Alec Millar writes in "Journey to the Stone Country"

I knew the Australian outback only from one small black-and-white photograph that I had seen by the light of an oil lamp in the kitchen of the Exmoor farm labourer with whom I lived. . . . One of the photographs in the book was of a group of stockmen lounging in the shade of a low veranda, gazing out at the landscape before them.

What was it in this photograph that so intrigued Alex Millar that he came half way round the world to try and capture it for himself. Later he writes

In the 50 years since I saw my first photgraph of the Australian outback, those stockmen have not moved. Unlike me, they dwell in a place beyond time, beyond the reach of homeland. .. No sound or sign has broken the rapt contemplation of those stockmen. . . . the image of those stockmen in that photograph represents for me the deepest longings of the human heart; those silent figures are still the prophets of my imagination.

The Green Man knows what Alex saw in these men, it is the same thing every man is looking for, a group of men with whom he is at one. What Alex saw in the photo, and later discovered for himself, were a group of men that belonged to their environment and to each other. These men had a rare gift and Alex perceived it in that black and white photograph half a world away. Later, he was privileged to experience it first hand in the time he spent with them.

All men have a deep need to belong, to connect with other men in a meaningful way. It is a need that many attempt to fulfill, and fail, through belonging to church, sporting clubs or to rotary and other such organisations. They fail because these organisations are not structured to facilitate deep male companionship. They do not give men an opportunity to, in an unhurried and unforced way, get to know one another, to share their hopes, joys, fears and insecurities without the taint of agression or competition.

Life is about being the most fulfilled that you can be and you can't do that without the support and deep friendship of other men. If you live in Mebourne and are interested in participating in such a group, contact The Green Man.