PO Box 1389
Darlinghurst NSW 1300
Telephone 02 9319 5090
Mobile 0425 312 334
info@redroomcompany.org
ABN 35 103 464 446
MEDIA RELEASE
12 November 2009
POEMS HEAD ACROSS THE TORRES STRAIT
Queenslanders, including Cairns residents, have
contributed scores of poems to a national literary project that aims
to celebrate Australia’s long-time love affair with the oceans.
Their works have been added to a duffle bag stuffed with hundreds of poems that tomorrow will
set sail aboard Trinity Bay for a voyage across the Torres Strait to Thursday Island for the
penultimate stopover of a journey that started in Hobart five weeks ago.
The poems form the precious “cargo” collected by The Red Room Company from
commissioned poets and the general public on both the east and west coasts of the country as
part of the Sea Things project.
Verse has come from people of all walks of life, young and older, and will be revealed for the
first time at a community celebration on Thursday Island on 16 November.
A send-off ceremony tomorrow on Trinity Wharf will involve readings by Cairns poets David J
Delaney and Diane Andrews, and commissioned Hobart-based poet Graeme Miles.
Sea Things is a scheme that aims to build on Australia's maritime poetry tradition in a
contemporary context, imagining the nation’s sea history through new work that can be shared
nationally and internationally through print, audio, film and web forms.
“Cairns’s response to the call-out for poems and stories since the duffle bag arrived from
Brisbane a week ago has been fantastic, and all those works will be a special part of what we
are calling the ‘Big Revelation’ on Thursday Island,” said Johanna Featherstone, the Artistic
Director of not-for profit firm, The Red Room Company.
“The contents are being kept secret to all, so we don’t know what contributors have been
writing. But given the nature of the travels we are expecting the works to contain many voices,
themes and surprises.”
After events on Thursday Island the complete set of works will be flown to Sydney for a finale
public performance on Sydney Harbour on 26 November.
What: Poetry readings to mark the departure of the Sea Things Duffle Bag. Time: 11am
When: Friday, 13 November. Where: Wharf 8, Trinity Wharf, Cairns
Media inquiries: Johanna Featherstone, Red Room Company, on 0425 312 334, or Graham
Cassidy, Cato Counsel, on 0419 202 317
The Red Room Company creates, promotes and publishes a spectrum of poetry by Australian writers, in unusual
ways. The company is not-for-profit and is supported by The Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation, The Australia
Council for the Arts, Arts NSW, The Ian Potter Foundation and The Keir Foundation.
NEWS 
