Charity cash call to stop a grand old lady being iced

Australia's icebreaker of 30 years, the Aurora Australis, is to be broken up for scrap, unless a charity can raise $1.4m by the end of the month.

Former Australian Antarctic Division chief scientist Michael Stoddart with the Aurora Australis ice-breaker in Hobart. Picture: Matthew Newton

Australia’s icebreaker of 30 years, the Aurora Australis, is due to be broken up for scrap unless a newly formed charity can raise $1.4m by the end of the month to save it.

The RSV Aurora Australis, the workhorse of Australia’s Antarctic Program since 1989, is being replaced by the newly built Nuyina, and a sale of the old ship by owners P&O Maritime has fallen through.

With port fees running into “many thousands of dollars a day”, P&O told The Australian “dismantling and recycling” the Aurora Australis would occur as a “last resort” if a solution could not be found “in a very short time frame”.

“We would be very keen to discuss any possibility to preserve her for posterity as a museum or otherwise with any government or non-government organisation,” a company spokesman said.

“P&O Maritime now faces a very difficult decision. Keeping her berthed at the Port of Hobart in her current state is unsustainable.

“Dismantling and recycling the Aurora Australis is an option of last resort. If that sad step is ­required, it will be carried out with a heavy heart.”

The company said it would “welcome any interested party to come forward with a realistic proposal in a timely manner”.

One group of Antarctic enthusiasts hopes to secure the Newcastle-built vessel as an Antarctica museum. Other ideas include converting it to a natural disaster hospital, or sinking it as a dive wreck.

The Aurora Australis Foundation, formed in recent weeks to try to acquire the ship as Australia’s first Antarctic exploration museum, told The Australian that P&O had given it until the end of June to raise $US1m ($1.43m) — the ship’s value as scrap.

“We’ve had an indication from P&O that if we can raise $US1m by the end of the month, the ship is ours,” said foundation secretary and 2012 expeditioner Melanie Van Twest. “That’s a big enough ask in itself but it won’t meet the ship’s ongoing expenses.”

The foundation hopes governments will provide enough money to save the ship and berth it while the museum plan is developed.

“We want to keep the Aurora Australis in her home port, earning her keep as Australia’s first Antarctica museum, as well as for functions, accommodation, school excursions and training people for maritime firefighting, catering and medical,” Dr Van Twest said.

The push is backed by former Australian Antarctic Division chief scientist Michael Stoddart, who is foundation chairman. “If we can’t make this happen, I think we lose the potential for a really good tourist attraction for Hobart; something a bit special and out of the ordinary,” Dr Stoddart said.

The Aurora Australis, known affectionately among Antarctic expeditioners as “the orange roughy”, is estimated to have tran­sported more than 14,000 expeditioners across the Southern Ocean during 150 voyages.