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Purpose and painting with Jez Forbes

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The Nugget
February 21, 2025

★ PURPOSE AND PAINTING WITH JEREMY FORBES ★

Jez “Kyoto Dreamer” Forbes

When Jez Forbes was 22, life had taken a seriously wrong turn in Melbourne.

"I had to get out. If I didn't leave Melbourne, I'd be either dead or in jail." 

He made a snap decision to move to Castlemaine, where he was given opportunities to do life in a very different way.

When Jez arrived in town, his mum, brother and sister were preparing for their roles in the Castlemaine Theatre Company's production of The Wizard of Oz.

Talk about a vibe shift from gritty Melbourne.

"The guy who was playing the lion got sick. They went, 'Do you want to step in and play the Lion?' I auditioned and got the role and ended up doing 20 or 30 plays after that. I directed plays. I met lots of friends, I met my first wife through the theatre company."

Theatre gave him something he'd been missing for too long: "That sense of community.

“A lot of people don't have it, or they're just isolated in the community. I'd had a fair bit of experience with crappy stuff. But life in Castlemaine came together quickly."

Getting a job – a house painting apprenticeship – was as simple as walking into the pub.

"There was a guy sitting there, he was a house painter, so I started talking to him, having a beer. It just fell into place."

The support he got from the stranger in the bar, as well as the theatre community, set his life on a new trajectory.  

"Everything I do now is with that sense of empathy, that understanding that things are tough and that we need people in the community to help out," he says.

He put that philosophy into action when his friend Pete, a fellow tradie, suicided at his home in Castlemaine in 2013.

Pete's death was not an isolated incident.

"Pete was at least the 7th or 8th man to suicide in 12 months, back in 2012, 2013," Jez says.

The big question among the tradies at Pete's wake was "who's next?"

"I knew nothing about mental health. I knew how to hang shit on someone, make 'em feel like shit and embarrass them, which is what tradies do. It's our culture."

What he did know was how to talk to tradies and how to rally community around a cause.

Tonks Bros Hardware let him use the timber yard for his first Save your Bacon tradie breakfast. Rotary was on hand to help serve up free bacon and egg rolls. Coffee Basics donated the caffeine and every tradie left with a goodie bag containing pamphlets on mental health support services. 

That was the start of HALT: Hope Assistance Local Tradies, a charity Jez has poured his heart into.

HALT sends tradies to speak to constructions workers, council depot workers, manufacturers and apprentices about mental health and the importance of early intervention.

"I've had apprentices come up to me at TAFE saying 'hey mate, I didn't know anyone else felt like this. I'm suicidal, can I talk to someone?'"

"We've done literally thousands of events all over the place, and there's still a need. Suicide rates are still up," he says.

There have been nine suicides in the shire in the past 18 months, Jez says. 

"I haven't got any sort of answers, but I know we're not doing enough, that's for sure. As far as research, academics, that white collar stuff, it's not helping. And I can't get a single cent of funding.

"For me it's all about community engagement and lived experience. The power of HALT, I believe, is that all our guys are tradies and they can talk about their tradie experiences and people relate to that."

HALT won four years of federal government funding, but that ran out some time ago. The charity has received no support from the state government. The community response, however, has been enormous.

Jez was invited to do an official Ted Talk in 2018. Not a Tedx community talk - we're talking main stage. His talk "How to start a conversation about suicide" has been viewed more than 1.5 million times and is being translated into 20 languages.

Eleven years after that first Save Your Bacon breakfast, he continues HALT's mission through donations (and his own savings).

"A woman who saw me talk at Melbourne Polytechnic TAFE, she lost her son, Olly, to suicide a year or so ago. She's raised $18,000 for HALT in his honor. So I've started to work with TAFE again. I do a little classroom program," Jez says.

"It sounds shitty and wanky, but purpose and meaning... It's probably the most purpose and meaning I've had in my life with HALT taking off and the impact we had.

"That rolled into my art, into volunteering with Community Lunch into the Main Game footy match we started in 2018. A lot of it's just seeing satisfaction for people. I don't need a lot of thanks and stuff, just seeing people turn up and have a good time."

He's open about the fact that his own mental health is a work in progress.

I first met Jez on Christmas Eve, 2023. We were at the Town Hall, setting up for Community Christmas Lunch. He was organizing the chaos and prepping to run the event on Christmas Day.

It's a hard day for him and helping others is how Jez gets through it.

"On the 23rd of December, 2014, my nan passed away. She was like my mum. A year later, the 23rd of December, 2015, is the closest I've come to suicide,” Jez says.

“What saved my life was reaching into my wallet and pulling out a Lifeline card. That's hard. So, Christmas isn't easy. I know it's not easy for a lot of people. For me to cope and get through that is to see the satisfaction in people’s eyes and hear them enjoying themselves."

He works hard to take care of his mental health – and if you’re chatting with Jez, be ready for him to ask you what you’re doing to take care of yours.  For Jez, photography and painting are the things he does, just for him, that allows him to switch off the monkey mind and get into a flow state.

“It's a process for my mental health. On a weekend, I'll go with a mate or whatever and go on adventures, just drive around to art galleries, museums and go to small country towns and take photos along the way of sheds and stuff like that.”

He creates beautiful, stylised paintings from the photos he takes.

“It’s not realistic or anything. It’s my interpretation. I'll paint for hours and hours and hours because I enjoy it. There's no pressure."

His latest exhibition, Kyoto Dreaming, launches at Subgreen gallery on Fri, 28 Feb. It was inspired by photos he took on a trip to Japan last year.

"One thing about Castlemaine, which I love, is the support from the community. This place is phenomenal. The artists here could easily say, 'Nah, nah, it's all competition.' But no one says that. The artists in town have all been super supportive. They've bought my art, mentored me, answered my questions and taught me stuff."

Maybe that’s because... what goes around comes around?

❀ LIAM WATCH ❀

Look how Liam Neeson has brought us all together this week!

Not since the Matildas have we had such an urgent need to talk about a singular topic with strangers in town. Trump notwithstanding.

I have loved seeing all the cutouts of Liam at local businesses, but I’m dying to see a photo of real-life Liam getting amongst it in Castlemaine. Please tag me if it happens. Surely he wants to meet us?!

♡˖ EVENTS ˖♡

𖥔 TALK TO MOI PLOISE 𖥔

Hi! Kindly drop me a line at [email protected] to let me know:

  • if you saw the elusive Liam Neeson this week and where,

  • all about your upcoming event, and

  • who I should interview next. xx