One Step Max walks into Junee with a message that could save a life

AFTER thousands of kilometres on foot, countless conversations and a journey guided more by people than maps, mental health advocate “One Step Max” has walked into Junee carrying a simple message: listen, be kind and give people the space to be heard.

And after conquering one of the town’s most notorious hills on Tuesday morning, September 22, he also discovered something else about Junee: if you need a hand pushing a heavily loaded wheelbarrow, chances are somebody will step up.

Max arrived in town as part of an extraordinary journey across Australia aimed at raising awareness of suicide and mental health, walking from community to community with his unmistakable cart and leaving messages of hope in his wake.

After spending Monday night at the Jail Brake Inn Cafe, Max was back on the road early Tuesday, pushing his cart along the long stretch of the Olympic Highway known locally as the Mad Mile, before tackling the steep climb into Junee.

Having already shed about 30 kilograms of winter gear and temporarily left another 15 to 18 kilograms of belongings behind at the cafe, Max still had the notorious climb at the end of the Mad Mile ahead of him.

One Step Max walked into Junee on Tuesday morning, September 22 | © The Junee Bulletin

Then came Kemp Street.

It was there he was met by Junee woman Kirsti Clarke, founder of local mental health and disability service Empower Clear Minds.

For Kirsti, Max’s journey is intensely personal.

Having lost two brothers to suicide, she knows first-hand the devastation left behind and has built much of her own life’s work around supporting others.

She asked Max whether there was anything she could do to help.

His answer was practical.

Push the ‘barrow.

So she did.

© The Junee Bulletin

© The Junee Bulletin

From Kemp Street, Kirsti took over the handles of Max’s brightly decorated wheelbarrow and pushed it through Junee while he walked alongside her, an impromptu act of kindness that perhaps captured his message better than any speech could.

Together they made their way through town to the Railway Station Cafe, where owner Debbie Daley was waiting to welcome Max and shout him a well-earned hot breakfast.

© The Junee Bulletin

© The Junee Bulletin

For Kirsti, meeting the man behind the journey was an emotional moment.

“This cause is incredibly close to my heart, and what Max is doing takes enormous courage,” she told the Junee Bulletin.

“He is putting himself out there every single day to start conversations and raise awareness about something that is so important, but can still be incredibly difficult for people to talk about.

“It’s also a reminder of why I get up every morning and do what I do through Empower Clear Minds. I love my job, I love being able to support people and I feel like I’ve found my purpose in life.

“If being there for someone means listening, walking beside them or, in Max’s case, pushing their cart through Junee, then that’s what you do.”

One Step Max pictured with Empower Clear Minds founder, Kirsti Clarke in Junee | © The Junee Bulletin

A Journey Without a Map

Max’s journey began in October last year when he walked from Albury to Adelaide, following the Murray River.

He finished that leg in December and took a short break through the heat of summer before setting out again towards the end of the season.

Since then, the kilometres have continued to mount.

“I started on the NSW-Queensland border,” Max told the Bulletin.

“I went from Goondiwindi to Moree, Bingara, Narrabri and Tamworth, then from Coonabarabran to Forbes, Condobolin, Lake Cargelligo, West Wyalong, back to Forbes, back to West Wyalong, and then Temora, now I am here.”

Image: Facebook/One Step Max

Known online as ‘One Step Max‘, his broader mission encourages people around the world to collectively cover 700,000 kilometres in recognition of the more than 700,000 people estimated to die by suicide globally each year.

But on the ground, his mission is much more personal.

It happens one town, one conversation and one person at a time.

“Let’s see if I can make any change in your town over the next few days,” he said after arriving in Junee.

© The Junee Bulletin

Max said another remarkable journey through the Riverina helped bring him this way.

Former Junee woman Samantha Longmore passed through her childhood hometown in June during The Big Wheel, an eight-day wheelchair journey across southern NSW raising money and awareness for rural mental health.

“That’s one of the reasons I came through this way,” Max said.

“She is amazing.”

Messages from the Roadside

Anyone who has travelled the roads behind Max may have already encountered part of his campaign without ever meeting him.

Along the way, he creates simple handwritten signs from second-hand materials and leaves them for passing motorists.

There are no expensive billboards or elaborate campaigns.

Just words.

Messages intended to make someone think, smile or perhaps hold on during a particularly difficult day.

© The Junee Bulletin

“If you can put a smile on somebody’s face and they stay here a day longer, money can’t buy that,” Max said.

“If somebody doesn’t like it and they want to take it down, it says a lot more about them than it does us.”

He believes the distinction between being told something and discovering a message for yourself is important.

“If I tell you to do something, it’s me telling you to do it,” he said.

“If you read something, it’s your own mind telling you to do it.”

While in Junee, Max hopes to turn that philosophy into a community effort.

“I am going to get the community to make some signs,” he said.

‘We Must Listen’

Behind the colourful cart, roadside messages and thousands of kilometres is a subject Max treats with deadly seriousness.

He has previously spoken publicly about experiencing significant trauma earlier in his life, enduring years of nightmares and reaching a point where he himself struggled with suicidal thoughts.

His mother was a powerful reason he remained alive, and seeking help eventually allowed him to begin moving beyond the mental anguish he had carried for years.

Those experiences now underpin much of what Max tells the strangers he encounters on the road.

His central message is not complicated.

Listen.

“Everybody says, ‘We never saw it coming’,” Max told the Bulletin.

“We’re using the wrong sense. We should be listening and giving people space to speak without judgement.”

One Step Max pictured with Railway Station Cafe owner, Debbie Daley, and Empower Clear Minds founder, Kirsti Clarke | © The Junee Bulletin

Max believes silence during a difficult conversation should not automatically be filled.

Instead, he encourages people to count.

“When you’re speaking to somebody and they stop speaking, they’re often still trying to work out what to say next,” he said.

“If they’re not given the space to think before they speak, you forget what you were saying and you forget what you were going to say.

“When that keeps happening you think to yourself, ‘What’s the point? I’m not even going to be heard’.

“And then people give up.”

His advice is strikingly simple.

“We must listen. And the easiest way to listen is to count,” he said.

“When someone stops speaking, count. One, two, three, ten, 50. If you give them that space, what they want to say will eventually come out.

“When there’s nothing left to say, they’ll turn around and say to you, ‘That’s all I’ve got’.

“They’ll tell you when they’ve finished.

“It might not be everything, but it will be everything for that day.”

© The Junee Bulletin

The Other Side of Social Media

Max’s journey has increasingly found an audience online, something he never anticipated when he started walking.

Before One Step Max, he said social media was largely just a way of keeping in touch with friends around the world.

Now it allows people, including young people struggling with bullying, to reach him directly.

“I think social media is a tool that, if it is used correctly, has benefits,” he said.

“But if it’s used incorrectly, I think it will do a lot of damage.”

© The Junee Bulletin

He said children had sent him screenshots of cruel messages they had received online, reinforcing his belief that communities needed to teach accountability, respect and compassion from an early age.

But Max also challenges people to look beyond the behaviour of a bully and ask what may be happening behind it.

“I try and explain to them that that is them projecting their issues onto you,” he said.

“Once we identify the bullies, they need help. Those are the ones we must be helping.

“Chances are they’re going home and that’s happening to them. That’s where they’ve learnt it.

“The community must stand together and address that. We must change our behaviour.”

Where to Next?

Ask Max where his journey will take him after Junee and don’t expect an itinerary.

There isn’t one.

“I listen to people. They will tell me where to go, or when I don’t know which way to turn, my body will lead me to where I am supposed to go,” he said.

“If I don’t plan anything, I can never be disappointed. That’s one of the rules I made when I started walking.”

His second rule?

“Ask for forgiveness rather than permission.”

© The Junee Bulletin

For now, however, Max is in Junee.

After the long straight of the Mad Mile, two punishing hills and thousands of kilometres before them, he arrived not with a grand entourage, but alongside a local woman pushing his cart.

For a man walking across the country asking Australians to look out for one another, it was a fitting welcome.

One step. One conversation. One person willing to listen.

And, sometimes, one local willing to grab the handles and help push.

NEED SUPPORT?

If you or someone you know needs crisis support, Lifeline is available 24/7 on 13 11 14.

Kids Helpline can be contacted on 1800 55 1800.

If life is in immediate danger, call Triple Zero (000).