The consequences of the decision were significant even before the Australian actor’s untimely death in January at the age of 28.

Candy was a success as a novel and became a cult film, putting the author/screenwriter on the radar in literary and cinema circles.

Davies, 45, was in town on Friday to visit brother Ben, a teacher with the Armidale Film and Television School.

He spoke of how he learned ‘how amazing actors are’, a comment prompted by Ledger’s talent.

“There was something about him that was so extraordinary, he had this indefinable something,” Davies said.

“This is why his death has been so deeply moving for the world at large.”

Davies said he had been privy to all of the screen tests for the film and ‘threw my two bobs’ worth in’.

“[Director] Neil Armfield said he thought Heath was wrong for the film, but I showed him Heath’s role in Monster’s Ball with Billy Bob Thornton - he’s only in it for 20 minutes - and that’s what decided it for Neil,” he said.

Davies said Ledger’s signature was a turning point.

“It was a coup for us, it was the thing that got the film financed,” her said.

“Heath came on board and bang, it all happened.

“He had just shot Brokeback Mountain, but it had not been released, and that was the film that was to see him treated as an actor of substance rather than a Hollywood star.”

Davies hopes he was a twofold inspiration when he spoke to the Film and Television School students.

He shot to fame through Candy, but a decade earlier such celebrity was a distant blip on his horizon as he struggled to overcome a drug addiction.

“It was so long ago, it’s not what I do or who I am now, but it was a huge part of my life that affected who I am,” Davies said.

“Because Candy (shot in 2005 and released in 2006) was successful and because it was known to be semi-autobiographical, that doesn’t mean that it’s unavoidable that I get to talk publicly about the fact that drugs were part of my story.

“And if that’s inspirational to anyone, the idea that you can come out the other side of that, then that’s a good thing.”

Davies said that, with his novel and film success, he hoped to show the students that ‘it can be done’.

“I pinch myself, I can’t believe I wrote a novel and they made a film of it, that’s just such a fantastic feeling,” he said.

“But it only feels like yesterday that I was in that state of thinking ‘God it would be good if I got this short story published’ or ‘God it would be good if this publisher was interested in maybe a novel’.”