The Australian Bite

Surfing, whales and a home underground

25 June 2009

Listen and download: MP3

This week on the Bite we join a whale-watching trip off the coast of Queensland, we take a look at the book that won this year’s Miles Franklin literary award – Tim Winton’s “Breath”, and we take a tour of an underground house in the opal mining town of White Cliffs, in north west New South Wales.

Whale-watchers thrilled off the coast of Queensland

As pro and anti-whaling countries have come head to head at the annual conference of the International Whaling Commission in Portugal, the yearly migration of humpback whales from Antarctica up to Australia’s northern coastal waters has begun. Rob Blackmore was keen to see some of these magnificent mammals in action, so he joined Captain Shane Matterson on a new boat, launched this year by Australia Zoo, called “Steve’s Whale One”. He wasn’t disappointed.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare presented a report on the economic benefits of whale watching to the International Whaling Commission Meeting.  You can read the report here:

http://www.ifaw.org/Publications/Program_Publications/Whales/asset_upload_file812_55368.pdf

“Breath” makes Winton a four time winner

The Miles Franklin is a prize awarded to a novel of the highest literary merit, portraying Australian life in any of its phases. The 2009 award has just been won by West Australian writer Tim Winton, for his novel “Breath”.  Winton’s novel, which is set in a Western Australian logging town, is about two mates, Pikelet and Loonie, who are drawn to the thrill of riding huge and dangerous waves. Peter Mares discusses the book with one of the five Miles Franklin judges, journalist and academic Morag Fraser.

Find out more about the Miles Franklin award here: http://www.trust.com.au/awards/miles_franklin/

You can watch Tim Winton’s acceptance speech and find out more about the novel “Breath” here: http://breath.timwinton.com.au/

A comfortable home underground

A hole in the ground is not everyone’s idea of a dream home, but for those who appreciate it, the remote community of White Cliffs is the perfect place to set up house. Most of the opal-mining town in the north-west of New South Wales is made up of dugouts which have been hollowed out of the clay soil. That makes them wonderfully cool in the hot summer outback sun, and comfortably warm through the coldness of the winter nights. Former Melbourne resident Richard Allen has given up the bright city lights to buy his very own dugout and he showed Nicky Redl around his new abode.

Where is White Cliffs?  Find out here on Google maps.

Music (not in podcast)

Australia’s premier song writing awards – the APRA awards, were handed out at a ceremony in Melbourne last Tuesday. Kim Moyes and Julian Hamilton, who are better known as electronic duo The Presets, shared the Songwriter of the Year APRA award for their 2008 album Apocalypso. The album has already been honoured with several ARIAs, including Album of the Year, and has experienced platinum sales in Australia. “My People” was the first single from the album.

Artist: The Presets

Track: My People

Album: Apocalypso (2008)