For some, talk of Freemasons summons a mental image of old guys in a hall with their trousers rolled up. Forster’s Lodge doesn’t exactly shatter that stereotype, but there are no rolled-up trousers (that’s been done away with, Court says).

There are about 20 local members. The hall is dotted with symbols, which Freemasons seem to love.

The square and compasses, Woodward explains, symbolise uprightness and direction. Four shields in the hall’s top corners are painted with the cardinal virtues; Justice, Fortitude, Temperance and Prudence.

There’s a shiny checkerboard carved into the floor, and our photographer apologises as he trips on it. Woodward laughs.

“It’s not a holy altar.”

Yeah, about that. Is Freemasonry some kind of religion?

“It’s not, but you have to believe in a supreme being to join,” lodge master Don Andrews says.

“You need three things to join: to be a male over 18, believe in a supreme being, and you can’t have a criminal record.”

The no girls rule, which Andrews says preserves “the brotherhood”, is one of the rituals that’s drawn fire. Critics like author Martin Short accuse the movement of stacking the police and judiciary with its members in a bid to make Freemasons untouchable.

“One must presume that people join lodges predominantly to feather their own nests, and to form a loose combination against the interests of everybody who is not a Mason,” Short says in The Brotherhood.

“That’s all garbage,” Andrews bristles.

“You don’t join up to get some kind of advantage.”

Court admits Freemasons stick together, but no more than Catholics or private school old boys.

“In reality the world doesn’t work like that. I think a judge would come down harder if you try to tell them you’re a Mason because you should have known better than to break the law.”

Could opening up the Freemasons take away the mystery that attracts members in the first place?

“It depends what people are joining up for,” Court says.

“If they just want to know what Freemasons do, it’s a hard way of going about it. You have to be nominated by two Masons and get character references and all sorts of things. I think a lot of blokes join to help out charity, or just to enjoy each other’s company.”

Great Lakes Freemasons raise money for everyone from Vinnies to schools to the coastal patrol. There’s every chance they do some weird things – initiated Freemasons vow not to cross a fellow member for fear of “having my throat cut across, my tongue torn out by the root and buried in the sand of the sea at low water mark”.

But if you stroll by the Masonic hall, you’re more likely to hear old guys laughing than goats screaming. And no rolled up trousers.

“You have to modernise,” Court says.