The owners of Tasmanian surf shop Red Herring have announced they will be taking their iconic Hobart red kombi van down for good, as the store prepares to move from its current Liverpool Street location.
Red Herring is moving to 104 Elizabeth Street and says the new location “was built in the 1840’s and is heritage listed”.
They say once they remove the red Volkswagen kombi from it’s current location, they plan to sell it and donate the proceeds to Lifeline.
“We know the kombi is much loved, so please let us know if you have any other ideas on what you’d like to see happen to the kombi,” the company posted to social media.
A Red Herring spokesperson told Pulse the kombi has been sitting perched above their Liverpool Street store for “around 27 years”.
They say the kombi was ‘gutted internally’ to reduce its weight, so the new owners will have to tow it away.
Wednesday November 8 was the store’s last day of trading before the grand opening of the institution’s new 104 Elizabeth St location.
August: Kombi removed from Launceston’s Red Herring store
Launceston’s famous Kombi van on the rooftop of the Red Herring surf store has been removed after two decades – “and she’s not coming back”.
Store Manager Anthony Wilson told Pulse the decision to remove the shell of the iconic van, which is currently in a “state of disrepair”, was ‘not made lightly’.
“We did look into whether we could lift it off, get it resprayed and then put it back up, but it was a too big a job in the time frames that we had,” he said.
“But there is a good news ending to the story and that is that our 2IC, our assistant store manager, at Launceston is going to be the proud new owner of it.”
Wilson said Alex the 2IC and his uncle are now going to “lovingly restore” the van, which is currently without an engine and all interior fittings, in a project that is expected to last a few years.
“We did consider selling it and we’ve had people approach us over the years to buy it and I was like, you know what it’s, you know, it’s a nice to sort of round it out with Alex.”
