Proposed Dapto community hub hopes to bring three clubs under one roof

Plans for a purpose-built hub at Dapto Showground hope to bring three community institutions under one roof, but a significant funding boost is vital to get the project off the ground.

Kanahooka Men’s Shed is searching for a new home to ensure the longevity of its operations after the group was left in limbo at its current site on Thirroul Road.

“When the church closed we started to worry because we knew that was a very valuable block of land and it was only a matter of time,” Kanahooka Men’s Shed member Peter Johnston said.

“We wanted to expand; we have people who want to join us, but we can’t, we haven’t got the room.”

The shed has been a social place for older men, people with a disability and veterans for 13 years, but has had to cap its numbers to 32, with almost a dozen sitting on a wait list.

“Our particular shed is more of a social club,” Peter said.

“You can work or you can just sit down and have a cup of tea and a chat with some other bloke.

“You’ve got a mix; you’ve got every type of person.”

Due to the anticipated sale of their current site, the group is only able to sign a 12-month lease, leaving it in limbo with a lack of certainty about its future.

Consequently, it reached out to the Dapto A&H Society to see if they would be able to provide them a more permanent space at Dapto Showground, alongside existing groups the Dapto Poultry Club and the Dapto Pigeon Club that already operate from the site.

“The board wholeheartedly supported that, and then as part of the journey, the three clubs got together with the A&H and through talking through the process decided it would be a great idea if we could get one big facility which was a community hub,” Dapto A&H CEO Katrina Novak said.

“Which was also then able to be flexible depending on the needs of each club, if one grows and one decreases members over time, or other clubs come in or out.

“We just envision this one being a facility that is there for the aging and the young.”

The Dapto Poultry Club and Dapto Pigeon Club have called the showgrounds home for more than half a century.

The Poultry Club is spread across various spaces at the showground to accommodate the storage needs of its growing cohort.

“We have local people, but we also have people in the extended area who joined the club as well,” the club’s vice president Melanie Wiffen said.

“We’re the only poultry club left in the Illawarra so that brings in a lot more people as well.

“When we have our club show, I think we’ve got about five or six hundred cages and we are fully booked; we have to turn people away.”

That growth has a strong focus on the younger members.

“We do have a lot of older people involved but we’re all about promoting the juniors to get them involved,” Melanie said. “We’ve got a state championship junior show that’s coming up in May and it’s all about getting the young people involved.”

“Hopefully you get their passion into it when they’re young and they stay involved as they get older.”

Engaging with the next generation is something the Pigeon Club is desperate to tap into.

“It’s hard to get young people into the sport with smaller houses, smaller blocks and it’s expensive,” president Warren Hinde said.

“That’s one of the biggest problems that we’ve had over the years is trying to get more people involved.”

Having a new, bigger space would allow them to bring members from pigeon clubs across the region to one place.

“There’s about six clubs now and the big idea about this thing is that we amalgamate around four clubs and bring them all into one,” Warren said.

“It’s beneficial to everybody because it’s more members, it’s more people together.”

But while the clubs and the A&H Society are celebrating the potential benefits of the project, there is a need for a $350,000 boost to get it off the ground.

“We just need some funding for the structure,” Katrina said.

“The A&H has already committed to getting services to the site, covering the costs of their outgoings once they’re up and established; we’ll also go away with the clubs to work out how we fit out the toilet facilities and kitchenettes and there will need to be some work internally.

“What we need from the government is some sort of support to give us that structure that we can build from.”

The A&H is hoping to start work as early as possible once funding is received to ensure the Kanahooka Men’s Shed isn’t left in the lurch if its current site is sold.

But Katrina said it couldn’t begin until government support was pledged.

“All we can do is push as hard as we can.”