Aussie blokes find tools to shed their loneliness

For generations, men seeking to escape life's tribulations have sought refuge in the solitary, cobwebbed gloom of their garden sheds.

Now that favourite bolt-hole has been reinvented in Australia, where a new breed of hobby handymen is flocking to take up tools at communal sheds across the country.

Instead of pottering alone, men are gathering in groups, drilling and hammering over frequent mugs of tea.



More than 200 such community sheds - mostly converted from disused corrugated iron hangars - have sprung up over the past decade, and many more are planned.

The 10,000-strong Men's Sheds in Australia movement is one of the fastest-growing interest groups in the country, and officials are sitting up and taking notice.

The Sheddies, as they are known, are mainly ageing handymen, most of them retired and some widowed. Women are a rarity in most of the communal sheds, although they are theoretically welcomed.