The Spirit of Tasmania is pulling out of port as I type! And the Tasmanaian convoy is on the way….!
Warwick Lee’s Crusader in the boat:
The send-off party at The Bluff in Devonport:
The Fossickers bangin’ new black feature panels pre-departure in Wynyard:
Last minute washing drying:
Beth in the swish Spirit Cabin:
Andrew in the cabin. He got the A bed and I got B (for Beth):
Van line-ups on deck G3:
Sun sets on tassie:
This time last week was my first day on the road.
About an hour past Karratha I realized had left Roebourne.
The community I’d worked with for the past two years and maybe only just started to feel a part of. I’d just driven outta there with a 1966 Viscount Ambassador in tow. On the way out I bumped into Allery and Marlene at the BP, who suggested that we call the van ‘Jinna buunu,’ which means ‘walkaround too much’ in Yindjibarndi. Is over 5,000 ks in 3 weeks too much?
About 100 ks down the road I realized that this is my life for the next three weeks. Driving from one chapter of my life to the next.
View from Mt Welcome, Roebourne/Ieramugadu, WA
The night before leaving we had our first short film screening at Harding River Caravan Park on the banks of the Ngurin. The sun was low. I smashed a fire hydrant. It dinted the van and made a big noise. Everyone came out to have a gander, a jest and to offer help. I’ve since learnt that you can’t even badly reverse park a van in a caravan park without everyone knowing about it, let alone completely removing a fire hydrant. In these little nomadic villages, everything is a public event to be watched and probably discussed again later.
A family with teenage daughters, some miners and a few kids came down to watch films projected onto the side of the van. Images of Roebourne kids dance across the van – dressed in teeth costumes riding quad bikes, or teaching Photoshop to Koreans or emerging from the Ngurin River:
All week I’d been packing and ticking things off lists of things to do now, later or never. I didn’t run one last dance workshop or take a car full of kids to the beach, telling myself I’d go to the disco on Friday night and see all the kids at once. They’d all be there. We could dance. Maybe play musical bobs or make a circle dance or do the bloody heel n toe for the billionth time.
I packed up the screening stuff into the van and rocked up to the 50c Hall around 8pm. The fluro lights were on. My heart sank. The kids were gone. I knew where they’d be. I didn’t want to see them now. Not disparate on the streets at night where the mood changes within seconds and the anticipation and tension is thick.
I cried all the way home.
-Elspeth
On Wednesday 25th September we awoke in Cairns Holiday Park ready to set off on the first day of the tour down to Canberra. The morning was fresh and the caravan park was drenched with dew, the sky was an exquisite shade of blue. The perfect morning to begin the epic journey along the East Coast of Australia with such passionate van/travel enthusiasts and like-minded folk. The drive to the next destination although only a short journey was filled rich with beautiful scenery, scorched red fields, abandoned houses, the roads lined with banana trees and sugar cane.
The first stop was Kurrimine Beach, a quiet and unspoilt tropical destination with the Great Barrier Reef curving it’s bay. Kurrimine is the epitome of an old North Queensland town with friendly spirit and warm hospitality. The Caravan Park was right on the beach filled with characters eager to hear the stories about the convoy. Some of the local stories were fascinating too, with the office of one caravan park made from an old school bus damaged in Cyclone Yasi. The evening was spent in a charming old Hotel eating fresh seafood, discussing caravans and travel. The weather in the morning was perfect, with some of the other campers taking the opportunity to shimmy up palm trees and collect coconuts. Everyone has different ways spending their leisure time, but away from the hustle and bustle of cities with the warm tropical breeze and waves gently lapping the shore, it’s easy to see why caravan and camp culture is so prominent in the Australian lifestyle.
The next day was the drive through to Townsville. Many stops were made on the way: the usually rainy Tully, the short beachside stretch that is Cardwell and Ingham with it’s legendary deli. In each town the convoy stopped and people of all different backgrounds flocked to admire the beauty of the vintage caravans and cars, always commenting on how meticulous the renovations are. The convoy made it to Townsville last night and is spending tonight in Ayr.
– Update by Jess Hay and Aaron Ashley (photographers local to Townsville)
Greetings from the Pilbara!
Over here where the desert meets the sea we’ve been busy covering the walls of our caravan with beautiful portraits and collecting stories on film. Our yet-to-be-named caravan sets off Saturday on an epic journey of over 5,000 kilometres, screening films and sharing stories in caravan parks along the way!
We’ll be at the Harding River Caravan Park this Friday at 6pm, then at Bayview Coral Bay Caravan Park on Sunday 29th.
Before we head off, here’s some photos of what we’ve been doing so far:
We pulled up on the main street in Roebourne, between the shop and the Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi Foundation…
… and invited people like Gary from Ngarda Radio to come and share their holiday stories. That’s Tyson from Weerianna Street Media filming and Cav on sound poking his head through.
Tracy told us about NEARLY catching a goanna while on a road trip
Then we went decided to have a long weekend on a Wednesday, and went out bush for a cook up with Allery and her family.
Alec arrived at dusk to share stories and Johnny Cakes.
Aileen showed me and Maxie how to chop the roots for good firewood out at East Harding River.
The Roebourne caravan is a collaboration between Weerianna Street Media and the Yijala Yala Project. For more photos and videos check out icampfire.tv and yijalayala.bighart.org
Photography by Martina Lang. Words by Elspeth.
Today’s the day! This morning our first convoy of caravans left Cairns, in far north Queensland, on the long drive south to Canberra.
Cairns Indy Media was there to capture the moment as some icons of mid-century Aussie holidays rolled out of town.
Tonight our vanners stop at Kurramine Beach, then Townsville 26th/27th Sept, Home Hill 27th/28th Sept, Mackay 28th/29th Sept & Rockhampton 29th/30th Sept.
Catch up with them for a cuppa and a chat along the way
OK caravanners, you’ll be pleased to know that things are all making sense for me now that I’ve finally started some ‘real work’ on an early 60’s Sunliner down in Tasmania. I thought I was just swanning in to make some art inside but oh no no. There’s a whole lot of sanding to be done, retro light fittings to be sourced, paint to be matched, shelves rebuilt, wiring to be done etcetera! Wynyard local Chris Symonds, who’ll also be joining us in Canberra has done a stellar job so far and I’m happy to be able to help out on the interior stuff. Skills acquired in my days as part of an all-woman gang of house painters in Melbourne are going to come in handy.
You can read more about my burgeoning love affair with The Fossicker on my website here but on to some exciting updates about Museum of the Long Weekend!
We’re welcoming a few more people to the creative team. Firstly Robyn Marais and Tyson Mowarin up in Ieramugadu (Roebourne) in the Pilbara who are teaming up with Big hART’s Elspeth Blunt in a collaboration with the Ieramugadu community. Their work will take tales of travel, holiday food and family recipes from Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi families as precious cargo and collect stories from the west coast along the way. These stories will be shared in Perth, Kalgoorlie and finally at MOTLW in Canberra as a multimedia installation inside the caravan.
Secondly film-maker Ewan McLeod who’s based up in Townsville is going to be traveling with the convoy from Cairns down the coast to Home Hill and then skipping on to Brisbane to work with Lisa Mora from Vintage Caravan Magazine and some caravan park residents to make a film piece about their experiences to show in Canberra in Lisa’s van.
I encourage everyone to check out the ‘creative team’ page on this site to familiarize themselves with the diverse range of artists who are involved on the project and who will be in Canberra as part of MOTLW.
Big hART director Scott Rankin and I have been talking about creating boards/collection points for written stories, perhaps akin to supermarket notice boards when people can contribute snippets of holiday/leisure-time related memories in four categories: ‘Lost n Found’ (descriptions of objects lost and found on holiday), ‘Missing Persons’ (…eg someone never seen again since summer of ’92), ‘True Heroes’ (the time that Dad rescued Lilly from the killer geese…) and ‘The Museum of the Unsaid Thing’. So get your thinking caps on about these as we’d love to hear what you have to offer in Canberra.
We’ve been casting nets far n wide for people interested in organizing small local events for the convoys as they pass through regional towns an cities en route to Canberra. So far there will be events taking place in the following locations: Home Hill, Castlemaine, Lismore, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Brisbane, Adelaide, Cowra, Townsville, Maryborough and Devonport. Activities under a broad umbrella of ‘a cuppa with the convoy’ include: Fruit Salad under trees by a river, a tea-party in the middle of town, sausage sizzle at the caravan park and a welcome to country in the local botanical gardens. If you know people in places who would be interested in helping organize a little something please tell them to get in touch beth@bighart.org
It’s getting closer! The first convoys depart from Carins/Roebourne in less than a month!
Looking forward to seeing you there. Beth.
Found by Reg Lynch and his partner Narissa somewhere in Roswell….
UPDATE! Connection are being made and things are linking into action…
All over Australia memories and ideas are being unearthed, pulled out of old sheds, sanded back and shaken up in preparation for October… a growing core group are emerging who will be working with artists to generate the living roving museum of recreation, holidays, relaxation and celebrating our heritage and livelihood.
Artists and co-workers Damian O’Neill and Paddy O’Sullivan are working with ideas based on solitude and how a caravan becomes ones personal shell with a local caravanner in the Kyneton/Castlemaine area in Victoria.
Another van set to be romanced by an artist in partnership with its family has played host to at least four honeymoons, while Sydney based artist Zoe Davis is working with caravanners for whom the shared project of restoring a vintage van has been a catalyst in a deepening relationship in the Blue Mountains.
Chris Symonds is busy down in North West Tasmania renovating an old Sunliner with young people from Wynyard High School and there are rumours of this caravan being recreated as an olfactory museum, evoking memories through the science of scent. Also near Wynyard, artist Kit Hiller is renovating a caravan that she created as part of the Radio Holdiay project to go ahead to Canberra in September to advertise the upcoming event.
Tech expert Kerrin Addis has visited a NSW based caravan legend to hear tales of the Jennison caravan legacy and there are plans afoot to animate an old letter detailing early phases of creation.
Big hART artist Elspeth Blunt is plotting a course from Roebourne in Western Australia where she will be working with a local indigenous family around concepts of holiday-making – the caravan she will convoy in is currently being outfitted in Melbourne, where performance and comedy maestro Bron Batten is also based. Bron is heading west to work in Millicent, SA while also Melbourne based New Zealand artist Caroline Anderson is warmly on the trail of working with Victorian based caravanner with a connection to the Percy Grainger museum.
Down south of Hobart, a CRUSADER has come board and likely to be working with a Hobart based artist…meanwhile in Maleny, vintage caravan magazine editor Lisa is planning to be involved and we are looking out for an artist to collaborate with her up there.
It’s not too late to in touch if you would like to participate or know of someone who might. beth@bighart.org
