A Melbourne Dad launches a home for Bereaved Fathers Day on International Men’s Day

Melbourne, Thursday 19 November 2026. On International Men’s Day, Melbourne Dad Matt is launching bereavedfathersday.com, a home for Bereaved Fathers Day: the last Sunday in August, for every Dad whose child has died, and for the people around them.

Matt’s first son, Parker James, was born on Friday 14 August 2026 and died on 15 August. “I know I’m Parker’s Dad. I always will be,” Matt says.

The site gathers what a Dad, and the people who love them, might need in the weeks and months after: support written just for Dads; words for family and friends, with messages they can copy and send; a short guide for workplaces; Letters to our children, where Dads, family and friends can write to a child who has died, with no names; and the numbers to call, any hour.

International Bereaved Father’s Day is widely reported to have been created in 2010 by Carly Marie Dudley, alongside International Bereaved Mother’s Day. In Australia it falls on the Sunday before Father’s Day, a week out from one of the hardest days of the year. The next is Sunday 29 August 2027.

On an average day in Australia, six babies are stillborn and two die within 28 days of birth, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Many more families go through a miscarriage, or the death of a child later in infancy.

“I’ve got a lifetime’s worth of love for him,” Matt says. “This is one of the places it goes.”

This International Men’s Day, Matt is asking people to check in on a Dad whose child has died, and to say their name. Workplaces can find a five-minute guide at bereavedfathersday.com/workplaces.

The site doesn’t fundraise. It points Dads to the organisations that helped Matt’s family, including Red Nose, Bears of Hope, Heartfelt and Love From Dad.