MAY 2017 VIRGIN AUSTRALIA 035
OUT & ABOUT
Tim Winton is one of Australia’s
best-loved authors. He has lived
much of his life in Western Australia
and here tells us about the places
that inspire his work.
West
Wo rl d
You were born in Perth
and moved to Albany at
the age of 12. Can you tell
us about some of the places
you’ve lived in Western
Australia? Albany seems to
have had a really big influence
on me, even though I only
spent three years there in my
adolescence. It's a nice town
in a breathtaking setting and
the country around it is really
beautiful. The south coast of
WA probably has the most
gorgeous beaches in Australia.
I guess people will get to see
some of that when [director]
Simon Baker's movie of [my
2008 novel] Breath is released
this year. The secret will be out.What do you love about
where you live? The smell
of spinifex as it heats up in
the sun. I'm lucky enough to be
able to lie in bed, and listen to
whales jumping and breathing
out on the bay at night. I get
to watch ospreys, harriers
and falcons cruising by theworkroom window all day. One
of the great things about WA
is that you can find plenty
of places where the desert
meets the sea. And I guess
I'm living in one of them.You’ve said places creep up
on you. What do you mean
by that? Now and then we find
ourselves in places that unsettle
us somewhat. Places we find
bewildering or overwhelming.
Mostly this is because we don't
understand them, because we
haven't learnt to read them.
I suppose this is what happened
to me in Albany. It takes time to
learn a place. It's like meeting
someone you're not sure you
like at the outset. There are
places in the northern goldfields,
stretches of mulga and salt
lakes that I've come to love.
Places do get under your
skin. Other places, of course,
just knock your socks of the
moment you arrive. Not many
people visit the Kimberley and
wish they'd stayed home.FROM TOP
Author Tim Winton;
Lake Argyle, near
Kununurra.