Good morning everyone!
Thank you again for supporting our petition to keep the RSV Aurora Australis in her home port of Hobart.
As of last night, we had no more word on the sale (or otherwise) of the ship.
Several people and organisations had contacted the Minister responsible for maritime heritage. We hope that they are making the case to keep the AA at least long enough to assess her heritage value as part of Australia's Antarctic and maritime history.
The Aurora Australis represents thousands of stories of the people who have travelled on board, as well as her own stories of fire, ice, grounding, storms and so many, many hours on the Southern Ocean.
We continue to hope (against hope) that we can keep her to share the ship and her stories with others who haven't had the privilege of sailing on her.
Meanwhile for those in Hobart there is a story in today's 'Mercury': for others, it's behind a News Corps paywall, so see if you can find a subscriber to send you the article.
We'll send further updates as we can! Thanks again for your support, and please ask your contacts to support us too.
Cheers
Mel Van Twest
Secretary
Aurora Australis Foundation