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.”
