21 hours ago
Viking longship set to burn on winter solstice at inland Cape Clear
More than 100 kilometres from the ocean, tiny Victorian town Cape Clear has a lighthouse and a "Viking longship".
The latter, dubbed Erika the Red and measuring 15 metres from dragon head to stern, has been hand-built by the very community members who plan to set it alight on June 21 to mark the winter solstice.
It's all part of the Cape Clear Winter Solstice Bonfire, an increasingly popular event in the inland town, population about 150, about 150 kilometres west of Melbourne.
Cape Clear resident Evelyn Cannon said the Viking vessel's seaworthiness was questionable at best — it's missing its starboard side — but that wasn't the point.
"Our little Winter Solstice festival has been going eight years now," Ms Cannon said.
Ms Cannon said the event was becoming quite popular.
"There were probably 30 to 50 people the first year. Last year it was 180," she said.
"Who knows how many will come this year to watch us burn a Viking ship?"
Erika was built and designed by Cape Clear woodworker Terry Kelly, with help from locals, using materials collected from across the district.
"The shields on the side of the ship were made from packing material from a wind farm and they were painted by children from the Cape Clear Primary School," Ms Cannon said.
"Our story is based on Erik the Red who was a famous Viking who came to America.
"We are an inland town with a lighthouse, so we kind of felt his imaginary sister Erika the Red may have visited a place like this."
While Mr Kelly admitted he was no shipwright, he mused shipbuilding might be in his blood, via Norwegian ancestors.
"I don't think they made Viking boats but, in the 19th century, they were building fishing boats or other boats along the coast there," he said.
"We spent at least a dozen hours on the design and I made the head and the tail at home.
"The design of the dragon head was inspired by a ship in the Viking museum in Oslo."
Erika the Red is the second ship to be burned as part of Cape Clear's annual Winter Solstice Bonfire.
The township torched the Lightning last year, which was loosely modelled on a clipper that sank off the Geelong coast in 1869 after catching fire with a cargo of wool on its way back to England.
Cape Clear was named after an island off the Irish coast by Irish immigrants who settled in the western district.
Its most famous landmark is a 13-metre-high functioning lighthouse, built in 2008 by members of the local Hocking family who felt every good cape deserved its own beacon.
Sunset is technically at 5:13pm but Erika the Red will be set alight at nautical twilight (when the centre of the winter sun dips several degrees below the horizon) near the Cape Clear Hall at 6:15pm.
