PO Box 1389
Darlinghurst NSW 1300
Telephone 02 9319 5090
Mobile 0425 312 334
info@redroomcompany.org
ABN 35 103 464 446
MEDIA RELEASE
18 October 2009
SEA THINGS A WINNER IN THE WEST
Dozens of Perth students have come on board for a
unique literary initiative to encourage new verse and to explore and
celebrate Australia’s longstanding obsession with the ocean.
The students from Perth Modern School have written poems and stories with a marine twist that
will travel in a duffle bag from Fremantle to Thursday Island, via Darwin, over the next three
weeks.
The students and their English teacher Moira Hearne will be at North Quay Fremantle tomorrow
to farewell the “cargo” as it heads north on the Sea Corporation’s “Kimberley Rose.”
The project called Sea Things involves a two month journey along both the East and West
Coasts, with vessels collecting poems and thoughts from the general public at various
stopovers, to join works commissioned by The Red Room Company from professional poets.
“No stretch of the Australian coastline is more in tune with the sea – and more connected to the
nation’s maritime history– than Fremantle-Perth,” commented Johanna Featherstone, the
Artistic Director of The Red Room Company, the project organizer.
The East Coast bag is currently in Port Kembla, Wollongong, after journeying from Hobart and
Melbourne.
On Thursday Island the duffle bags from both sides of the nation will collect a fifth work
composed and performed by the community and students of the Tagai State College.
The complete set of works will then be flown to Sydney in November for a public performance
on Sydney Harbour.
“Sea Things 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,” commented Johanna.
“It’s a project that invites intrigue and adventure, danger and politics. Not just the sea itself but
also the coastline, harbours and beaches, what happens above and below the surface of the
sea.
“The West Coast’s links to the oceans stretching back to early times speak to rhythm, sound,
image and memory.
“At each of our stops, we want to collect material from the community and by the time we
disembark on Thursday Island our duffle bags will be bursting, for they will contain so many
voices, songs, sounds and secrets that people have shared with us.”
PO Box 1389
Darlinghurst NSW 1300
Telephone 02 9319 5090
Mobile 0425 312 334
info@redroomcompany.org
ABN 35 103 464 446
The project’s “Spiritual Skipper” is David Jordan, who spent 25
years in the Royal Australian Navy, including Captain of Patrol
Boat HMAS Bendigo and Frigate HMAS Warramunga, with
deployments to the Pacific Islands and Asia.
Dave has been a regular competitor in the Sydney to Hobart
Yacht Race, and Voyage Captain of Young Endeavour. David was
awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross in 2002.
People can submit poems for placing in the bags in several ways:
1. Turn up to the live events that occur at either the arrival or departure of the duffle bags, on a ship.
2. Email them to bonny@redroomcompany.org.
3. Post them, no later than Monday 9th November, to:
The Red Room Company, PO Box 1389, Darlinghurst, NSW 1300.
When: Monday 19 October
Where: No 11 Berth, North Quay, Fremantle. Off Tydeman Road, opposite the Railway Hotel
What: Launch of West Coast Sea Things
Time: 12 noon
Media inquiries: Johanna Featherstone, Red Room Company, on 0425 312 334, or
Graham Cassidy, Cato Counsel, on 0419 202 317
NEWS 
