Welcome to the Sea Things Online Exhibition.

In 2009, The Red Room Company sent two duffle bags travelling up and down the Australian coast toward Thursday Island, one from the east, one from the west. The project was called Sea Things. Along the way, they accrued all manner of flotsam and jetsam in the form of poems penned by people who call themselves poets, as well as some called captains, travellers, students. Some were left like lagan, tied to buoys, other were written by boys and girls from Perth or Port Kembla. Most were handed over to us at ports, some by post. And they are not all how you might expect poems to look. When at sea, one writes with what one has at hand. So there are scrawls on scraps of paper, flags, hats, even sick-bags (unused).

The poets are a motley crew. Some were commissioned for the project, others are members of writers’ groups, students or teachers, still more are ex-sailors and captains of the sea, oceanographers and fisherman.

Raise your Flag!

Some of the poems we scooped up remain nameless. They are songs sung to the ocean. If you hear your voice in one, please let us know, so we can give you the credit you deserve. Email us.

Radio National Double Feature

 This collection coincides with ABC Radio National's double feature on the Sea Things project.

On Saturday 24th April Radio National (576 AM) aired a 360 documentaries special, which is still available online here. This was followed by a special on Poetica. The Poetica feature is no longer available on the ABC site, but you can read about it here.

Both programmes featured poetic cargo that was collected from all the ports of call up and down the coast. There were readings of commissioned work and works contributed by the public, readings by Rhys Muldoon, Lucy Bell and Lucy Browning, and interviews with poets and The Red Room Company. The website also includes links to the ABC's Pool site with extended interviews and images.

Sea Things Education Unit

This exhibition will also form a part of our Papercuts education program. We will be writing a unit which encourages students to write about the sea, taking into account the language of the ocean and maritime poetry, as well as inventive forms of publication, and they don’t come much more inventive than the items in this collection!

We hope you enjoy your wander through this virtual exhibition. Happy sailing!