Illustration: Jack Chadwick ''It does often feel like the bar is very low for many dads, and it's difficult to break out of this mould that's been formed for them,'' said Murray Galbraith, a former digital advertising executive who is the project's creative director. ''I felt very alone before and after my son Angus arrived two years ago. I was the first person in my social circle to become a dad and I felt like I was failing and didn't know how or where to ask for help. At the same time, there was this weight of low expectation that really didn't fit with the type of father I wanted to be.'' The trio plans to raise $50,000 through a crowd-sourcing venture that will help them produce a documentary on the challenges facing modern dads. Emulating the success of popular parenting and women's website Mamamia, they also want to build an online space for fathers, full of information, advice and storytelling. ''Women have been very good at creating support networks and learning from one another, but there really isn't anywhere for men to hear other dads' stories,'' Mr Galbraith said. ''Four months ago, my partner and I lost our second baby through miscarriage, and the kick up the bum to get this project started was when I realised there is absolutely nowhere that I feel comfortable to speak about something as complex and terrifying as losing a child. I didn't know how to support my wife, I didn't know where to turn for resources on just getting through the day. Much of the parenting advice is heavily geared towards women.''

While the absent breadwinner or emotionally distant disciplinarian stereotypes of their parents' or grandparents' generations do not resonate with many of today's Australian dads, neither do popular culture depictions of fatherhood such as the tool-wielding Packed to the Rafters patriarch or the hapless House Husbands bloke who might burn the house down if left alone with his children. Rhys Price-Robertson, an academic who has spent the past five years researching parenting and family life, said fatherhood has undergone seismic transformations in the past 50 years and he hopes the site will provide a platform to reflect the diversity of the 2013 dad experience. ''Whether it's stepdads trying to connect with non-biological children, men separated from their children's mother, a gay dad trying to negotiate a good parenting set-up with a lesbian couple, or first-generation immigrant fathers trying to balance two cultures as they raise kids, there are all sorts of dads out there. We just don't talk about the issues they face,'' he said. ''I'd really like to see rich discussions about what it's like for men who experience depression after their kids are born, or the dad who wants to be different to his father, but he sees behavioural patterns coming through from his relationship with him and he wants to change.'' The dads stress the project is not about reigniting gender wars or marginalising mothers, but about questioning anachronistic social constructs and helping men to be more involved in the parenting process.

While acknowledging that women still take on the lion's share of society's child-rearing, they feel the childcare system with its ''mothers'' groups and ''maternal and child health'' advice lines does not reflect the increasing involvement of fathers. Before and after his daughter Elena was born 13 months ago, filmmaker Nick Butera felt excluded. He said: ''The birthing centre was an odd experience as an expectant father because although I was very keen to be involved and to know as much as I could to help my partner through the pregnancy, I remember a couple of times the midwife saying this has nothing to do with the fathers at all, and we were both quite shocked by that. Hopefully, this documentary and the online space will challenge those cliches of what the father's role is.'' The project comes after Charles Areni and Stephen Holden - who are writing a book about being single fathers - last year argued men are often relegated to the status of secondary parent and viewed as incompetent at best or potentially dangerous at worst. Mr Price-Robertson said societal expectations often fuel that view: ''If I go down to the park carrying my son Sidney in the baby carrier, people will look at me and say, 'Oh what a wonderful father, he's such an engaged dad'. But if my partner does it, no one will say anything to her.'' ■kickstarter.com/projects/ murraygalbraith/pretty-rad-for-a-dad