The 43-year-old lost his wife Julie in June last year and he now looks after his seven children, who are aged between four and 19 years old.

He has given up his building business and said he hopes moving house will help keep costs down. 

“I’m on the single parent pension and financially it will work out better for us to rent,” he said. 

It has been difficult couple of years for the Bruce family.

Mr Bruce’s wife died unexpectedly last year, and his mother passed away earlier this month of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy – a neurological disease similar to Parkinson’s. 

“There’s been lot of turmoil the last few years,” he said.

Mr Bruce said he had been able to remain on top of things by seeing counsellors regularly.

“People tell me the kids seem very very settled, they seem happy and that’s really wonderful ,” he said.

“The other good thing happening is our new start when we move house. The children are very excited about it.

“It’s positive but also emotional as well. This is the house we built as a family. Julie worked hard on this house.”

Mr Bruce said moving would be a new chapter.

“We have memories here, there’s a lot positive but it's time to make a new start,” he said.

Mr Bruce is also putting behind him an incident involving security staff at a local hotel, which led to a recent court appearance. 

“Yes, I went out and things went ugly that night, but it was one very isolated incident,” he said, calling the matter an error in judgement.

“We live and learn,” he said.

Mr Bruce said he did not know many other single parent fathers and felt there was a need for a support group for men in such a position to help them deal with the stresses and talk with people in similar situations.

“There’s definitely a need in Warrnambool,” he said.