Tim Winton is one of Australia’s best-loved writers. Cloudstreet is frequently voted Australia’s favourite novel. Winton wrote ‘Blueback’ for children; however, the novella is as worthy of adult attention. (If you’re in any doubt about that, please read Katherine Rundell’s brilliant essay ‘Why You Should Read Children’s Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise’.) Like Cloudstreet, ‘Blueback’ deals with concepts of home, the fierce pull of a place.
10-year-old Abel Jackson lives in Longboat Bay on the Australian coastline. His father, a pearl diver, was killed by a tiger shark when Abel was young. He lives with his mother Dora, subsisting off the land and the sea. Diving for abalone, Abel comes across an enormous blue groper; he names the fish Blueback and thus starts a lifelong companionship.
Like many children in rural Australia, Abel has to go away for secondary school, but his heart remains in the bay: “I’ll wither up and die away from this place, he thought as they bumped off down the gravel road. This is my place. This is where I belong.”
Dora and Abel battle to save their bay from the rapaciousness of mankind: divers strip the reef bare; developers want to turn the bay into a holiday resort. Abel fears for Blueback’s safety: “That summer he learnt that there was nothing in nature as cruel and savage as a greedy human being.”
Dora is the hero of the tale. Through years of dogged campaigning, she succeeds in getting the bay declared a marine sanctuary. Abel grows up, becomes a marine biologist, and travels the world with his wife Stella. But all the while, he yearns for Longboat Bay. Stella suggests they move back: “Do you want to be homesick or to be home?”
Tim Winton is an environmentalist, and this book is a clear cry for conservation. For me though, it’s also the story of how our hearts have a way of pulling us home.
First published in Australia, Pan Macmillan, 1997. Now available Penguin Group, Australia, 2014
A Personal Anthology 