In 1975, he moved to Perth, Western Australia, where he commenced a bachelor's degree in Human Biology and Anatomy at the University of Western Australia but in 1976 changed to Physical Education to continue his interest in exercise physiology and biomechanics.

[4] At the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada, he won a bronze medal in the men's team competition.

[5] From 1981 to 1982, Forbes was employed as a senior tutor in biomechanics and exercise physiology at the Footscray Institute of Technology when approached to take over from Peter Lloyd as head coach of the Australian Institute of Sport Men's Artistic Gymnastics program.

Australian Team's performances at major competitions whilst Forbes was head coach were: Gymnasts coached by Forbes at the Australian Institute of Sport include: Robbie Edmonds, Ken Meredith, Werner Birnbaum, Brennon Dowrick, Shaw Bing, Peter Hogan, Bret Hudson, Andrei Kravtsov and Philippe Rizzo,[7] Rizzo under the individual coaching of Vladmir Vatkin went on to win the Silver Medal on the Horizontal bar at the 2001 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Ghent, Belgium and the Gold Medal on the Horizontal bar at the 2006 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Aahus, Denmark.

[8] After retiring as a gymnastics coach in 2004, Forbes has held several high performance sport management positions with the Australia Institute of Sport, including managing from 2007 to 2011 the final negotiations with the Province of Varese, the construction of the building and staffing and running of the Australian Institute of Sport, European Training Centre (AIS-ETC) in Varese, Italy.