Thirty years of Men’s Sheds: how they changed Australia

Retired stockbroker Greg Soudure expertly turns a lathe as he puts the finishing touches to a wooden bowl.

Fellow baby boomers fix chairs, chests of drawers and old bicycles, or toil away on their own woodwork creations.

This giant shed in a smart suburb of south Perth is one of more than 1,300 across Australia offering a haven for older men with plenty of time on their hands.

Cooking, social media and beekeeping classes are among an eclectic range of activities on offer at the Showgrounds Community Men's Shed, a building once used to show off farm animals at the Perth Royal Show, the city's annual agricultural show.

Soudure, 73, said his wife urged him to sign up shortly after he retired a couple of