Bundaberg-based men’s health charity Brave Brothers was recognised as Community Group of the Year at the Bundaberg Region’s 2025 Australia Day Awards.
Since launching in late 2022 Brave Brothers have spent the past two years in the community speaking to locals about suicide prevention, domestic violence and men’s health issues.
Over the year, they’ve held 40 events, engaged in more than one thousand conversations, and distributed more than three thousand ‘How to Help a Mate’ cards.
Brave Brothers founder Dave Facer has the details:
How does it feel to be here and receiving an award?
It is absolutely brilliant to be here and actually being nominated it’s just so nice to be valued for what we’re doing in the community, I mean winning the Community award is huge.
Being nominated for a personal one, that’s huge as well.
It just goes to show that working with such good people and that it’s been recognised that we’re doing good in our community, so we’re all over the moon.
What does it mean to be recognised?
It’s very important for people to recognise Brave Brothers and the work that Brave Brothers do.
We’ve been working really hard in our community for two years and being recognised for that and being out and about, for everybody in our group they are just so proud and pleased to be able to do that.
It also goes to show that what we do works, because it is about raising awareness and if we’ve raised awareness about Brave Brothers, we’ve raised awareness about suicide prevention, domestic violence and men’s health issues as well.
So that’s the real thing to come out of this, that the awareness for what we’re driving has been made.
What is Brave Brothers all about?
We are a men’s focused, men’s health charity and we raise awareness around suicide prevention, family domestic violence and awareness of men’s health in general.
We want to talk and listen to men before it’s too late.
There is so many opportunities to actually save men’s lives, boys lives, women’s lives in the work that we do and that’s what we’re trying to do.
Brave Brothers raise the awareness about the constant issues that we are facing our community and do something genuinely about it.
We’re not just ticking boxes, we are going out and say let’s make some change and have some fun at the same time as well.
What has been a standout in your journey?
From the journey that we’ve taken from conception in 2019, first conversations going around and then we had COVID hit us and all these things and then launching in late 2022.
Our journey growing the group of connection has been a very big area because of our men’s walk and talk.
It has really taken off this year now and I think men have seen what we’re doing and they enjoy just a short walk to maybe talk and that is so beneficial.
I think our walk and talk has been a huge win for our local community.
Also being invited to events that we can do pop ups while we’re talking and handing out awareness literature.
Being invited to some of these events has been a real door opener and eye opener for us.
What’s next for your group?
This is a huge opportunity because being recognised for our work in this community will hopefully allow us to grow more, be recognised and gain more support.
Because that is what needs to be done for us to do our roles and to be recognised by other people in the community and supported by businesses, individuals, so we can get into sports clubs, schools, all these areas to raise the awareness.
This award will hopefully show we’re good at what we do and let’s get stuck in.
If you or someone you know needs support, contact the Suicide Prevention Network here or Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Read more about the Australia Day Award winners here.
