Townsville’s ‘Ocean Siren’ in need of a helping hand, and an arm

The Museum of Underwater Art is hoping to not have to pay an arm and a leg for repairs to a damaged structure on The Strand. See how you can help.

Ocean Siren installation.

A familiar sight visitors to the Strand is in need of a helping hand from the community after being damaged.

The ‘Ocean Siren’, the first of many sculptures by British artist Jason DeCaires Taylor, lights up and changes colour in response to the live water temperature of the waters at The Great Barrier Reef.

But lately, the sculpture, which sits about 30m off the Strand jetty, has been looking a little flat, with the right side arm showing damage.

The Museum of Underwater Art is trying to raise $75,000 to fix it.

Board member Christian Bretsen said that corrosion was the leading theory as to why the structure was playing up.

Ocean Siren installation.

“We don’t really know exactly what’s happened. The most likely thing is probably just wear over time,” Mr Bretsen said.

“It’s become a bit of an icon over time and it’s a bit of a shame that one of the arms isn’t working at the moment as she’s obviously telling quite an important story.”

Vox Pop; What do you think of the new The Strand waterfront statue 'Ocean Siren'?

The sculpture itself was based on Wulgurukaba teen Takoda Johnston and was installed in 2019, with one commentator calling it ‘Townsville’s Statue of Liberty’.

Repairs to the sculpture will unfortunately require it to be pulled down and transported by barge just to access it, and the process won’t become any cheaper from there.

“You need a barge with a hoist to take her off, then she needs to go on a truck to be taken to a specialist that built her initially,” Mr Bartens said.

“It’s really not a straightforward sort of statute that anybody can repair.”

The museum’s hope is that by getting the job done properly by someone with knowledge of the sculpture, they’ll be able to not only repair the damage, but learn from what went wrong and harden the structure against further damage.

“We would love to do it cheaper, and we’re looking into ways to do that, it sounds better to us to try and raise the money and hopefully get it done properly,” Mr Bartens said.

Donations to aid the repair effort are being accepted at MOUA’s Facebook page, as well as through the donation portal on their website.

Mr Bartens said the organisation was even considered taking sponsorships from Townsville businesses at the plinth on the jetty in order to fund the repair project. Interested businesses can [e-mail]

Originally published as Townsville’s ‘Ocean Siren’ in need of a helping hand, and an arm