Flinging through Flinders

Arriving at Flinders!
L-R Stage manager Shelley, Lucy, Coco, Raine, Oopsy Daisy and Scarlett Jezebel

Flinders Island is a small chunk of land off the North East coast of Tasmania. The Island is part of the Furneaux group- over 50 tiny islands make up the grouping although most of the islands are uninhabited.
It was to Flinders Island and its 900 residents that we brought their first ever burlesque show!

Scarlett Jezebel organised the run list, three sets featuring three burlesque performances from Oopsy Daisy, Scarlett and me with the big haired, loud mouthed, Raine Ingmen emceeing and performing a couple of numbers and Shelley as our stage manager keeping things running behind the scenes.

We spent Friday night at my small house in Launceston, 2 to a bed and one to the couch.... Needless to say, none of us got to bed before midnight and most of us were awake at 4am so by 8am when Nat picked us up we were in desperate need of caffeine.

Our question when we met the event manager and our host, Nat at the airport was "is it ok to swear on stage." The answer was a definitive yes, which brought on a prattle of language from Raine that delighted the locals waiting in the small but comfortable airport

Nat took us for coffee at the local bakery in Whitemark- there are two, they sit opposite each other on the main road and apparently work in shifts, one open in the morning, the other in the afternoon!

Touring the Island with AJ and Oopsy

Oopsy Daisy with Coco at Trouser's Point on Saturday

We stopped at the Furneaux Tavern to drop off our bags and snag rooms which were in very comfortable cabins. Scarlett and I shared a two bedroom cabin whilst Raine, Shelley and Oopsy took a large room that could sleep six!
We spent a lot of our time going from the Tavern to another part of the Island and back again and rarely saw another car on the road but the Island itself is beautiful with mountain ranges, coast lines and rugged meadows.
 Nat continued our tour of Flinders by taking us on a  small fishing boat which took us past Cape Barron Island to an Island that is known to the locals as Russian Island. We walked up to a small house that is looked after by a caretaker- there were sheep on the Island and a small cemetery along with the remains of a post office. I jumped on the back of a 4x4 driven by Nat and Scarlett jumped behind Rockjaw and we were taken to the summit on Russian from which we could see all four sides of the horizon. The view was magnificent, azure blue water, white sand, red rock and on one side there was an old shipwreck, the Barque Farsund which was wrecked on a shoal in 1912, inaccessible by land but an amazing feature to spot from the summit.

 We got back, piled in the van and headed to Whitemark Hall for a lighting tech. AK who was our tech was very thorough and when he realised Oopsy was singing Machine Gun Fellatio's "Let me be your dirty fucking whore" he got pretty excited as he used to tour with the band! We headed back to the Tavern again do our hair and make up as although the hall had a great stage and light set up it lacked a dressing room.

Backstage with Oopsy Daisy (my costume: Corsets by Nasty Ginny)

Shelley and Scarlett getting cheeky with Raine

Scarlett as Mary Poppins

Showing off the sunburn we collected during the day! (Costume by Sonia Heap)

 The next day by unspoken mutual agreement we all slept in, but the sounds of birds scuffling on the roof and the beating rays of the sun got me up by 9am, so I grabbed a book and went to the Tavern's verandah- which overlooks the water-  to soak up the sun. Oopsy, Shelley and Raine joined me for breakfast and we heaped a plate with toast, butter, jam and a tea bag and burst upon Scarlett with Coco- singing- us, not Coco-  Scarlett emerged from under the covers to give us the evil eye- until we promised her coffee!

Oopsy and I covering up with  hats from the local shop

Braving the cold cold water at Trousers Point... It looks better than it feels!

Trouser's Point

We headed out to Trousers Point in the Furneaux Tavern's van. Nat had explained the Flinders wave to us, a two finger flick of acknowledgement that I did at every opportunity while behind the wheel. After an all too brief stop at Trousers Point we realised that time was running short and headed back to the Tavern.
Panicking slightly as time was running short we picked up a local at the Tavern, Browny who heaved in with two travellers- one in a pint glass- Nat wasn't too keen to have that much open grog in the car so he obliged by sculling one of the drinks and handing the glass back to an obliging local.
We drove out to Nat's to have a quick look at a baby wombat she was looking after- Tank's mum had been hit by a car, luckily they'd stopped and found Tank just behind her, safe.
Then we dropped Browny off after he spotted someone driving his ute! Apparently the locals like to 'borrow'each other's cars...

Tank the baby wombat

Tank!

We were way past the check in time by the time we got to the airport and were all thinking that we'd be spending another night on the Island. Happily they're an easy going bunch and we were reassured that we could fly.

Our tiny plane... Sharp airlines!

Finally, a huge thank you to my fellow cast members, to the Flinders community who made us so welcome, to the Furneaux tavern, particularly Nat Weaver and to Sharp Airlines for flying us over to a slice of Tasmanian paradise that we can promise had never seen a show quite like the one we gave them!