However, for one organisation it proved to be the perfect incubator to grow into an international movement.

Last week Windale was again listed as one of the five most disadvantaged postcodes in the state in Catholic Social Services and Jesuit Social Services Dropping Off The Edge report.

Yet Australian Men's Shed Association chief executive David Helmers said there was no better place to lay the association's foundations than Windale.

For eight years, the association operated from a humble office in Windale Library, 300 metres from one of its first sheds - Windale Men's Shed.

The association recently moved to Newcastle after it outgrew the Windale office, but it has not forgotten its roots.

"A lot of the work we did in Windale on modelling men's sheds and their management systems has supported the growth of 1500 sheds worldwide," Mr Helmers said.

"It's something Windale can be proud of, to know it was part of the early Men's Shed movement."

Mr Helmers said Windale often got a bad rap that it did not deserve.

"It's a great community," he said.

The report ranked the suburb of Windale alongside the western NSW towns of Brewarrina, Lightning Ridge, Walgett, Wilcannia and the south-western Sydney suburb of Claymore.

The study tracked 621 NSW postcodes across 21 disadvantage indicators, including family income, housing stress, education level, long-term unemployment and crime.