Shed Project 2022 & Extensions 2023

Our old building at 55 Vivian St Tennyson was erected just after World War II from timber and noone has been more appreciative of those old construction techniques than the termites.  As such we elected to cease all activities in that building and the neighbouring venture room (the dinghy) in 2021.  The smaller building was manually demolished in 2022 by Connor Lelliott & Darren Lelliott.  

Reconstruction on this site will be a significant endeavour and cost approximately $2M.  While it shouldn’t take our volunteer based group too long to raise the finance for this project (kidding of course as securing funding grants is likely to occur progressively over a few years) we still need a replacement facility for the venturers and a general maintenance area.

With the aid of the site redevelopment fund that had remained in place since the 2011 floods, we had a shed constructed in 2022.  This construction was arranged, managed and overseen by our Maintenance Manager Andrew Bergin.  The external kitchen slab and electricity was added by Michael Bischa and Darren Lelliott.

In 2023, using a combination of PTSS reserves, an allocation of $6,500 gifted by the Oxley Rowing Club (tennants on site) and $2,500 from the Active Clubs grant, extensions to the shed will be added at either end to add storage for canoe & kayak trailers and an external kitchen.  

First, there were 12 pallets of blocks that had been in situ for 11 years (post-2011 floods) and needed to be relocated. This task was made the harder because the pallets had spent all of this time placed directly on the ground, and therefore had long ago made delicious meals for termites (of which Tennyson has many). Thus all 1,428 concrete blocks had to be loaded, relocated, unloaded and restacked manually.