Ashes urn visits Tasmania

The Ashes exhibition, which is due to open in Sydney on Saturday October 21, will now also visit Tasmania on its historic tour of Australia.

The original Ashes urn, plus over 30 other unique artefacts charting the shared cricket history of England and Australia, will be placed on display in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, in Hobart, from January 18-21 2007.

This extension to the itinerary of The Ashes exhibition comes as a result of lengthy discussions between the new secretary & chief executive of MCC, Keith Bradshaw (a former captain of Tasmania), the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, and the Premier of Tasmania, Paul Lennon.

Bradshaw said: “As secretary & chief executive of MCC, I am delighted that, with the support of Travelex, it has proved possible to extend the opportunity to see the Ashes urn to thousands more Australians.

"As a Tasmanian, I am even more delighted that Hobart is the city that has been added to the itinerary!

"This is the first – and may be the only – time that the Ashes Urn has been able to undertake such a wide-ranging tour.

“I hope as many people as possible will take the opportunity to view the exhibition.”

The Ashes exhibition has been organised by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and Travelex

It was originally agreed that the Ashes urn would visit two cities in Australia (Sydney and Melbourne) in 2002.

Preparations for this visit were halted when x-rays of the urn, ordered by its insurers, revealed that it was too fragile to travel.

Following expert restoration of the Urn, a more extensive tour was planned to include the cities in which matches would be played during the forthcoming 3 mobile Test series in Australia.

More recent developments have resulted in the involvement of the Bradman museum at Bowral (which has lent items from its collection to the exhibition at the Museum of Sydney) and the exhibition at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart.

The full itinerary for The Ashes exhibition is now as follows:

Museum of Sydney, Sydney: Saturday Oct 21 – Wednesday Nov 8

Queensland Museum, Brisbane: Sunday Nov 12 – Wednesday Nov 22

South Australian Museum, Adelaide: Sunday Nov 26 – Wednesday Dec 6

Western Australian Museum, Perth: Sunday Dec 10 – Wednesday Dec 20

The Melbourne Museum, Melbourne: Monday Dec 26 – Sunday Jan 7 2007

Melbourne Cricket Museum, MCG, Melbourne: Tuesday Jan 9 – Sunday Jan 14

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart Thursday Jan 18 – Sunday Jan 21