PO Box 1389
Darlinghurst NSW 1300
Telephone 02 9319 5090
Mobile 0425 312 334
info@redroomcompany.org
ABN 35 103 464 446
MEDIA RELEASE
22 December 2009
VERSE IN REVERSE ON HIGH SEAS
The crew of the Royal Navy yacht “Adventure” will be carrying
special “cargo” during this year’s Sydney to Hobart Race – and getting it
safely to Tasmania will be part of their “orders.”
The British sailors on board the maxi yacht – one of three UK services competing in the race as part of a
trans-global training expedition - have the added task of returning a duffle bag full of poetry collected
for a national literary project called Sea Things.
Over a six week period, starting in Hobart and Devonport on 1 October and finishing on Thursday Island
on 16 November, a series of vessels traversed the nation’s east and west coasts picking up verse, stories
and recorded messages reflecting people’s thoughts on Australia’s love affair with the ocean.
The collection was expanded to more than 300 works by commissions from professional poets and
submissions from the public online and through the post.
The skipper of “Adventure”, Commander Richard Tarr, the Rear Commodore Offshore of the Royal
Naval Sailing Association, has agreed to undertake the “mission possible” of delivering the bulging duffle
bag to Constitution Dock.
The mix of works – including those of scores of Tasmanians, including primary and secondary students -
is scheduled to go on public exhibition at the Maritime Museum of Tasmania next month as part of a
national tour.
The project aimed 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.
Tasmania’s leading poet Graeme Miles, who contributed to the project, will take possession of the
itinerant duffle bag.
“Sea Things has been a quite an adventure, so the journey of the duffle bag back to Hobart on the Royal
Navy yacht Adventure is just a magical maritime way to wrap-up the project,” said Johanna
Featherstone, the Artistic Director The Red Room Company, the event organiser. “There is also that
fascinating historical link - the British Navy had a bit to do with Tasmanian settlement.”
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 
