Sun Theatre owner Michael Smith, Australian Geographic’s ‘Adventurer of the Year’, has created a film documenting his six-month solo circumnavigation of the world in his amphibious aircraft Southern Sun. He speaks with Benjamin Millar
What is your connection with Maribyrnong and Hobsons Bay?
Anne and I bought a house in Williamstown when she was pregnant with Tim back in 1996, a year after we bought the rather dilapidated Sun Theatre in Yarraville. I was looking for an old theatre to be the headquarters of our cinema equipment business; Yarraville resident Brian Davis referred me to the Sun. I crawled in through a hole in the back wall and just fell in love with the place.
What do you love most about the area?
I love the west. I do everything I can to avoid crossing the river to the east side. I love being able to ride my bike along the Yarra from home to work, the down-to-earth people, great sense of community. If I could change anything, it would be the wind direction. There always seems to be a northerly when I am riding towards Yarraville, and a southerly when riding home to Williamstown – if we could just reverse that, life would be perfect.
Do you have a favourite local place?
So many … watching films in LaScala, lunch at Cornershop, breakfast on the deck of Royals looking across the bay, riding along the river, my morning row from the Anchorage across to Port Melbourne.
What has been the most rewarding aspect of bringing the Sun Theatre back to life?
Seeing how much people love the place, people relaxing in the park out front, and hearing about people who got married after going on their first date at the Sun.
What is the story behind your new documentary Voyage of the Southern Sun?
It follows the story of my solo circumnavigation in my beloved little silver plane, the Southern Sun. It was just the greatest experience, travelling to 80 cities and 25 countries, meeting people and seeing the most incredible sights all over the globe.
There were plenty of highs and a few lows.
It had never been done before, but I think people will appreciate the delight I felt along the way, and I hope to inspire them to turn dreams into their own reality.
Do you have other adventures in the pipeline?
I’d love to fly into remote parts of Papua New Guinea, Northern Australia and some Pacific Islands to show outdoor movies, to expand our Cinema Lorosa’e free outdoor cinema program further afield. This will be the research and foundation of Screens Without Borders (www.screenswithoutborders.org), which we are very excited about.
Who has been your biggest inspiration?
I list 19 people in the credits of the film who have been a great inspiration to me. Each in their own way has influenced my sense of fun, adventure, justice, commitment, success, respect in their own way – Willy Wonka, Grandma and Grandpa, Robin Lee Graham, Mike and Mal Leyland, Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Winston Churchill, John F Kennedy, Greg Hunt, Daryl Kerrigan, Sir Francis Chichester, John Bertrand, Howard Hughes, Michael Corleone, Alby Mangels, Dick Smith, Barry Peak and Ferris Bueller … but if I had to choose just one, it would be Willy Wonka.
What’s something people might be surprised to learn about you?
I grew up on an orchard in Seville and when I was 12 I built a “sail boat” using a tractor tube, a sheet of plywood, two broom sticks, and cut up a tent to make the sail, and sailed it on the dam.
Voyage of the Southern Sun makes its world premiere at the Sun Theatre at 7pm Wednesday, April 12.
