These are around in NZ as well. I don't know much about them, but there are periodically articles in the Southland Times about them (examples
here and
here.
The names that crop up in the Invercargill one tend to be a mix of retired builders and other trades, and names that I've seen around a bit (I was on the local Access Radio board with the author of the February article in the 1990s, before NZ on Air forced a restructure to remove programme makers from the board). These guys will be well aware of both public liability and OSH regulations, and like Australia it looks like there's a national body which will make sure operations are up to standard.
All up it's a great idea. I know an old bloke (dad) who isn't involved, but has to be doing something for someone - he's more likely to be building shelves, setting up an Access database, building storage for sound gear at Church or cursing at a Raspberry Pi which isn't doing PHP for a website properly, but if he stops doing that he may start acting his age (81)
