Early support for a proposed Mermaid Festival on Magnetic Island has come from Vivienne Moran who has a vast knowledge of Australia's marine archeology and history and runs the island's Louver Gallery which exhibits the works of many artists .
A former curator / manager of the Townsville Maritime Museum,she was deeply involved in West Australian marine archaeology research, contributed to the National Historic Shipwrecks Program.
At the Fremantle Marine Museum she knew the late Dr Colin Jack- Hinton who went to Darwin as the first director of the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory ,
There he established a collection of canoes , boats and objects of marine technology from South East Asia , the Western Pacific and locally that evolved in the areas .
A Darwin artist recently suggested Magnetic Island should hold a regular , wide ranging festival , including an art section, inspired by the mystery mermaid, made from fibreglass, which suddenly appeared on rocks , without explanation , and has been subsequently vandalised, her arms and head torn off .
The artist suggested the remains of the mutilated mermaid corpse should be brought ashore and be fully restored , perhaps even joined by other mermaids.
A Mermaid Festival could become as popular as Copenhagen's famous Little Mermaid and start a profitable island mermaid doll cottage knitting industry, several having already been made . Further undoubted support for the Mermaid Festival will be run in this blog
Our Shipping Reporter , who has given the mermaid much coverage, says he is working on an exclusive story about the poor mermaid ,which he modestly declares should win him another Pulitizer Prize .
