I think those things worked rather well and it was beautifully done. STEPHANY STEGGALL: It was a very sympathetic portrayal, Fingerbone Bill, the Aboriginal character, and the friendship with the child. TONI HASSAN: Stephany Steggall says Colin Thiele captured Australia without cliche, including relations between black and white Australia. STEPHANY STEGGALL: It showed his early engagement with the environment and his desire to see it maintained and kept, and not in any way spoiled as was already happening in the Coorong.Īnd also it was Colin finding, I suppose, his niche in children's writing, because prior to that they'd just been The Sun on the Stubble for children and prior to that he'd been mainly writing books of poetry. TONI HASSAN: Stephany Steggall is Colin Thiele's authorised biographer. STEPHANY STEGGALL: It showed him as a poet, a very short book, very lyrical, beautiful writing. TONI HASSAN: Colin Thiele once said he had over 250 model pelicans, gifts from appreciative young readers of Storm Boy. He knew all the signs of wind and weather in clouds and sea. STORM BOY EXCERPT (read by actor): Fingerbone knew more about things then anyone Storm Boy had ever known. In it, Storm Boy saves a baby pelican, names him Mr Percival, and forms a friendships with it and the Aboriginal character Fingerbone Bill. TONI HASSAN: In his best-loved book, Storm Boy, the landscape is as important as the people. His home was the long, long snout of sand hill and scrub that curves away south-eastwards from the Murray mouth, a wild strip it is. STORM BOY EXCERPT (read by actor): Storm Boy lived between the Coorong and the Sea. And I think I'm that sort of a writer - I respond to an environment. Here, in this scratchy audio recorded from the Sandford Valley in Queensland, where he spent his final years, Colin Thiele reflected on his early influences and love of landscapes.ĬOLIN THIELE (archival audio): I lived in a variety of different environments, as I grew older and I spent 10 years as a matter of fact at Port Lincoln on Eyre Peninsula in South Australia.Īnd as soon as I began to absorb the particular nature of the place, I think it began to find its way out through my fingers or through the ink, or though my blood or somewhere into my writing. It was developed passion for teaching that led Colin Thiele to write about a range of places from the Coorong Coast, by the mouth of the Murray River, inland, exploring the people and sounds of different communities. He taught English and then went on to run the teachers college and resource centre at Wattle Park in Adelaide. TONI HASSAN: Born at a place just beyond the Barossa Valley in 1920, Colin Thiele said he always wanted to work the land, as his German parents did when they settled in South Australia.īut the Great Depression took him into Adelaide, where he studied before served in the Second World War. I mean, Colin was one of the great South Australian story tellers, and his story is part of our history. MIKE RANN: Back in 1977, Colin was awarded Australia's highest award, the Companion of the Order of Australia for his incredible contribution to Australian literature. TONI HASSAN: South Australian Premier Mike Rann was among many people this morning paying tribute to a great Australian story teller. Mr Thiele's biographer says he captured Australia without cliche and was passionate about using fiction and poetry to teach. ELEANOR HALL: The literary world is today mourning the loss of one of Australia's finest and most prolific authors.Ĭolin Thiele, best known for his children's book Storm Boy, died of a heart complication yesterday at the age of 85.
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