The Kinglake Ranges Men’s Shed will be established at the ‘Old Chocolate Factory’ in Oldfield Road Pheasant Creek, with funding secured from the Victorian Bushfire Appeal Fund.

It will be a multi-purpose facility, providing local men with a communal workshop and the community with a meeting place.  It will include a common meeting area, toy library and rooms for use by local community groups.

The Kinglake Ranges Men’s Shed was identified as a priority in the Kinglake Ranges Community Recovery Plan.

It has been purchased by the Kinglake Ranges Trust, with $315,000 from the Appeal Fund, and a long-term lease will be taken out by the Men’s Shed Committee.

A further $50,000 has been provided by the Department of Planning and Community Development to make improvements and fit out the building with community facilities and rooms.

The building is currently one of the distribution points for material aid in the Ranges.

The Men’s Shed Committee will ensure this distribution point for material aid continues, as planned, until the date the lease is due to expire on June 24.

It is expected that by this time, most of the material generously donated to bushfire-affected families and individuals will have been distributed with any remaining goods continuing to be made available to blue referral card holders at the Kinglake Neighbourhood House and Salvos and Vinnies stores.

Following the fires, some 21,000 pallets of household goods, including toiletries, clothing and crockery, were donated by people and businesses from all over Australia.

The vast majority of these goods have already been distributed, with less than 1 per cent of goods remaining, mainly consisting of second hand clothing, toiletries and books.

A community barbecue will be held on 19 June at the material aid centre in Oldfield Road to thank all of the workers and volunteers who have made the centre run so successfully since it began in June 2009, and to mark the end of material aid from the centre.