Groups of men sit around tables, sipping on cups of coffee and eating homemade baked goods for morning tea.

The men, who are veterans and mates, are at a bush retreat to help shed the weight of past traumas from their shoulders.

"It's a place where you can come and have a yarn and more or less forget about it sort of thing," Colin Beeton said.

" We don't talk about Vietnam or anything … we just love being here. "

Mr Beeton has been coming to Cockscomb Veterans Bush Retreat at Cawarral, a rural township outside Rockhampton, since the late 1990s.

When visitors gather, it is around the affectionately named Table of Knowledge.

President Bob Holmes said the chats they had were at the heart of why the retreat existed.

"They sit there and just talk about things, and that's what the place

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