Media

25 August 2019

‘I received a series of emails with the awesome news that a radio interview I shared with Kate N Glen has won an award! Kate spoke of her flight from Glasgow to Adelaide as a newly-wed in 1968, with her husband in their single-engined plane.

‘Hi Kate. Just a quick word to let you know your interview with Fiona and Rita has won one of the most coveted awards in South Aust community broadcasting. A Bilby Award. Photo to come in the next few days.’

‘Dear Kate and Rita,

Helen has given you the marvellous news about your interview winning the Bilby Award.  Apparently there is quite a bit of competition to secure this award so I think we can all feel a little chuffed – not least of all Helen, who you know by now is a terrific Producer.  You two were a dream team to interview and made the whole experience great fun for us all.’

‘Hello Rita,

I sent Kate and Fiona messages last night, but didn’t have your email address with me, so you are last to get the great news!

Service Voices is now well and truly ensconced into Australian broadcasting history. We won a prestigious Bilby Award at the SACBA Awards Night dinner (South Australian Community Broadcasters Association). Radio Stations from all over South Australia were there for the Awards presentations. It was also attended by representatives from The Community Broadcasting Foundation and The Community Broadcasting Association of Australia.

The award ‘Can’t Get Out Of The Car’ means it is so good that if you’re listening whilst in your car, and you reach your destination, you don’t want to get out of the car because you want to listen to the end.   When the award was announced and they played a portion of Fiona’s interview with you (Kate and Rita),  the crowd all began calling loudly for more of the interview to be played.  Apparently that’s never happened before! 

So congratulations to all of us.  Fiona, Kate, Rita, Service Voices, Radio Adelaide.’

Helen Meyer

Executive Producer:  Service Voices – service to country, service to community

On air each Monday from 6 to 7pm  Radio Adelaide  on digital radio; live online and on 101.5FM

Also broadcasts Australia-wide via the CBAA CRN Mondays and Tuesdays

3 Cinema Place  ADELAIDE, SA 5001

http://radioadelaide.org.au/program/service-voices/


Press Release

BOOK LAUNCH

Clipper Ship City of Adelaide 

 BENEATH THE SOUTHERN CROSS

 by Rita Bradd

‘Resurrected from dark waters, rescued from demolition as SV Carrick, her maiden and final voyages’

Edinburgh, Scotland (August 22, 2019) Tall ships groupie Rita Bradd finds herself on board a heavy-lift vessel with the oldest surviving composite clipper ship in the world as cargo. What is it like to be a lone woman sailing from Rotterdam to Australia amongst a crew of Ukrainians and Russians? Why did she abandon four generations of her family in Scotland to plunge into a voyage of uncertainty? Bradd was compelled to accompany the vessel home to Adelaide.

A new non-fiction fully illustrated hardcover maritime history, adventure and memoir book, ‘Clipper Ship City of Adelaide BENEATH THE SOUTHERN CROSS’ is launched in Edinburgh on 24 Aug 2019, 7 for 7.30 pm in The Artiscience Library, Summerhall, 1Summerhall, Edinburgh  EH9 1PL.

“Rita Bradd loses her heart to tall ships and takes us on a wave-tossed, wind-rocked journey into maritime history and halfway around the globe. Up anchor! Trim the sails! Set course for a joyful, impassioned, keen eyed read!”

                — Rory MacLean (author of Stalin’s Nose and Berlin: Imagine a City)

Something had driven the iconic clipper ship City of Adelaide aka Carrick under threat of demolition at The Scottish Maritime Museum into Bradd’s life in 1999. She became her obsession. Something led Bradd to the diary kept by a young woman who sailed on the maiden voyage in 1864. The ship had been built specifically to take migrants from the United Kingdom and northern Europe. She made 23 voyages and is credited with flourishing South Australia with a quarter of a million descendants.

I looked back at my husband before I entered the gangway that would
swallow me up …There was no going back. This chance would
never happen again. This was unique. No one else would ever make
this voyage with the oldest surviving clipper ship in the world on board
a cargo vessel. My stomach was lurching into the complete unknown.
What had started as an impossible, all-consuming dream was turning
into reality. I was mad to be going, I would be mad not to go.” Rita Bradd

  • In Clipper Ship City of Adelaide BENEATH THE SOUTHERN CROSS Bradd tells the story of how she discovered the ship in 1999, her plight, the rivalry between two groups on opposite sides of the planet to win her, the remarkable rescue by a group of South Australian businessmen
  • She follows the ship leaving Irvine, Scotland before seeing her renamed at a ceremony by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh at Greenwich prior to the ship heading for Rotterdam on a barge to be shrink-wrapped and fumigated to comply with Australian quarantine regulations
  • Bradd joins the cargo vessel MV Palanpur at Rotterdam and sees City of Adelaide loaded on board
  • Bradd weaves together the story of her extraordinary journey with that of the young 18th century woman, travelling side-by-side, page-by-page across the centuries over the winter of 2013/14
  • The voyage covers 14,000 miles and touches four Continents before reaching Adelaide, South Australia where Bradd meets descendants of the ship’s first Captain
  • City of Adelaide is five years older than similarly-built Cutty Sark whose 150th birthday is celebrated this year

A few links:

https://ritabradd.com/clipper-ship-city-of-adelaide-beneath-the-southern-cross/

https://www.facebook.com/RitaBraddCityofAdelaide/

https://www.latimertrend.co.uk/portfolio

http://www.artisciencelibrary.weebly.com/

https://www.cityofadelaide.org.au/

Example of Press Association coverage from 25 December 2014

https://www.scotsman.com/news-2-15012/transport/world-s-oldest-clipper-s-final-voyage-charted-1-3643839

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2886915/Last-journey-historic-City-Adelaide-clipper-ship-told-new-book.html

https://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/2014/12/25/clippers-final-voyage-charted/

Rita Bradd was born in Edinburgh. She grew up surrounded by sea and hills in south-east Scotland. Her love of writing began at an early age. Her poetry has been published in anthologies, on a NOW 14-18 banner, in stone and on an interpretation panel complementing a sculpture. Her booklet Salt & Soil was published in 2017. Her scripts are broadcast on radio and performed on stage. Her life has been transformed in the last several years by her writing successes. In February 2019 she was a guest presenter at the MyState Bank Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart, Tasmania. https://www.australianwoodenboatfestival.com.au/

‘Clipper Ship City of Adelaide BENEATH THE SOUTHERN CROSS

 (ISBN 978-1-9998376-5-5) is published on 31 July 2019. 

For press enquiries or to order a copy contact Rita Bradd on 01368 850275, email ritabradd@ritabradd.com

or visit www.ritabradd.com/clipper-ship-city-of-adelaide-beneath-the-southern-cross/


For The Three Craws Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/The-Three-Craws-Series-of-Scripts-and-Books-by-Rita-Bradd-900233486740778/?ref=bookmarks