A young Dungog family was lucky enough to have lunch with actor Jessica Mauboy while they were filming scenes of The Secret Daughter at their Abelard Street home.
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The home and backyard sheds of Damien and Bobbie Howard were selected by producers for one day’s filming of the mini-series commissioned by Channel 7.
Bobbie Howard said back in February two men knocked on her door and asked if they could have a look at the sheds at the back of the property and around the outside of the house.
“They said they were looking at locations to film a mini-series,” Bobbie said.
“They had a good look around and said they would be back in touch in a few weeks.
“I received a call a few weeks later and they wanted to come up and have another look around.
“They seemed really happy with the sheds and then a small busload of people, including the director came up two weeks prior to filming and checked everything out again.
“We were told filming would be on Wednesday and they arrived about 9am and starting setting up.
“They dressed the shed up with props and removed some of the things we had on the front verandah and replaced them with a lazy-boy chair, old table, ironing board, guitar and bongo drums.
“Our house was used as the rental house for Jessica Mauboy’s father Gus in the film who was played by David Field.”
Bobbie let her three children Gabe, Aidan and Mia have the day off school so they could watch the filming.
The family was invited to go the RSL club for lunch with the cast and crew and Jessica Mauboy went and sat with them.
“She was a really nice lady,” Mia said.
“I got to ask her a lot of questions and I had a DVD of her movie Sapphires which she signed for me.
“We had Mexican for lunch and chocolate cake and ice-cream for dessert.”
The family said the cast and crew were a “great bunch of people”.
“If they needed something they asked, they didn’t demand it,” Bobbie said.
“They needed to use our electricity and they were very grateful for whatever we did for them.
“It was good how they explained things to us and I understand a bit more on how a movie is made.
“They were finishing filming on Friday but Jess told us they will be back up in about three weeks time to do a bit more.
“It has been good for the town as they stayed locally and spent money here and the actors were very obliging in having their photos taken with fans.”
