.
Getting our kids involved in growing plants contributes to their growing an appreciation of our natural environment.
The Wanaka Community Workshop exists to make a difference – a difference for our community, for our natural environment.
We very much appreciate it when our efforts are recognised.
We especially appreciate it when this appreciation is in the form of donations that support our efforts.
Lynn River, the premier supplier of New Zealand workplace safety needs have made a difference for us.
Lynn River have donated a comprehensive range of safety equipment for those who work at the Wanaka Community Workshop – our volunteers and supporters.
Safety glasses and shields, gloves, dust masks and hearing protection – for both adults and kids – will help ensure our workplace is safe. We want our volunteers and supporters to go home safe and sound following their time working with us.
Lynn River helping make our workplaces safe both nation wide and at the Wanaka Community Workshop.
A few weeks back the team at the MenShed completed new nesting platforms for the Wanaka population of the rare and endangered Crested Grebes.
The platforms were of an enhanced design that reflected experience with the birds over recent years.
The platforms were recently placed into Roys Bay near the marina and just offshore from the new walkway.
The greatest visual innovation with the platforms is that they have been painted.
Over Matariki local kids added their artwork to each platform. As a result it will easier for each of us the track how the nesting Grebes and chicks are progressing next spring.
Getting the new generation of local residents involved with ensuring the health and wellbeing of our Crested Grebes is a great initiative.
Wanaka Community Workshop is delighted to announce that ITM Southern Lakes has come onboard as the Gold Sponsor for the Trust. Photo of Hemi Karamaena Representing ITM and Allan Harvey of the WCW MenShed.
A not for profit charitable trust, Wanaka Community Workshop (WCW) operations is heavily reliant on volunteer time, contestable funding and community goodwill to meet its operating budget and outgoing expenses, while balancing the need to deliver the trust’s purposes, which are to build community resilience by enabling community connection; creating social situations where people can develop new skills; and reducing waste in the construction sector.
“Grants pay for things like tools, but sponsorship in the form of cash is a massive boost. Thanks to ITM’s support, Wanaka Community Workshop will be able to scale up its operations by turning some volunteer roles into paid roles, which will enable us to increase our capacity and assist more people in the community,” says WCW co-founder and trustee Ben Acland.
“ITM have been supporting us with a trade account, special rates and deals on tools and timber since we started, and by giving us wood that could not be sold but was still suitable for the WCW’s trap making projects. It’s a long-standing partnership which has made it possible for WCW to operate,” says Ben.
ITM and WCW are looking forward to working together to reduce build and construction waste.
WCW, now in its second year, is going from strength to strength. With a growing membership base, a strong local MenShed group, and a workshop product offering, the WCW has good community engagement and is collaborating with many environmental trusts in the Upper Clutha region.
The Friends of Bullock Creek recently completed an extension to their walkway. The walkway enables easy access to this wonderful ecological gem located within the urban area of Wanaka.
The Friends have over the years been the catalyst behind the restoration and protection of Bullock Creek and the fresh wayer springs which are its source.
The team at the MenShed operating from the Wanaka Community Workshop contributed to the walkway extension. Our job was to cut the boards that make up the walkway.
It was great to collaborate with the Friends of Bullock Creek to create something special for our local community.
The Wanaka Community Workshop has been operating for about a year.
Starting off small, one of our initial projects was the fabrication of gnome houses. Each was then painted by kids from Duke of Edinburgh and William Pike then erected adjacent to the children’s pump cycle track in Bremner Bay.
It was a great project – fun to do. The kids were excited to see their work.
Steel fish with a message on the way to a stormwater drain near you.
All stormwater that falls upon land across the Upper Clutha eventually drains into our Lakes and Rivers. Stormwater is not pure. It picks up and takes with it materials and chemicals that our natural waters can do without.
Furthermore many of us directly pour liquids we no longer want for ourselves down the stormwater drain – liquids like soaps and petrochemicals.
Wanaka’s Touchstone Project, Friends of Bullock Creek and Fish & Game New Zealand are seeking to ensure each of us do our best to avoid contaminating our fresh lake and river waters.
This week the team at the MenShed collaborated with these community groups and agencies putting the final touches to “steel fish, birds and eels” that will be placed upon stormwater drains.
Each displays the reminder “Only Rain” to encourage each of us not to pour anything else down the drain.
The newest member of the New Zealand’s network of lilliput libraries stands just outside the main public entrance to the Wanaka Recreation Centre.
Lilliput number 305 is managed by staff at Wanaka Library.
Since established Lilliput 305 has been busy – on average 23 books every day are being withdrawn.
A few weeks back, the library was built by the team at the MenShed operating from the Wanaka Community Workshop. The paint job was undertaken by local kids.
Its a great initiative making a difference for our community.
Over many years a significant effort has been underway throughout the Upper Clutha to reduce the threat of pests to our endangered wildlife.
Part of this effort involves traps that target killers – stoats, possums, and rats.
A host of agencies are involved. These include the Department of Conservation, community and environmental groups, firms, schools and individuals.
The team at the MenShed operating from the Wanaka Community Workshop contribute to this effort with the manufacture of traps for many of these agencies.
We also make traps for sale to individuals and families.
Some are farmers. Others live in town. The traps are used in residential and commercial areas as well as within the rural sector.
Each of us, whether part of a group or as an individual can make a difference.
From the Wanaka Community Workshop we sell rat traps as well as more sophisticated stoat traps.
Recently the team from the Men’s Shed have been working with the Department of Conservation piloting a new design for traps.
The traps are intended for Norwegian Rats which reside on islands within Lake Wanaka. The islands are also home to rare Weka – curious birds with long beaks.
The new traps are longer. They also provide for a new tunnel entrance. Both these changes are designed to keep the Weka (and its long beak) well back from the trap while retaining easy access for rats.
The collaboration and innovation involved with the new traps are aimed at making a difference for our endangered wildlife.
Cromwell Kidsfirst Kindergaten now has their Lilliput Library up at 25 Gilling Place, Cromwell, New Zealand.
A year ago Nicola came into the WCW and asked about the Lilliput Library she had seen in the media. Cromwell kids could really do with one.
The workshop had only just started and we were trying to work out products we could make and sell to keep our space going. We suggested some financial contribution for the product, but when Nicola heard this her head dropped and informed us that the Kindergaten and the kids it looks after are not in a position to contribute.
So of course we made it anyway and it was one of the first items our MenShed group made and delivered. The team at the workshop could not be more happy to see it bringing books to the community in Cromwell.
The MenShed group can make all sorts of things. We do need money to keep our trust operating, but like the Kidsfirst Kindergarten we do make things under different arrangements. There are also many grants that groups could apply for funding from.
Do you or a group you represent need something made by the MenShed group at the Wanaka Community Workshop? Contact us to find out how. Contact details are on our Facebook site or website.
This week the team at the Mens Shed were preparing for the next visit by the MINT Charitable Trust to the Wanaka Community Workshop.
The MINT Trust support those in Upper Clutha Area with intellectual disabilities.
Each visit to the Wanaka Community Workshop involves practicable work assembling an item that can be taken home.
The next visit will focus upon putting together a wooden tool box. The idea for the tool box was put forward by the participants during their last visit.
Visits to the Wanaka Community Workshop are now part of a wider regular MINT program, getting out and about in the Wanaka community.
Friends of Bullock Creek load timber for their new board walk
This week members of the Mens Shed working from the Wanaka Community Workshop completed a job for the Friends of Bullock Creek.
Bullock Creek emerges from ground water springs and runs through Wanaka entering the Lake adjacent to Dinosaur Park.
The stream is a treasured natural icon of our town.
Over many years the Friends have devoted themselves to ensuring Bullock Creek is both protected and acts as a natural area we can all enjoy.
The job undertaken by the Mens Shed involved cutting timber that will make up the floor of a new board walk that the Friends are establishing in the upper catchment area of the creek.
Marcus with the first traps for the Wanaka Trap Library
Each of us wear multiple hats – Marcus is both a team member of the MensShed and a member of the community group Wanaka Backyard Trapping.
Recently Marcus has been putting the final touches on traps that will initially stock Wanaka’s first trap library.
Managed by Wanaka Backyard Trapping the library will be located at the Wanaka Community Workshop.
The library will enable locals to borrow a trap and deal to pests on our own properties and backyards. Together with trapping programs underway on our parks and public lands this initiative will aid in achieving a pest free environment we can all enjoy.
This week Sue used her skills to cut wood – wood for traps.
A focus for the team at the Mens Shed (clearly not just men) as been traps. Sophisticated traps for stoats that will be located in backyards across the Upper Clutha and around the urban shoreline of Lake Wanaka.
“Its great to learn new skills” said Sue “and people here are keen to share their experience and knowhow”.
The MINT Charitable Trust is all about forging great lives for those with intellectual disabilities in the Upper Clutha Region.
As part of this program this week MINT came to the Mens Shed at the Wanaka Community Workshop.
It was great to have them.
After a few hours on the tools everyone went home with their own wooden box.
The MINT Charitable Trust operates a comprehensive program including drama, arts and the outdoors. The team at the Wanaka Community Workshop are proud to be part of the program.
Gerald part way through the construction of a stoat trap
Over the next few weeks a number of community groups will be encouraging households across the Upper Clutha to trap stoats and rats. The effort is part of a wider program to create a local environment that is predator free.
To achieve this outcome each of us will need to do our bit.
The Mens Shed operating from the Wanaka Community Workshop have started work building traps for this initiative. Some will be for sale while others will form the basis of a trap “lending library”.
Its a great initiative, something that will make a real difference ight in your backyard.
Changes are underway at the Wanaka Community Workshop.
Currently the Workshop largely focusses upon working with wood. We are now preparing space that will be designed and equipped for working with textiles.
This month the team leading the change together with members of the Mens Shed have started conversion of what was underutilised space within the workshop.
The space will create a whole range of new opportunities for members of our community. Looking forward to it!
Woody with shelving units that will soon serve food banks in the Upper Clutha
Food banks are part of the social infrastructure serving communities across the Upper Clutha.
The team at the Mens Shed operating from the Wanaka Community Workshop have built a small number of shelving units designed to receive donated food and permit easy pick up. They have proved so effective that this month two more units are nearing completion.
Its great to see groups working together for the benefit of our community and in a way that makes the best use of local resources.
Insects are a critical element of our natural environment. Most pollination of plants is carried out by insects. They are also a key source of food for our native birds.
The team at the Mens Shed operating from the Wanaka Community Workshop have been asked to provide structures to accommodate insects – “bug hotels”.
Built from untreated recycled timber the “hotels” will be filled with sticks and moss to attract and shelter insects. They will be placed in gardens across Wanaka. Next Spring we will all benefit from more butterflies, moths and solitary bees.
Te Kakano is a Trust which operates a Wanaka community based native plant nursery. It specialises in propagating plants originating from our local Upper Clutha region.
The plants raised are then used for native habitat restoration around the region. In this the Trust works with local community groups, schools, organisations and businesses in a hands on approach.
This approach can be tough on tools.
This month supporters of the MenShed operating from the Wanaka Community Workshop have repaired and replaced the handles of those tools which could not stand the pace.
Kris of Te Kakarno with Alan of the MenShed
Again its a cooperative effort. Wanaka Rotary are funding needed parts while supporters of the MenShed are doing the assembly and fitting. Together, working with Te Kakano, making a difference in our community.
At the Wanaka Community Workshop the MenShed team were recently joined by members of the Wanaka Garden Club.
The Club is planning a get together for their members in late March. The get together will held at the Workshop. One of the objectives is for members of the Garden Club to assemble seed box’s within which seedlings can get their start.
The box’s are made from recycled wood. Wood that would otherwise have been dumped.
Supporters of the MenShed are using equipment within the Wanaka Community Workshop to prefabricate the material for the box’s.
Liz, Toni and Judy of the Wanaka Garden Club assemble their test seed box
A great case of community groups working together!
M!NT is a group of local parents in our community who are supporting children and young adults with intellectual disabilities.
Jude who works with M!NT as their ambassador dropped into the Wanaka Community Workshop recently. She shared her idea with supporters of the MenShed that they could make “something” to be sold at an upcoming auction. Funds raised from the auction will benefit M!NT.
A great idea.
Over the next month the team designed and built a few wooden toys. The first time the supporters have created toys. A few lessons learnt but a great outcome.
A key objective of the Wanaka Community Workshop is to reduce waste. The key means by which we achieve this is by re-using and re-purposing material that would otherwise be dumped.
Recently volunteers dismantled wooden racks which once held products at the now closed Mitre 10 shop off Reece Cresent.
This work took many hours.
The outcome was Oregon framing timber, plywood and MDF/HDF board suitable for re-use.
This material was offered for sale. The funds raised by the sales will support the operations of the Wanaka Community Workshop.
The Oregon, plywood and MDF / HDF Board are funding new uses.
Most has gone to projects around peoples homes – lining garages, shelving, playhouses. Some uses were more exotic – a floor with a yurt at Hawea for example.
Its great to see this material being re-used. Construction material makes up a large proportion of material we dump as a society. Our planet cannot afford for this to continue.
A load of timber and plywood heading for a new life as shelving
Insects are a key part of our ecosystem. They are pollinators, they deal with waste and they are food for a host of animals.
Given these benefits its important to monitor the extent and diversity of insect populations.
This week the team from the Mens (and womans) Shed completed six insect monitoring stations for WAI Wānaka. WAI Wānaka work to accelerate local action for our fresh water.
Kelly from WAI Wānaka and Barrie from the Wanaka Community Workshop MenShed sessions
The stations will be placed along the shoreline of Lake Wānaka adjacent to boardwalk recently built by the Queenstown Lakes District Council. The stations have been designed to provide attractive homes for insects. Their number and diversity can then be easily monitored thus providing an insight into the health of the lakeside habitat.
Many such stations used elsewhere are plastic. Ours are built from recycled untreated timber. The project brings a double benefit – less waste to landfill as well as enabling the health of our insect population to be checked.
Sue and Gerald putting the final touches on our new paint store
At the Wanaka Community Workshop we use recycled materials, materials which would otherwise have been disposed of. Wood products such as timber and plywood as well as screws, nails and bolts are an important part of this.
However we also reuse paint and stains which would otherwise have been disposed of.
We need to store these products safely.
In response the team at the MenShed which operates from the Wanaka Community Workshop have over recent weeks built a store for this material.
It’s great we can save material from landfill. Even better that we can do this safely.
Paula from the Wanaka Library with Tom and Stu from the Menshed
Reading is important. Important for society as a whole. Important for us as individuals. Its also fun.
Encouraging reading is a key mission for Wanaka Library. Part of this is making it easy for folk to access books. With a great book collection at the library and on line, our librarians are working to complement this with a network of Lilliput Libraries.
Lilliput Libraries are small Drop Off Pick It Up facilities placed out in neighbourhoods. They operate like a book exchange.
This week the team at the MenShed operating from the Wanaka Community Workshop completed the first of a number of Lilliput Libraries from which the service will operate.
Built from recycled materials a key requirement of the design is to keep the books dry. The library’s will now be fitted out. Look for one near your place.
Within Lake Wanaka are four islands – Mou Waho (120 ha), Te Peka Karara (65 ha), Mou Tapu (120ha) and Ruby Island (3 ha).
The Department of Conservation in association with community groups are working to create pest free haven’s on the largest three islands.
Their work has already permitted buff weka to be returned to the islands.
The work to ensure pest free status never stops. A key threat is the Norway Rat.
The Norway Rat is a real beast – it can weigh more than half a kilogram and (with its tail) extend more than 40cm.
The Norway Rat can also swim. The distance to the islands from the shore of Lake Wanaka poses no issue.
Furthermore the Norway Rat is smart – to catch them requires a sophisticated trap. The design needs to reflect lessons learnt in the wild. What worked well two years ago does not work so well now – Norway Rats also learn!
Graham, Dave and Allan shifting the new traps from the production line.
The team at the Menshed operating from the Wanaka Community Workshop have been working on a batch of rat traps – traps of the latest design targeting Norway Rats.
The traps will make a difference on the ground for our endangered species.
Sarah receives the new rat traps from Gillian (right)
The MenShed operates out of the Wanaka Community Workshop every Tuesday and Thursday morning. This week Peter Young dropped in with an offer – would we like a band saw?
Would we?
We would love it!
Half and hour later Peter was back.
Peter brought with him a band saw that had served him over many years. Peter is relocating from Wanaka and thought the Community Workshop would be a great place for the band saw to continue its work.
With gifts of equipment like that from Peter, together with targeted purchases, the Wanaka Community Workshop is increasing its range of capabilities.
Thanks to Peter. We will make great use of his band saw.
Peter (right) passing the band saw to Ian at the Wanaka Community Workshop this month
