AS a father, David Wenham jumped at the chance to highlight one of the darkest chapters in Australia's historical association with the UK.
In his next film, Sunshine And Oranges, Wenham plays one of the thousands of illegitimate British children who were systemically snatched from orphanages and shipped to Australia, often into a life of hardship and abuse.
"It's a hideous part of our history that only ended in the 1970s and one that I don't think is very well known," Wenham told AAP.
"It's staggering when you realise the amount of people involved and affected by it and that for so many years it was swept under the carpet and forgotten about."
Directed by Jim Loach, Sunshine And Oranges tells the true story of English social worker Margaret Humphreys (played by Emily Watson) who came across the scandal in the `80s.
She spent the best part of her life fighting for justice and trying to reunite families from opposite ends of the globe, eventually winning apologies from both the British and Australian governments last year.
Wenham plays one of an estimated 100,000 'transportees' who were stripped of their heritage from a young age and given a new identity, only to discover the promise of `sunshine and oranges' hid a more sinister truth.
"The children were sent to different places dotted around the country, some of them run by Barnardos, some by the Christian Brothers, by a number of different charities," Wenham said.
"But others were put to work in farms or sent to middle of Australia in very harsh conditions, often being forced to build schools with their bare hands lugging materials across the outback aged just seven or eight.
"The lives they led were not the way they were led to believe and there were some horrendous cases of abuse."
As part of his research Wenham travelled to Perth to meet some of the people who'd suffered under a system introduced by governments of the time as a way ofcutting childcare costs.
He discovered that despite being lied to, and in many cases falsely told their parents had died many years ago, most of the affected refused to be treated like victims.
"The stories are genuinely heartbreaking and although it's affected them all to varying degrees most just want to move on," Wenham said.
"My character is fascinating because from the exterior it seems like he's not affected by what's happened to him, but the exterior belies the truth."
Wenham is famous for playing fictional characters in fantasy blockbusters like the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, Van Helsing and 300.
He says all his roles share a strong interaction between characters - with Sunshine And Oranges no different - and he'll be using that criteria when judging this year's Optus ONE80 Project.
"I've loved being involved in it and having the opportunity to watch the finalists' entries," Wenham said of the competition to unearth young talent for the TV industry.
"It's been enlightening to see what interests and attracts younger filmmakers today, and refreshing to see there's not one particular genre they're drawn to - it's very broad and proficient."
Winners in the Optus ONE80 Project will be announced on Sunday at a free festival at Sydney's Prince Alfred Park, featuring music from Mark Ronson and Bag Raiders plus screenings of the winning films.
Sunshine And Oranges is released on April 1 in the UK with an Australian release date to be confirmed.
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