BALLARAT artist Peter Clarke is rejoicing his childhood spent at a boy's orphanage.
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Mr Clarke was taken from his family and became a ward of the state as an infant, but he does not hold any grudges.
To celebrate his childhood and the relationship between Aboriginals and white people, he has painted a symbolic flag.
It combines the Aboriginal and Eureka flags.
"The cross is important," Mr Clarke said.
"The cross is us - our spirit."
Mr Clarke said the Aboriginal flag's yellow circle was also reminiscent of the hub cap he used for gold panning in Ballarat.
Gold panning near St Joseph's Home orphanage is a fond memory from his childhood and something he still enjoys to this day.
"I painted it as me," Mr Clarke said.
He is looking for a home in Ballarat for the painting.
"I want to keep it here in Ballarat - it's important to all of us."
Mr Clarke said he loved growing up in the boy's orphanage.
"It was great fun," he said.
"There was always a new boy and you'd be saying "oh who's that."
Mr Clarke spent 18 years at the orphanage, but his toughest time was when he was released.
"They dropped me off at the station with a cardboard shoe-box and a letter," he said.
"I was very scared and didn't really know what I was going to do."
After some time he decided to move to Melbourne and landed a job in child protection.
He was there for seven-and-a-half years before working in the cardiology section of the Royal Children's Hospital and went on to become Australia's only Aboriginal stuntman.
"That was great fun," he said.
But he never stopped calling Ballarat home and has returned to the city, spending his days painting and panning for gold.