In this ABC News article, Peter Norris tells the story of his difficult childhood.

Even as Clarence “Clarry” Norris (who had “spent a lot of his childhood in boys’ homes”) turned to armed robberies to fix his money problems, he was “a really loving, protective and supportive dad” who “tried to ensure that we didn’t end up like him.”

Young Peter was first in foster care when he was 18 months old and his father in jail.

Later, he lived with his father from the age of 6. When they found a “bundles of cash…and two pistols” in a bag Peter and his sisters “started to realise that Dad probably wasn’t just a cleaner.”

When he ran out of money, Clarry put the children in a home run by the Australian Red Cross for 2 weeks at a time.

At 10, Peter (& his siblings) were made wards of the State. Eventually he was taken in by a loving foster family and chose to say there even after his father had escaped prison.