Alliance Française de Canberra has been based at the same building in Turner since the 1970s – but its history began long before then. Photo: Alliance Française de Canberra.
One winter’s evening in the middle of WWII, 15 people united in purpose gathered in the sitting room of an early Canberra cottage in Forrest to discuss an idea.
The year was 1943, the sitting room was Mrs Hodgson’s, and the idea was to found a local centre for French language and culture, known today as the Alliance Française de Canberra.
Ahead of Alliance Française’s 80th birthday this Saturday (7 October), secretary Arthur Camilleri rediscovered a little book with the story of a man who was secretary some 80 years before him.
“I’m glad that I, only just through this experience, discovered this book existed,” Arthur said. “I found it inspirational, to be honest. It’s given me a little bit more motivation to contribute as a member of the board and to see it get stronger and even raise our efforts to have more growth in the area and increase the awareness in the local community of what the Alliance Française has to offer.”
The book included the first-hand account of George Vincent, a man in his 20s who worked in the public service in Perth and was an active member of his local Alliance Française before WWII.
Not long after being transferred to Canberra in 1939, George served Australia in Tobruk, where he was shot in the head and underwent brain surgery in a makeshift underground hospital.
Surviving this ordeal may be deemed an inspirational feat in and of itself, but George’s account does not begin on a battlefield. It begins in 1943 in Mrs Hodgson’s sitting room.
George Vincent, standing fifth from right, during the 1950s. Photo: Gavin Young/ACT Memorial.
George and his 14 fellow Francophiles sowed the seeds of the Alliance Française de Canberra, which today has 1500 members and 800 students, in a very different Canberra. The “so-called national capital”, as George referred to it, had a population of about 7000, and one Australian penny, still some two decades off being replaced by the dollar, bought him a newspaper ad to promote his idea.
Jumpstarted by a £50 donation from Alliance Française’s Sydney chapter, the Canberra chapter was up and running one month later, with George appointed as the group’s inaugural secretary.
Alliance Française’s membership grew steadily as it held regular meetings, lectures, film sessions and slide nights across several locations, including in a room on top of the defunct Blue Moon Cafe.
George left three years later to resume his university studies. By the time he returned in 1966, this time as president, the group had the “luxury” of its own 4×3-metre room at the Griffin Centre. Here, it would host its very first public French language classes in 1969. The classes were a hit; within three years, there were as many as 400 adult and children students.
Then-cultural attaché of the French Embassy, Albert Salon, took notice of what George described as an “engulfing interest” and convinced the committee to look to build its very own premises.
Named the Maison de France, the Turner building was unveiled in 1974 by then-prime minister Gough Whitlam (also a former student of the French language school, Telopea Park) and has been used as Alliance Française’s Canberra base ever since.
This Saturday, Canberrans are invited to the same building to discover everything the city’s first multicultural centre offers 80 years down the track during its open day/celebration.
“It’s obviously celebrating the connection that we have in Australia to France and Francophone countries through the Alliance Française,” Arthur explained.
“It’s also celebrating the achievement of Alliance Française having developed so much from very humble beginnings and to celebrate those people who actually started it.”
Alliance Française de Canberra’s 80th birthday open day is on Saturday, 7 October, from 2 to 5 pm, at 66 McCaughey Street, Turner.
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