The rebuilt Orange Men's Shed reopened today (Thursday 16 December) after a fire ripped through the building two years ago causing major damage.
Since the fire in June 2019, the sixty members of the Orange Men's Shed have had to move out.
For the last twelve months they have been using one of the Riverside buildings on the Bloomfield campus for their workshop.
OPEN AGAIN: Members of the Orange Men's Shed are excited by the reopening of their 'home' in Lucknow. Pictured at the event are Orange Mayor Cr Reg Kidd, Men's Shed President Alan Campbell and Member for Orange Phil Donato. CLICK TO SEE LARGER IMAGE.
Orange Mayor Reg Kidd said it was good to see the Men's Shed regulars back in their historic long-term 'home', alongside the highway in Lucknow.
"It was a devastating blow to the group when the fire took hold in the building," Cr Reg Kidd said.
"Alongside working on wood-working and metal-working projects, the Men's Shed offers crucial personal support for its members and it's great that they'll now be back in the Lucknow building together."
"It's a Council-owned building. I'd like to pay tribute to the Council staff who supervised the project as the repairs turned into a major renovation. It's quite an old building and once the fire-damaged timbers started to come off it became clear just how much structural work had to be done to make it into a building that would serve the community for many years to come."
The repair cost is expected to be around $250,000.
Orange City Council's Technical Service Director Ian Greenham said restoring the historic timber building was a challenging project.
"The aim of the project was to deliver a building which looked like it had never been touched by a fire or a renovation," Ian Greenham said.
"All internal and external work had to match the original structure. Some timbers had to be specially milled and all colours are like-for-like."
"Whenever a project like this happens on a community building, it has to measure up to contemporary access standards, such as new access ramps. That's just one example of how this building is now better than ever. The building contractors Inscape Projects Group did a good job."
"Anyone who's ever tackled repairs on an old building knows there will inevitably be surprises. We didn't know when we started but the Men's Shed building needed a full wall bracing and a full wall bearer replacement. We needed to repair roof trusses. The external corrugated iron cladding has been replaced. It's been re-wired throughout, alongside a full internal paint-job."
The Men's Shed members are planning to continue to operate from the Riverside building, while gradually re-installing wood-working and metal-working equipment in the Lucknow building.
