A large social group, European travel and cosmopolitan exuberance made his decade in London one that Jason Kick-Dawson remembers with fondness.

But when he returned to Australia with his wife Amy to her hometown of Melbourne he realised that along the way he had lost something very dear to him: his mates.

Jason Kick-Dawson found it a struggle at first to make new friends after moving to Melbourne. Credit:Penny Stephens

Born in Mudgee, in New South Wales, and no longer in contact with his school friends, Kick-Dawson found himself at the age of 30 in a new city with no social life and feeling lonely.

Despite hopes he would meet other fathers when his two children went to school, the years between the ages of 30 and 36 were sometimes bleak.