By Caroline Smith
Like many others in Perth, Ocean Reef Parish, St Simon Peter Church has a grotto dedicated to Mary, complete with a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes.
But this grotto has a unique story, connecting parishioner John Hollywood to the story of British orphans who were sent to Australia in the post-war period.
Mr Hollywood, who is Chair of the Parish Council, is a former child migrant and grew up at Tardun Agricultural College near Geraldton, run by the Christian Brothers, and where the statue originally resided.
He said that the idea of building a grotto at St Simon Peter Church coincided with news that the College was closing down in 2009.
“When I knew that the school was closing down, I rang up the headquarters at Westcourt and spoke to the Brother in charge there. I asked if it was possible to save the statue and I would build a grotto for it at our Parish in Ocean Reef,” he said.
“We had a committee and asked the parishioners and a survey was done – 95 percent said they wanted a grotto. It took about nine months, working weekends to do it.”
The process of building the grotto involved many members of the parish community working together, and it was finally opened on 10 December 2016, blessed by Parish Priests Father Fr Franciszek Kot and Fr Dariusz Basiaga.
“I’m a builder by profession and I had to consider how to build the dome at the grotto.
“I couldn’t get any engineers to certify the dome, because I wanted to make it out of rock. But it ended up being made out of concrete and the rock was stuck to it,” Mr Hollywood said.
“Together with another parishioner, we built it, designed it and got the dome up and it was finally certified by an engineer. One of our parishioners, who’s a fantastic tiler, did all the rock work for free.
“It cost $45,000, and we raised the money through fetes and fund raising.”
Mr Hollywood added that the parish owed their thanks to Dale and Chris Dees for creating the garden and providing landscaping for the structure.
The recent building of the grotto also coincided with Mr Hollywood’s process of writing his autobiography, looking back on his arrival in Australia as a six-year old, living at Castledare Boys’ Home and then Tardun, where he spent his childhood and teenage years.
“People say, you must have had a hard life – I didn’t know it was hard, I thought everybody else did what I did,” he said.
“We sheared sheep, we rode horses, went bird-nesting, it was like Robinson Crusoe. On weekends you had to hunt your own food.”
He added that former residents of Tardun still meet on a regular basis to talk about their experiences.
“We meet twice a year at Moore River, and we invite the Brothers to our reunions,” Mr Hollywood said.
“I don’t really think of myself as an orphan, I think of it as if I had 20 fathers, three mothers and 60 brothers.”
After leaving Tardun at the age of 16, Mr Hollywood worked on a farm in Hyden, then moved to Perth to work as an actor. He later moved to England for work, before returning to Perth where he became a builder.
“The experience of being in an orphanage in England didn’t affect me, I think I grew out of it,” he said.
“I’ve got three sons and six grandchildren, the three sons have all got their own business. I think I’ve done alright in life.”