Crikey! QM2 heads Down Under

Crikey, cobber! If you see any Cunard bosses walking around with corks dangling from their hats, and singing Waltzing Matilda, then don’t be at all surprised – they have come over all Australian this week.
A grand dinner in Melbourne for passengers on Queen Victoria’s world voyage was followed by an announcement that the line’s flagship Queen Mary 2 will spend an unprecedented 28 days in Australian waters in 2012, circumnavigating the continent in the process.
The voyage will be the longest period Queen Mary 2 has been based in any country outside her northern hemisphere home ports of Southampton and New York.
The ship will make maiden calls at Cairns, Darwin, Brisbane and Melbourne as well as visiting Sydney, Fremantle and Adelaide, generating more than £6 million of revenue for the Australian economy according to Ann Sherry, chief executive of Carnival Australia.
They certainly seem to enjoy their cruises Down Under – the industry estimates that one million Australians will take a cruise holiday by the year 2020. Not bad for a country with a population of just over 22 million, and ample justification for the decision to close down the UK line Ocean Village and transfer its two ships to P&O Australia.
The remainder of QM2’s 2012 world voyage itinerary has yet to be announced, and the Australia voyages will not be put on sale until later this year.
The ship, currently on this year’s world voyage, left Sydney on Monday and is today in Adelaide, while Queen Victoria has moved on to Hong Kong.
The dinner, for more than 500 passengers who have booked cabins for the entire three-and-a-half month QV round trip, was held appropriately enough at the National Gallery of Victoria.
And, of course, it was all rather grander than a shrimp barbie. Before dining on Tasmanian smoked salmon, Melbourne-grown asparagus and Australian fillet of beef, the guests were greeted by Aboriginal dancers, and then entertained by the Australian Boys Choir.