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Speaker 1: I read yesterday in the Sunday Mail a story of

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Speaker 1: some interest. Down at Semaphore there was an orphanage called

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Speaker 1: Saint Francis House, and that's one story in itself, but

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Speaker 1: the other is the relationship between the people who set

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Speaker 1: it up, Percy and Isabelle Smith, who met. Some were

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Speaker 1: up north, I understand, some were in the outback potentially,

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Speaker 1: or Alice Springs. Their grandson, Mark Smith on the line

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Speaker 1: to tell us about those stories, what they did with

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Speaker 1: the orphanage, and the fact it's about to become a film.

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Speaker 1: Mark Smith, Good morning, Good.

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Speaker 2: Morning, Matthew, and good morning to all of your listeners.

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Speaker 1: Let's start with Isabelle and Percy, your grandparents. So what

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Speaker 1: happened there, Well.

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Speaker 2: My grandmother was a girl from Adelaide and she was

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Speaker 2: living here at the time of World War two, and

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Speaker 2: she had a boyfriend who was called up into the

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Speaker 2: army and was sent to Alice Springs. And Alice Springs

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Speaker 2: was a kind of a staging camp for preparing for

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Speaker 2: what was eventually the Japanese attack on Darwin in nineteen

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Speaker 2: forty two. So she got on the train and went

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Speaker 2: to Alice Springs, which was a big adventure for her

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Speaker 2: and she's also a good Anglican. And she went to

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Speaker 2: the church there and she met the priest who was

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Speaker 2: Percy Smith, and from there she developed a connection with

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Speaker 2: him and she took him out to a place called

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Speaker 2: the Bungalow, which was a camp for the Aboriginal people

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Speaker 2: and the children in Alice Springs, and she was heartbroken

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Speaker 2: when she saw the conditions that they were living in.

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Speaker 2: And this really stayed with her when she came back

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Speaker 2: to Adelaide and she felt that there was something more

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Speaker 2: for her to do to help those children. And she

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Speaker 2: had started writing to Percy, and eventually a romance developed,

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Speaker 2: and long story short, she gave up her life in

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Speaker 2: Adelaide and went and moved to Alice Springs, married Percy,

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Speaker 2: and then started working with him who had set up

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Speaker 2: a hospel next to the church for Aboriginal children. And

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Speaker 2: she threw her life into caring for those kids as

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Speaker 2: kind of the priest's wife. And you know, as the

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Speaker 2: war kind of came to an end and the children

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Speaker 2: were getting older, you know, Percy, who had known the

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Speaker 2: Aboriginal mothers over a period of ten years, was talking

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Speaker 2: to them and saying, look, there's not much future in

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Speaker 2: Alice Springs. For these children, I'd like to take some

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Speaker 2: of them to Adelaide and see if we can get

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Speaker 2: them into a school there, and then that will give

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Speaker 2: them an opportunity to access good jobs and a better future.

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Speaker 2: And so with six boys on the train, Percy Smith

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Speaker 2: took them to Adelaide and among those boys were Charles Perkins,

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Speaker 2: who was a great Indigenous leader, David Woodford, Malcolm Cooper

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Speaker 2: who ended up paying for Port Adelaide. And from the

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Speaker 2: first six, you know, more children wanted to come as

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Speaker 2: this kind of experiment, I suppose, and it was a

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Speaker 2: social experiment of the time. You know, it's twenty years

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Speaker 2: before the nineteen sixty seven referendum that this was all

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Speaker 2: being done and they had to find a bigger premises

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Speaker 2: because they were staying in a small house at Kensington Gardens,

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Speaker 2: not far from Holden Street where Don Bradman was living.

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Speaker 2: And they found Glanville Hall, which is a great big

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Speaker 2: Victorian mansion that was a bit derelict at the time

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Speaker 2: and they had to get some money from the church

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Speaker 2: to buy it and do it up, and that became

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Speaker 2: what is now known as Saint Francis House.

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Speaker 1: Right Glenville Hall Is that John Hart's former home, the

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Speaker 1: one overlooking the Path three golf course. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, that was built by John Hart, who's a former

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Speaker 2: premier of the state.

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Speaker 1: And Hart Street Heart's Mill all named after him down

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Speaker 1: the portal.

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Speaker 2: That's all him. Lady Glanville was his wife.

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Speaker 1: All right, Okay, yeah, oh, there we go. So they

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Speaker 1: formed the orphanage and ran that for How long did

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Speaker 1: that last? Down there?

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Speaker 2: That ran from nineteen forty six till nineteen fifty nine,

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Speaker 2: and about around sixty boys went through the home in

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Speaker 2: that time.

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Speaker 1: Okay, and they stayed down here? Is that what the

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Speaker 1: film's going to be picking up on. Now, I'm in

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Speaker 1: that story that you've just described, and then what happened

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Speaker 1: to these people, these kids?

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Speaker 2: Well, I'm telling it from the perspective of my grandmother

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Speaker 2: and her life, and I kind of came across the

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Speaker 2: love letters between my grandparents because in the last eighteen

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Speaker 2: months I've been going through the family history in detail,

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Speaker 2: because sadly, your father passed away quite suddenly in late

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty two, and you know, he'd collected a lot

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Speaker 2: of stuff over the years, and just the fact of

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Speaker 2: having his funeral, I had to contact a lot of

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Speaker 2: the former Aboriginal boys who were students of the home

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Speaker 2: because they wanted to come and pay their respects and

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Speaker 2: be part of that process and support me and my

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Speaker 2: brother and our family through that. And the more I

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Speaker 2: thought about this, and the more I thought about Aboriginal affairs,

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Speaker 2: particularly in Australia in the last year, I thought, this

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Speaker 2: is a positive story of white people trying to help

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Speaker 2: Aboriginal people. That is a South Australian story that I'd

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Speaker 2: like to be better known and I'd like to share

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Speaker 2: it with the world. So I was able to make

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Speaker 2: a connection with Mark Webber, who's a director based in

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Speaker 2: Los Angeles and also in Adelaide, and you know, he

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Speaker 2: was really embraced this story and supporting me and opening

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Speaker 2: up his whole network in Hollywood to help me bring

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Speaker 2: this bring this story to the world, which is it's

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Speaker 2: a pretty exciting and overwhelming type of thing that's happened

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Speaker 2: at a kind of a tumultuous personal time for me,

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Speaker 2: But you know, that's something that I really want to do.

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Speaker 2: And the support I've had from the Aboriginal families and

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Speaker 2: everyone I've been talking to is telling me this is

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Speaker 2: the right thing to.

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Speaker 1: Do, and we're not talking stolen generation here. These are

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Speaker 1: Aboriginal families, mums who wanted to send their kids off

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Speaker 1: in hope of a better life.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and the initial group all had the permission of

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Speaker 2: their mothers. And in fact, you know, Hettie Perkins, mother

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Speaker 2: of Charles Perkins, asked if Percy Smith would care for

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Speaker 2: her son, and you know, she would provide money to

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Speaker 2: help with his board and he visit her at Christmas

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Speaker 2: time every year after school and maintained a connection with

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Speaker 2: his family and Alice Springs. But later on after the war,

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Speaker 2: children were evacuated all over the place and different groups

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Speaker 2: were sent to Saint Francis House when it was known

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Speaker 2: that this was a good place. And so John Moriarty,

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Speaker 2: for example, was part of the stolen generation. And he's

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Speaker 2: originally from Borlora, which is in the Northern Territory and

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Speaker 2: he ended up at the home. But you know, he

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Speaker 2: then went on to be the first Indigenous person to

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Speaker 2: be selected to play soccer for Australia and he was

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Speaker 2: the first Aboriginal graduate South Australian University. And he's known

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Speaker 2: for his quantus Aboriginal designs on the planes and he

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Speaker 2: just launched another plane earlier this year. But he's part

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Speaker 2: of the Stolen Generation but also part of the Saint

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Speaker 2: Francis House group. And Sonny Maury as another person who's

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Speaker 2: part of the Stolen Generation but was at Saint Franci's House,

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Speaker 2: So it's both, it's both. To answer your question, yeah.

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Speaker 1: It's magnificent though. It's a wonderful story and should be

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Speaker 1: told him. I think you know what are the house now.

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Speaker 1: I mean it is used for different events, it's a

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Speaker 1: function place these days. When they closed in fifty nine,

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Speaker 1: what happened was at the end of it.

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Speaker 2: The I mean with the building or with the people.

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Speaker 1: With the home, I mean Saint Francis Home, it just

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Speaker 1: ended it. At that time, the.

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Speaker 2: Church decided they didn't want to continue to support that

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Speaker 2: way of helping Aboriginal children and the system shifted to

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Speaker 2: more of a foster home and foster family type arrangement.

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Speaker 2: And I think Sonny Maury, for example, was then sent

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Speaker 2: to a family in Gaula because he was there when

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Speaker 2: the place was closed. So yeah, it was just a

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Speaker 2: change of policy. And you know, this is the Australian

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Speaker 2: government still working out how they deal with helping Aboriginal

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Speaker 2: people and that was really not something that government had

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Speaker 2: policies on yet.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, and gree didn't the Anglicans do it better? Then?

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Speaker 1: Not where to for your grandparents in nineteen fifty nine

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Speaker 1: did they retire at that point? Were they of that age,

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Speaker 1: they would have still been reasonably young. I imagine really well.

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Speaker 2: They went there throughout the entire time of the home

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Speaker 2: and probably the great tragedy of it was that my

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Speaker 2: own grandfather was called back to Other Springs at about

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Speaker 2: nineteen forty nine fifty because we had to help manage

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Speaker 2: that growing parish as well. And that was heartbreaking for

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Speaker 2: the boys. I know they felt like it was as

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Speaker 2: surrogate parents been taken away from them, but it was

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Speaker 2: a decision out of Percy Smith's hands. But they maintained

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Speaker 2: a connection with these boys throughout their lives, and every

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Speaker 2: time someone got married, or there was a baby born,

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Speaker 2: or there was a baptism, or someone passed away, there

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Speaker 2: was always a reunion. And the beautiful thing that's been

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Speaker 2: left for me is a record of all that, hundreds

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Speaker 2: of photos with all captions that really provided the basis

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Speaker 2: for me wanting to tell this film because I've got

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Speaker 2: all of these images and you can see a lot

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Speaker 2: of them on our website, which is St. Francasouse dot

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Speaker 2: com dot au. But just document the connection that these

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Speaker 2: Aboriginal boys maintained with Isabelle and Percy Smith throughout their lives,

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Speaker 2: and it continues today with my brother and I talking

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Speaker 2: with the children of all those boys, which is it's

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Speaker 2: really lovely.

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Speaker 1: I think it's a wonderful story, Mark, and thank you

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Speaker 1: for your time today. The film so that might get

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Speaker 1: under way later this year, potentially as soon as that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we're in the pre production process now and Mark

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Speaker 2: Webber is in Los Angeles organizing things at the moment.

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Speaker 2: When he's back in Adelaide later in the year, will

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Speaker 2: look to start going through a casting process and a

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Speaker 2: film schedule.

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Speaker 1: Beautiful, great story. Well, good luck with that and maybe

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Speaker 1: we'll speak again a bit closer to that time.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much for showing an interest in this story,

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Speaker 2: and good luck to you.

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Speaker 1: Thank you lovely chatting with you, Mark. Thank you. Mark

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Speaker 1: Myth who his grandparents started Saint Francis House at Glanville

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Speaker 1: at Semaphore,