Perth Voice Interactive

THE STS Leeuwin is back out sailing, while the foundation that runs the training vessel is emerging from voluntary administration and trying to calm the waters for volunteers left seething by the treatment of its former CEO.

Carol Shannon’s sudden sacking by Leeuwin’s board of directors back in April sparked a volunteer mutiny and staff resignations which in turn forced the ship’s captain to cut a voyage short and return to Fremantle. 

Principal sponsor the McCusker Charitable Foundation withdrew funding over Ms Shannon’s treatment and after a review of the books administrators were called in.

It was in this whirlpool that new CEO Amanda Harwood took the helm of the Leeuwin Ocean Adventure Foundation with little idea about what had happened.

Within three weeks the organisation had ground to a sudden halt as Korda Mentha took over and the board of directors had been stood down, but Ms Harwood said the administrators were very supportive and in September issued a call for help which was picked up by Andrew and Nicola Forrest’s charitable arm Minderoo.

“They were the ones that came through as wanting to recapitalise and support Leeuwin, so they went into a deed of company arrangement and there’s certain criteria you have to meet, which we’re coming out of now,” she said.

Ms Harwood says Minderoo is hoping to make an exit from the deed after about two years.

Independent

“What they want to see for the Leeuwin is that Leeuwin will become an independent non-profit.”

Ms Harwood said the billionaire couple wrote to each of the Leeuwin’s volunteers and staff thanking them for their work on the ship.

“I think that was really appreciated,” she said.

“I think the volunteers are passionate about the ship, and they’re passionate about the work and, yeah, I think it was tricky – we didn’t even know if we were going to continue.”

Ms Harwood said communication problems fed into the drama and had volunteers worrying the Leeuwin might fundamentally change or even be sold off.

“We have to be able to look after ourselves continuously, so that may be looking at different programs or different partnerships, but the ship will still be the ship – it won’t change.”

With more than a decade’s experience working with young families at the Kwinana Early Years Service, Ms Harwood said it was important to get the ship back out on the water changing young people’s lives because the impact of the Covid pandemic was still showing.

“The data will show you that social isolation and disconnection from young people is huge; they went to their bedroom and they closed their doors and there wasn’t that ability to travel and to get out and be in a community.

“So I think that it’s it’s kind of almost Paramount now that we can go back out.

“We want to look to get into rural and remote regions because I’m conscious that there’s a lot of lack in opportunity for those kids, or they see a lack of opportunity.”

Ms Harwood said teachers were reporting that kids were disengaging at a younger age, which poses challenges for Leeuwin because sending 10-year-olds on a six-day voyage just isn’t feasibly.

“How do you still support those young people to build confidence and capacity?”

Confidence

She says the key might be in forging more partnerships with organisation already dealing with that demographic, while the Leeuwin has run “alongside” programs for primary school children where they get to explore the ship while it’s docked.

Ms Harwood says they’re also keen to explore ties with the maritime industry, saying the Leeuwin was a perfect training ground for an industry projected to be facing a critical shortage of staff by 2026.

“We have had kids that came here when they were 12, 14 years old 20 years ago, and they are master unlimited [a qualification] operating huge vessels up north and helping the offshore industry in Australia.”

Ms Harwood says the Leeuwin can be seen as an early intervention that can give young people skills that can help set them up for life, so she’s keen to see whether she can convince the state and federal governments to step up, and particularly would love to see more state schools sending their students on voyages.

“They need to do more in this space,” she said.

Ms Harwood also wanted to scotch concerns the Leeuwin was unsafe to sail, saying it was recalled from Dampier during the staff and volunteer mutiny over communication concerns, not because of any fault on the ship.

The vessel’s next youth voyage will be to Busselton from January 4, timed to arrive in time for the town’s big festival where they’ll take part in Pirate Day and also an open day to try and recruit some young salts.

There’s still berths available, while they’ve also just released tickets for an Ultimate Challenge adventure in the first week of February.

“That voyage is particularly special because we are going to try to encourage young people with disabilities to come on board,” Ms Harwood said.

“The beautiful part about it is that we’re going to have allied health professionals and medical students who can come and support the individuals with disabilities.

“We are going to allocate a ‘big strong muscles’ as we call it, which will be one of our vounteers who will be able to help them out with the most physically challenging activities.”

by STEVE GRANT