Article for Coochie Island News, July 2019

As far as I can find, Coochie Men's Shed seems to be the only Men’s Shed in Australia that is totally prohibited from using power tools, with prohibitions also on most hand tools.

Interestingly, the no power tools ruling arose from noise measurements taken before the physical shed was even built, using computer - simulated models of tool noise levels to create a report.

The result is a noise restriction that is seemingly quieter than the sound a calling bird or a normal conversation might produce.

To discover sound facts, the Men’s Shed recently contracted a reputable firm to run noise tests, including real world examples of real tools doing real tasks. The tool tests have already been concluded, but the two environment recording devices being used in the testing will remain in place for 7 days, and then be returned to the provider who will prepare an official sound report for us to submit to Council.

The point of this exercise is to be able to talk to concerned residents or local government from a place of knowledge, to get the real facts on the impact that noise from the Men’s Shed has.

We’ll keep you up to date as we find out more.