Forty South Tasmania Magazine - Issue 105

In this issue

Hobart has a floating suburb. Like Brigadoon, you can wake up one morning and it’s not there. But there always comes another morning when it’s back, adding its orange signature to a Tasmanian sunrise. For a long time, it was known as Aurora Australis, an icebreaker and Antarctic research ship which over 30 years became such an accepted part of the Hobart landscape that one felt it was there even when it was away breaking ice.

And then they announced that Hobart’s floating suburb was to be taken away. Past her use by date, they said. It was to be replaced, but with what? Who is comfortable with losing an old friend?

Aurora Australis was ours just as certainly as Antarctica is part of Tasmania. She was quintessentially Tasmanian: a rugged survivor of the southern seas, a real orange toughy. Her replacement has much to do to take her place in our landscape and in our hearts.
But she’s made a great start. She is orange. And her name, Nuyina, decided by school children, is the palawa kani word for the southern lights. Aurora Australis is Latin for the southern lights. That’s a smile-worthy narrative.

Give her time, Hobart’s new floating suburb. And fast-track your acquaintance with Rob Fiddyment’s introduction in this issue.