In 1985 a group of 18 interested woodturners met at McQueen’s Caravan Park, Eneabba and formed The Woodturners Association of Western Australia.
The Swan Group of the Woodturners Association was originally known as the Lesmurdie Group. It was formed by Association members Geoff Barkla, John Lathwell and Keith Stout who had been holding meetings at the home of Keith Stout. The Lesmurdie Group held its first meeting at the Sanderson Rd Primary School on 3 July 1987. Meetings were held monthly. The group subsequently moved to the Kalamunda Senior High School and by late 1988 had relocated to the now defunct The Woodworking Centre in Midvale. The group now became the Midvale Group. When the Woodworking Centre closed its doors in 2002, a new home had to be found. The Group moved to the Koongamia Hall in Koongamia, which resulted in another name change. The new name reflected the area rather than the premises location. The Swan Group was born. After the building’s ceiling fell in, we then moved to the Gumnuts Family Centre in Koongamia. Once again, the City of Swan required the Group to move as the facility was required for a childcare group. In January 2012 we moved to the Swan Districts Senior Citizens’ Association, Midland. During the eleven years at this location the property was purchased by the City of Swan and unfortunately the building was demolished.
In August 2023 we moved to our current location at the Caversham Hall just North of the roundabout at West Swan & Benara Roads Caversham. With 50 members we meet every Tuesday afternoon at 1pm. Members share their ideas, skills and knowledge through demonstrations, workshops, hands-on days and “show & tell”.
The Swan Group is affiliated with the West Australian Woodturners Association (WAWA). WAWA organises monthly weekend workshops and competitions, with interaction between the groups, providing demonstrations by members, as well as a venue to purchase wood blanks, used tools, abrasives and many different items of interest to wood turners. Members can seek advice from experts brought in by the Association to demonstrate specialist wood turning techniques.
Our own club’s events include weekly demonstrations usually carried out by our more experienced wood turners, although our less experienced members are encouraged to participate in demonstrations and club competitions to ensure the future of wood turning and to improve skills.
All demonstrations are undertaken in camera and relayed to two large wall-mounted TV screens. This provides members with unobstructed close-up views of the demonstration, both from above and also from the side. Members are encouraged to ask questions about woodturning methods used, and discussions often relate to better ways, or at least differing ways of doing the same task.
Members are also encouraged to bring in to “show & tell” items they have constructed over the previous weeks. Our own monthly competition allows for a critique of the items entered in the competition and provides positive feedback on how to improve one’s wood turning skills.
Our club is privileged to have several up-and-coming female wood turners who continue to produce outstanding work and in doing so improve the club’s profile.
Members are kept informed of current events within the club via a monthly Broadsheet. This identifies who will be demonstrating over the next month along with dates to remember including when members of our club are demonstrating at local events. Updated 2025
