The Living Boat Trust (LBT) is an incorporated non-profit community association based in Franklin on the banks of the Huon River in southern Tasmania. It aims to maintain traditional boat building, repairing, rowing and sailing skills. We celebrate the history and beauty of this area and strive for a sustainable way of life for all concerned.

We acknowledge the Palawa, traditional owners and original mariners of these magnificent waterways in southern Tasmania; the Mellukurdee of Cygnet and the Huon, the Nuenonne of Bruny, Oyster Cove and NorthWest Bay and the Lyluequonny of Recherche Bay and the south coast and are honoured to have the Aboriginal community acknowledging and participating in our ventures.

We travel regularly in the wake of those brave and ancient mariners from Recherche to Hobart over 10 days in our bi-annual Tawe Nunnugah RaiD. We camp on their ancient middens at Cockle Creek, Dover and Oyster Cove, in fact everywhere we go would have been regularly visited by those people, who knew intimately and celebrated the land constantly. This time in February 2011 we were 16 boats and 45 participants taking part in a 100 mile expedition with wonderful waterways, good friends and great food supplied by our road team.

The next Tawe Nunnugah RaiD will take place in a years time, once again to meet up with the beginning of the Australian Wooden Boat Festival in Hobart, again joining the magnificent Parade of Sail into the Hobart Waterfront.

We do have many other on the water activities: Swallows and Amazons expeditions to the Egg Island lagoons, combine the excitement of the Arthur Ransome books with exploration of a wonderful waterway. Contact Ros Barnett for more details. The next expedition is booked for 10 am Sunday 15 January 2012.

We regularly carry out whaleboat expeditions to Bruny Island, Southport and Dover with various schools and are keen to expand these activities. Soon there are three Friends School expeditions and in early 2012 a Geeveston District High School expedition as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award. Contact Chris Wilson for more details.

The LBT workshop, on every Monday night, from 5 - 9 pm is manned by enthusiastic volunteers, and has been very productive. In addtion a day time group is also working now on Tuesdays and our entire fleet of working boats have been repainted, re-rigged and completely spruced up and maintained.

The On the Water Program is about to complete its third term with Dover District High School. The program aims to prepare young people for the safe and active enjoyment of our waterways, providing a pathway to the healthy and enjoyable life on the water. We are running two separate programs this year, one being school based and exposing students to being on the water, the second an after hours program aimed at qualifying students for the Yachting Australia Basic Skills 1 certificate.

We have also recently won a grant from the Huon Valley Health Services Advisory Committee to run a nutrition program to complement the last semester of the On the Water Program. Jill Archer as done a fantastic job providing fabulous nutritious food which was greatly enjoyed by all attending.

Our fleet of boats are available for hire when they are not being used for our training activities. Contact Ros Barnett for further details.

The Ladies Rowing Group is expanding and they are rowing on Monday evenings as well as Friday mornings. They bravely keep rowing all through the winter enjoying the magnificent still reflections on brisk and misty mornings. The Whaling Sisters Women’s Swiftsure Rowing Group row on Saturday mornings and compete in the ‘Swiftsure Regatta’.

As mentioned above we operate a fleet of magnificent and original wooden boats that are a feature of the Franklin foreshore. They can be seen here, and hire charges are available here. Most have been built by the LBT in co-operation with various of the Huon cluster of schools. We have just acquired the Viking, a 19‘ King Billy estuary lighter made in around 1910. We are now her guardians thanks to the philanthropy of a new member, Parge.

Our courses have been a success and one, the restoration of the Gabriola is continuing.

Peter Laidlaw will be commencing a Green Wood Furniture short course - 4 days commencing at a date to be announced soon. Please contact Peter if you are interested.

The LBT is registered with Centrelink as a Volunteer Organisation and with daytime workshops we can’t think of a more pleasant or useful way to spend time.

Project Understorey is a long held dream of the LBT, the recreation of a Tasmanian coastal trader, canvassed in the strategic plan.