| The Ship That Never Was | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Richard Davey |
| Based on | Frederick escape |
| Date premiered | 1984 |
| Place premiered | Hobart |
| Original language | English |
| Subject | Convict era Australia |
| Genre | pantomime |
The Ship That Never Was is a 1984 Australian stage pantomime by Richard Davey based on the 1834 Frederick escape. [1]
It made its debut in Hobart in 1984, at the Peacock Theatre, [2] and the theatre company name at that stage was the Breadline Theatre Company. [3] [4] The play was later performed around Tasmania and Victoria. In 1993 it was transferred to the Strahan Amphitheatre by the Round Earth Theatre Company in Strahan, Tasmania. [5] [6] [7] It became the longest running performance in Australia being performed seven nights a week. [8] [9]
Strahan is a small town and former port on the west coast of Tasmania. It is now a significant locality for tourism in the region.
Macquarie Harbour is a shallow fjord in the West Coast region of Tasmania, Australia. It is approximately 315 square kilometres (122 sq mi), and has an average depth of 15 metres (49 ft), with deeper places up to 50 metres (160 ft). It is navigable by shallow-draft vessels. The main channel is kept clear by the presence of a rock wall on the outside of the channel's curve. This man-made wall prevents erosion and keeps the channel deep and narrow, rather than allowing the channel to become wide and shallow. A reported Aboriginal name for the harbour is Parralaongatek.
Perth is a town in the Australian state of Tasmania. It lies 20 km (12 mi) south of Launceston, on the Midland Highway. The town had a population of 2,965 at the 2016 census, and is part of the Northern Midlands Council.
Zeehan is a town on the west coast of Tasmania, Australia 139 kilometres (86 mi) south-west of Burnie. It is part of the West Coast Council, along with the seaport Strahan and neighbouring mining towns of Rosebery and Queenstown.
The Macquarie Harbour Penal Station, a former British colonial penal settlement, established on Sarah Island, Macquarie Harbour, in the former colony of Van Diemen's Land, now Tasmania, operated between 1822 and 1833. The settlement housed male convicts, with a small number of women housed on a nearby island. During its 11 years of operation, the penal colony achieved a reputation as one of the harshest penal settlements in the Australian colonies. The former penal station is located on the eight-hectare (twenty-acre) Sarah Island that now operates as a historic site under the direction of the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service.
The West Coast of Tasmania has a significant convict heritage. The use of the west coast as an outpost to house convicts in isolated penal settlements occurred in the eras 1822–33, and 1846–47.
Regatta Point is the location of a port and rail terminus on Macquarie Harbour.
Hells Gates is the name of the mouth of Macquarie Harbour on the West Coast of Tasmania, Australia.
Richard Innes Davey was an Australian actor, director and writer. He was the founder of the Round Earth Company and advocate for the understanding of the Macquarie Harbour Penal Station on Sarah Island on the West Coast of Tasmania.
Trial Harbour is a rural locality in the local government area (LGA) of West Coast in the North-west and west LGA region of Tasmania. The locality is about 20 kilometres (12 mi) south-west of the town of Zeehan. The 2016 census has a population of 24 for the state suburb of Trial Harbour.
The Round Earth Company, founded by the late Richard Davey, performs in Strahan, West Coast, Tasmania. Each night the company performs Australia's longest-running play, The Ship That Never Was. During the day the actors work as tour guides on Sarah Island, explaining the history and unique story of this Tasmanian penal settlement.
Thomas Bather Moore was a pioneer explorer of Western and South West, Tasmania, Australia.
The Mount Read Volcanics is a Cambrian volcanic belt in Western Tasmania.
Port Davey is an oceanic inlet located in the south west region of Tasmania, Australia.
The Lake Pedder Action Committee was a Tasmanian environmental group.
The Hotel Grand Chancellor Hobart is a twelve-storey hotel located on the waterfront of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
William Buelow Gould was a painter born in the United Kingdom and later working in Van Diemen's Land. He was transported to Australia as a convict in 1827, after which he would become one of the most important early artists in the colony, despite never really separating himself from his life of crime.
South West Tasmania Resources Survey was a government funded and based project in Tasmania to collect and appraise information about the South West Tasmania region in a systematic manner.
The Frederick escape was an 1834 incident in which the brig Frederick was hijacked by ten Australian convicts and used to abscond to Chile, where they lived freely for two years. Four of the convicts were later recaptured and returned to Australia, where they escaped the death sentence for piracy through a legal technicality.
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