Callington Show’s new shed is up

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They say that it takes a village to raise a child, and in the case of the new shed at Callington, it takes a community to raise a shed.

The proof of this is that although the shed’s now up, local farmers Clive Wundersitz, Colin Wegener and Dennis Gravestocks have been busy laying pipes around it.

And there’s still a fair bit of work to go.

But a recent grant of $50,000 from the state government’s Thriving Communities Program means the $165,000 community shed will be built in time for this year’s Callington Show.

The Callington Agricultural and Horticultural Society will use the shed partly as a show pavilion.

Daryl Gravestocks, chair of the shed’s building committee, said many groups already used the park, for such purposes as football and cricket finals, with the South Australian Veterans Cricket Association playing there regularly.

According to Mr Gravestocks, such groups would benefit from a large and secure shed, as would the motorcycle riders who gathered on the oval each December for the annual toy run.

“There were two-and-a-half thousand bikes on the bottom oval, and they are delighted to have a facility like this,” he said.

“We’ll have a nine-metre by six-metre office/preparation/secure area, so somewhere to count all their money, because they do raise a lot of money, whereas they’ve been counting it out by the goal post under a little gazebo.”

Mr Gravestocks also said the shed would be used as a bushfire last resort refuge, and that people could hire the shed and facilities – which will include a small kitchen and an outdoor barbecue pad – for birthday celebrations.

“The rec centre’s carpeted, the town hall has got parquetry – a nice timber floor – so if Clive wants to have his 70th birthday bash and it gets a bit untidy, they won’t have him, but here we can hose it out,” he joked.

Of course, the biggest party the shed will be used for is the annual show; the goal is to have the preparation and office area all done by October 29.

“The show will be the first ever event that uses the shed, and it will save us about seven grand in marquee hire,” Mr Wundersitz, chair of the Callington committee, said.

“We normally had to hire two marquees every year, and it’s always a lot of trouble putting them up and down.”

Mr Gravestocks said that the inadequacy of using marquees for the Callington Show had been revealed when they hosted a celebrity chef last year.

“We had Callum Hann cooking in a marquee, and I was digging trenches because water was running through the marquee with the rain last year – it just wasn’t good,” he said.

• Read more: Callington Show society needs a new pavilion

Project had been in the works for a while

The man who first touted the idea of a new community shed was Mr Wegener, from Colrae Farms, who thought it would be more suitable for promoting agricultural products at the Callington Show.

For example, now it’s possible to install a TV that shows agricultural videos.

“I’ve had this in the back of my mind three years ago – I was pushing to get the shed up, and there was a bit of opposition at the start,” he said.

The natural conditions weren’t the easiest to negotiate, either, with jackhammers taking an entire day to dig up holes around the shed.

“We got three out of 20 down the normal depth without a jackhammer,” Mr Wundersitz said.

Apart from the Thriving Communities funding and other funding sources, the community has helped to get the project off the ground and the shed on the ground.

“We’ve got some fairly generous help from councils and sponsors,” Mr Gravestocks said.

“Premix Concrete donated four blocks for our tanks stands, and Colrae Farms, Colin’s property, have supplied a lot of heavy machinery.”

Although Mr Gravestocks joked, “I came off a farm – you’ve got two farmers here — sheds are never big enough”, the three men are excited about what they’ve helped to achieve for their ever-expanding community.