Blueback Study Guide

Tim Winton was born in 1960 in Perth, Western Australia. By the age of 10, he already knew he wanted to be a writer. He also enjoyed surfing, fishing, and camping, and all the time he spent outdoors influenced him to feature the landscape and coastline of Western Australia prominently in his writing. At the Western Australian Institute of Technology, Winton studied creative writing. When he was 19, he began working on his first novel, An Open Swimmer. This story won The Australian/Vogel Literary Award in 1981, kickstarting Winton’s successful literary career. Four of his subsequent novels—Shallows, Cloudstreet, Dirt Music, and Breath—have won Australia’s prestigious Miles Franklin Award. Winton has also written children’s books, nonfiction books, and short stories. In addition to being a renowned author, Winton has also been involved in the Australian environment movement. In 2003, he was awarded the Australian Society of Authors Medal for his advocacy for Ningaloo Reef. Additionally, as a patron of the Australian Marine Conservation Society, Winton advocates for sustainability and the protection of Australia’s ecosystems. The National Trust of Australia has named Winton a Living Treasure.

In Blueback, Abel Jackson’s ancestors used to live in Longboat Bay as whalers. This piece of Abel’s family history alludes to the historical reality of Australia’s whaling industry. Commercial whaling began in Western Australia in the early 1800s with the arrival of European settlers. Over the next century, the booming whaling industry overexploited whale populations, almost causing them to go extinct. The last whaling station in Australia closed in 1978, and Australia banned whaling in 1979 to promote the protection of whales instead. In general, the environmentalist themes of Blueback reflect the growing awareness of the importance of nature conservation in Australia during Winton’s early life. Beginning in the 1960s, the Australian environment movement gained traction and led many successful campaigns to protect natural places, including the Great Barrier Reef. In the 1980s, climate change became a significant focus of the movement as well. Additionally, the Australian Marine Conservation Society was established in 1965 and, since then, has helped protect marine ecosystems. The expanding cultural consciousness about humans’ impact on the environment in Australia during the 20th century forms a key part of the context in which Winton wrote Blueback, a story that illustrates the value of ecological preservation.

Tim Winton has cited Rachel Carson, an American marine biologist and author, as a source of inspiration for him. Carson’s nonfiction book The Sea Around Us, which poetically describes the history of the sea, especially influenced Winton’s understanding of the ocean. Just as the sea and friendly sea creatures play an important role in the lives of Blueback’s characters, the sea and its marine life are also central in many of Winton’s other works. In Winton’s picture book The Deep, a girl named Alice lives with her family by the sea. She’s afraid of swimming beyond the shallows until a group of dolphins helps her overcome her fear of deeper waters. Additionally, environmental conservation, one of the main themes of Blueback, is also at the forefront of Winton’s book Shallows. This novel tells the story of a woman who becomes a conservationist and fights to end the harmful whaling industry in her hometown. Another book that is similar to Blueback is Saltwater Boy by the Australian author Bradley Christmas. Like Blueback, this young adult novel depicts its young protagonist navigating his relationship with his parents and the ocean as he grows up on an Australian coast. Furthermore, Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea and Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick are two classics with maritime settings that explore how humans relate to nature.