Round Earth Theatre Company
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| Address | Established Perth, Western Australia, Currently based in: Strahan, Tasmania Australia 
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The Round Earth Theatre Company, founded by Richard Davey, performs in Strahan, West Coast, Tasmania. Each night the company performs Australia's longest-running play, The Ship That Never Was. During the day the actors work as tour guides on Sarah Island, explaining the history and unique story of this Tasmanian penal settlement.
The Round Earth Company was established in Western Australia in 1972 in response to rapid progress in Australian drama and theatre at that time, such as that contributed by the Australian Performing Group in Melbourne, and to the creative impact of aboriginal dance and story activities, such as by Mowamjum Dancers and other groups in Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
The Company began as an on-the-road performing company which would take stories to networks of communities, collecting new stories from the communities and forming stories along the way. It used a "pre-electronic" network, a worldwide "story web", that was based on a simplistic understanding of the Tjurkupa, the web of Dreaming Tales, which formed a network of communication, history and navigation for aboriginal communities in the Centre and the Far North of Australia.
From 1973 to 1974, three journeys into the North and the Central Deserts were undertaken, with storytellers, musicians, artists and craft workers visiting both remote mining towns and aboriginal communities. These journeys were funded by the Australia Council.
In 1975, the Round Earth Theatre Company left Australia and travelled to North and Central America, Britain, Europe, Egypt, and India for four years. They linked up with various communities and performance companies along the way, participating, for example, in rain and harvest dance rituals in Hopi villages in Arizona, with Canadian companies creating stories in remote communities, and with travelling troupes in India that performed legendary epics.
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