Edge Rewrite
// HTMLRewriter · presentation

This page was redesigned at the edge.

Cloudflare fetched the original article and streamed it through HTMLRewriter to apply an entirely new visual system without rebuilding the source page.

// request.cf · coarse context

A page that knows where it met you.

Only coarse request metadata is shown. This demo does not display or persist visitor IP addresses.

Country
US
Cloudflare location
CMH
Connection
HTTP/2
Language
Not provided

Ray ID: a21f29263e56cac0

Jump to content

// Workers AI · dad joke modeIs Tim Winton a writer? He's a reel good one.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tim Winton

Winton at the launch of Breath in London, 2008
Winton at the launch of Breath in London, 2008
Born
Timothy John Winton

4 August 1960 (1960-08-04) (age 65)
OccupationNovelist
NationalityAustralian
Period1982–present
GenreLiterature, children's, non-fiction, short story
Notable worksCloudstreet (1991)
Dirt Music (2001)
Breath (2009)
Juice (2024)
Lockie Leonard trilogy
Notable awardsMiles Franklin
1984, 1992, 2002, 2009

Timothy John Winton AO (born 4 August 1960) is an Australian writer and environmental activist. He has written novels, children's books, non-fiction books, and short stories.

His most well-known novel, and the one that launched his career, was Cloudstreet, in 1991. He is also known for the novels Dirt Music (2001) and Breath (2009), as well as collections of short fiction, such as The Turning (2004), and several works of children's and young adult fiction, including Lockie Leonard, Human Torpedo. His latest novel is the 2024 climate fiction novel Juice. Many of his novels and stories have been adapted for stage and screen, and have been translated into many languages. Winton has also written some non-fiction, including his 2016 memoir The Boy Behind the Curtain.

Winton is actively involved in the Australian environmental movement, and has roles in a number of conservation organisations. A new species of fish, Winton's grunter, was named after him after its discovery was announced in 2016. A three-part series written and narrated by him, called Ningaloo Nyinggulu, aired on ABC Television in 2023.

In 1997, he was named a Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia, and, among many other awards, has won the Miles Franklin Award four times. He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2023.

Early life and education

[edit]

Timothy John Winton[1] was born on 4 August 1960[2] in Subiaco, an inner western suburb of Perth, Western Australia. He grew up in the northern Perth suburb of Karrinyup,[3][4] before he moved with his family to the regional city of Albany at the age of 12.[5]

He studied at the Western Australian Institute of Technology (now Curtin University), graduating with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English in 1980, followed by a Graduate Diploma in English in 1981. [6]

Career

[edit]

Writing

[edit]

While still a student, Winton wrote his first novel, An Open Swimmer, which won The Australian/Vogel Literary Award in 1981, launching his writing career. He has stated that he wrote "the best part of three books while at university".[5]

His second book, Shallows, won the Miles Franklin Award in 1984. Winton published Cloudstreet in 1991, which properly established his writing career.[5]

On the publication of Dirt Music, he collaborated with broadcaster Lucky Oceans to produce a compilation CD, Dirt Music – Music for a Novel, released in 2001.[7]

He has continued to publish fiction, plays, and non-fiction material.

Style and themes

[edit]

Winton draws his prime inspiration from landscape and place, mostly coastal Western Australia. In a 2008 interview about his 2009 novel Breath, he said:"The place comes first. If the place isn't interesting to me then I can't feel it. I can't feel any people in it. I can't feel what the people are on about or likely to get up to".[5] In an interview about his 2019 novel The Shepherd's Hut, he repeated "The place comes first, as it always does, and the landscape determines the parameters of the story; it throws the people up (one way or another) and they're what and who I have to work with. I guess by now I'm used to submitting to the environmental logic underpinning it all. The figures literally emerge from the landscape".[8]

Winton's works often include underlying themes of violence, desire, and belonging.[8] Breath is about risks that young people take, and the sea's role in soothing the spirit and emotions as well as having the potential to be dangerous.[5] The sea and surfing are often present in his novels, and he also employs a technique which he calls "character overlaps", in which the same character turns up in different stories or novels.[5]

Environmental advocacy

[edit]

In his writing

[edit]

Winton has always featured the environment and the Australian landscape in his writings.

His 2024 climate fiction novel Juice has been called "a potent vision of the future that points a finger at the complacency of the present",[9] as it takes a look at the impact of climate change.

Organisations

[edit]

Winton is actively involved in the Australian environmental movement. He has roles in a number of conservation organisations, in particular, the Australian Marine Conservation Society. He was vice-president of the WA branch from 1998, and has been a national patron since 2006.[1] He has been involved in many of their campaigns, notably their work in raising awareness about sustainable seafood consumption in 2008,[10] a campaign against shark finning in 2008,[11] and the Protect Ningaloo campaign, since 2018.[1]

In March 2017, Winton was named inaugural patron of the newly-established Native Australian Animals Trust, based at the University of Melbourne's School of BioSciences The trust was established to help research and teaching about native animals and their environment.[12]

Other roles in conservation organisations have included:

Television

[edit]

In 2023, ABC Television released a three-part documentary series called Ningaloo Nyinggulu, about the Ningaloo reef on the north-western coast of Western Australia. The series was written and narrated by Winton,[13] and produced by Artemis Media and Matter of Factual.[14] It was nominated for an AACTA Award for Best Documentary or Factual Program,[15] and won Innovation Award for Television in the Western Australia Screen Culture Awards[16] as well as Best Natural History or Wildlife program at the Asian TV Awards in Ho Chi Minh City.[17]. It is available for viewing on ABC iview.[18]

Recognition and honours

[edit]

Winton's books have been well-reviewed by critics and many have been shortlisted for or won awards. Several novels and short stories have been adapted for stage and screen. All his books are still in print and have been published in many different languages. His work has also been successfully adapted for stage, screen and radio.[19] He won the Miles Franklin Award a record four times: for Shallows (1984), Cloudstreet (1992), Dirt Music (2002) and Breath (2009).[19]

Winton was named a Living Treasure by the National Trust in 1997,[20][1] and was in January 2001 was awarded the Centenary Medal "service to Australian society and literature".[21] In 1999, he received a Friends of the National Library of Australia Celebration Award[22]

In 2003, Winton was awarded the inaugural Australian Society of Authors (ASA) Medal in recognition for his work in the campaign to save the Ningaloo Reef.[1] In 2006, he was included in The Bulletin's "100 Most Influential Australians"[23] In 2009, his alma mater Curtin University named a lecture theatre in his honour.[6]

In 2016, it was announced that one of 20 recently discovered species of fish from the Kimberley region would be named after him.[24] It was officially named "Winton's grunter", or Hannia wintoni[25] in 2020.[26][27] The fish is a 25cm-long grunter found in a Prince Regent River tributary[28]

Winton was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2023 King's Birthday Honours for "distinguished service to literature as an author and novelist, to conservation, and to environmental advocacy".[29][1] In the same year, he was awarded the ABIA Lloyd O'Neil Award for outstanding service to the Australian book industry.[30]

In 2024, Winton was the subject of a painted portrait by Sydney-based artist Laura Jones, which won the Archibald Prize that year. Having an interest in how humans interact with their environment and being an admirer of Winton, she was inspired to paint him after watching his 2023 TV documentary Ningaloo Nyinggulu and by his speech urging artists to use their work to critique the lack of action by governments on climate change,[31]

Tim Winton Young Writers Award (1992–2022)

[edit]

The Tim Winton Young Writers Award was launched in 1992 and thence sponsored annually by the City of Subiaco until 2022. Winton was patron of the award, and handed out the awards at a ceremony.[32][33]

The award recognised young writers in the Perth metropolitan area,[34] and is open to short story writers of primary school and secondary school age. Three compilations have been published: Destination Unknown (2001)[35] Life Bytes (2002),[36] and Hatched: Celebrating Twenty Years of the Tim Winton Award for Young Writers (2013). The latter features the winning story from each year of the award from 1993 to 2012.[37] In 2022, there were over 1300 entries.[33]

In 2023, Craig Silvey became patron of the award, which was renamed the Craig Silvey Award for Young Writers[33][38] However, it was announced in January 2026 that Silvey would have no further association with the awards,[39] after Silvey had been charged with possessing and distributing child exploitation material.[40]

Personal life

[edit]

Winton met his wife Denise when they were children at school. When he was 18 and recovering from a car accident, they reconnected as she was a student nurse. They married when Winton was 21 and she was 20, and had three children together.[41] As his fame has grown, Winton has guarded his and his family's privacy and rarely speaks in public,[42] except to promote a new book or to support an environmental issue.[5]

Winton's younger brother, Andrew Winton, is a musician and a high school chaplain. His younger sister is Sharyn O'Neill, who in 2018 became the Public Sector Commissioner of Western Australia, after 12 years as Director General of the WA Education Department.[43]

Winton has lived in Italy, France, Ireland, and Greece.[41] As of 2016 he was living in Western Australia.[44]

Bibliography

[edit]

Novels

[edit]

Short fiction

[edit]
Collections
Stories[45]
Title Year First published Reprinted/collected Notes
Abbreviation 2003 "Abbreviation"/"Ten viet tat", Truyen ngan Uc/Australian Short Stories, Rose Moxham (ed), Trinh Lu (translator), Hoi Nhaa Van, 2005
Aquifer 2000 Winton, Tim (Summer 2000). "Aquifer". Granta. 70: 39–52. The Beacon Best of 2001, Junot Diaz (ed), Beacon Press, 2001
Big world 2004 Journeys: Modern Australian Short Stories, Barry Oakley (ed), Five Mile Press, 2007
Cockleshell 2004 "Cockleshell", Harvard Review, No. 27, Christina Thompson (ed), 2004
Small mercies 2006 Novella

Plays

[edit]
  • Rising Water (2011)
  • Signs of Life (2012)
  • Shrine (2013)

Children's and young adult fiction

[edit]

The Lockie Leonard trilogy (1990–1997) for young adults, including:

    • Lockie Leonard, Human Torpedo (1990)
    • Lockie Leonard, Scumbuster (1993)
    • Lockie Leonard, Legend (1997)
  • The Bugalugs Bum Thief (1991)
  • The Deep (1998) – picture book illustrated by Karen Louise

Non-fiction

[edit]
  • Land's Edge (1993) – with Trish Ainslie and Roger Garwood
  • Local Colour: Travels in the Other Australia (1994), republished in the U.S. as Australian Colors: Images of the Outback (1998) – photography and text by Bill Bachman, additional text by Tim Winton
  • Down to Earth: Australian Landscapes (1999) – text by Tim Winton and photographs by Richard Woldendorp
  • "How the Reef was Won", The Bulletin, vol. 121 no. 6384, 5 August 2003
  • "Landing", A Place on Earth: An Anthology of Nature Writing from Australia and North America, Mark Tredinnick (ed), University of Nebraska Press and University of New South Wales Press, 2003
  • Smalltown (2009) – text by Tim Winton and photographs by Martin Mischkulnig[46]
  • Island Home (2015)
  • Tide-Lands - Idris Murphy (2015) text by Tim Winton and art by Idris Murphy
  • The Boy Behind the Curtain (2016 memoir) — also available as 7-CD pack, read by Winton, pub. ABC/Bolinda

Adaptations

[edit]

Stage and radio

[edit]

Screen

[edit]

Literary awards and nominations

[edit]

Full list of awards and nominations

[edit]

An Open Swimmer

  • 1981 Australian Vogel National Literary Award[72]

Shallows

Scission and Other Stories

  • 1985 Western Australian Council Literary Award[74]
  • 1985 Joint Winner Western Australian Premier's Book Award – Fiction[74]

Minimum of Two and Other Stories

  • 1988 Winner Western Australian Premier's Book Award – Fiction[74]

Jesse (picture book)

  • 1990 Winner Western Australian Premier's Book Award: Children's Book[74]

Cloudstreet

Related to Cloudstreet

Lockie Leonard, Human Torpedo

Lockie Leonard, Scumbuster

The Bugalugs Bum Thief

  • 1994 Winner CROW Award (Children Reading Outstanding Writers): Focus list (Years 3–5)[74]
  • 1998 Winner YABBA Awards: Fiction for Younger Readers[74]

The Riders

Blueback

Lockie Leonard, Legend

  • 1998 Family Award for Children's Literature,[74]

Dirt Music

The Turning

Breath

Eyrie

Island Home: A Landscape Memoir

The Boy Behind the Curtain

The Shepherd's Hut

Juice

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 "Timothy John Winton: Officer of the Order of Australia, 12th of June 2023". Australian Honours Search Facility. Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (Australia). Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  2. "Tim Winton". Britannica. 4 October 2023.
  3. "Births". The West Australian. 5 August 1960. p. 44.
  4. "Tim Winton (Author profile), Jenny Darling & Associates". Archived from the original on 6 December 2007. Retrieved 10 November 2007.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Winton, Tim (25 April 2008). "It's a risky business - The Interview". The Sydney Morning Herald (Interview). Interviewed by Steger, Jason. p. 28 via State Library of South Australia. [read online via NewsBank]
  6. 1 2 "Curtin honours graduate Tim Winton with lecture theatre tribute". Curtin University. 2 November 2009. Retrieved 4 July 2026.
  7. "Dirt Music: Music for a Novel By Tim Winton". Discogs. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  8. 1 2 Winton, Tim (19 June 2018). "A Youthful Instinct to Stay and Fight: An Interview with Tim Winton". Los Angeles Review of Books. Interviewed by Wood, Robert. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  9. "Book review: Juice, Tim Winton". ArtsHub. Retrieved 3 November 2024.
  10. AMCS Sustainable Seafood Guide Archived 20 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  11. "For the love of sharks". Australian Geographic. 23 July 2010. Archived from the original on 25 July 2010.
  12. "About". Native Australian Animals Trust. University of Melbourne. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
  13. "Ningaloo Nyinggulu Documentary". Australian Marine Conservation Society. 12 May 2023. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  14. "Ningaloo Nyinggulu". Screenwest. 31 May 2023. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  15. "Winners & Nominees". AACTA. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  16. "Check out the winners from this year's 2023 WA Screen Culture Awards". Campaign Brief WA. 27 November 2023. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  17. Tim Winton (15 January 2024). "Ningaloo Nyinggulu wins at the Asian TV Awards at Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam. A lovely way to begin 2024!". Facebook. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  18. "Ningaloo Nyinggulu". ABC iview. 23 April 2025. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  19. 1 2 "Tim Winton". Jenny Darling & Associates. 15 May 2014. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  20. Living Treasures list, National Trust website Archived 10 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  21. "Winton, Tim: Centenary Medal, 1st of January 2001". Australian Honours Search Facility. Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (Australia). Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 "Personal Awards for Works". Austlit. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
  23. "Under the Influence". Workers Online. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  24. "'A great honour': New fish species named after author Tim Winton". ABC News. 4 January 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2016.
  25. "New Field Guide to the Freshwater Fishes of the Kimberley highlights the need to conserve these pristine waters". Museums Victoria. 19 April 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  26. "Hannia wintoni Shelley, Delaval, Le Feuvre, Dempster, Raadik & Swearer, 2020". Atlas of Living Australia. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  27. "Species Hannia wintoni Shelley, Delaval, Le Feuvre, Dempster, Raadik & Swearer, 2020: Winton's Grunter". Australian Biological Resources Study, Australian Faunal Directory. Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. 4 February 2023.
  28. "Twenty new freshwater fish species uncovered in the Kimberley". Newsroom. University of Melbourne. 23 January 2016. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  29. "King's Birthday 2023 Honours - the full list". Sydney Morning Herald. Nine Entertainment Co. 11 June 2023. Retrieved 11 June 2023.
  30. Young, Emma (8 May 2023). "Why Tim Winton is happy he never moved to Melbourne". WAtoday. Retrieved 16 May 2023.
  31. Story, Hannah; Freeland, Anna (7 June 2024). "Archibald Prize 2024 won by Laura Jones for portrait of author Tim Winton". ABC News. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  32. "Tim Winton Award for Young Writers". City of Subiaco. Archived from the original on 19 April 2024. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  33. 1 2 3 "Winners of 2022 Tim Winton Award for Young Artists announced". City of Subiaco. 21 October 2022. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  34. "Tim Winton Award for Young Writers". City of Subiaco. Archived from the original on 18 March 2012. Retrieved 29 February 2012.
  35. "Destination unknown / edited by Alwyn Evans; foreword Tim Winton". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  36. "Life bytes / edited by Alwyn Evans". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  37. "Tim Winton Award for Young Writers - Publications 2016". City of Subiaco. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  38. "Tim Winton Award for Young Writers". subiaco.wa.gov.au. Archived from the original on 28 November 2025. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  39. "Update regarding Award for Young Writers". City of Subiaco. 13 January 2026. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  40. Cassidy, Caitlin (13 January 2026). "Australian author Craig Silvey charged with possessing and distributing child exploitation material". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.
  41. 1 2 "Waiting for the mew wave - Interview 28 June 2008". The Guardian. 27 June 2008. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  42. "Tim Winton : Into the Blue: Murray Waldren". Literary Liaisons. Retrieved 3 February 2017. first published in The Weekend Australian.
  43. "Sharyn O'Neill". Government of Western Australia. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  44. "The Boy Behind the Curtain - From guns to words 15 October 2016". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
  45. Short stories unless otherwise noted.
  46. Smalltown
  47. "That Eye, The Sky". New Theatre. 24 May 2017. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  48. "Cloudstreet's Adaptations". Austlit. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  49. "Cloudstreet". AusStage. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  50. "Lockie Leonard Human Torpedo". Australian Plays. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  51. "Lockie Leonard, Scumbuster". AusStage. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  52. "The Bugalugs Bum Thief". Sydney Morning Herald 6 April 2009. 6 April 2009. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  53. "The Bugalugs Bum Thief (National Tours)". monkey baa theatre company. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  54. "The Deep First Performance 2001". Spare Parts Puppet Theatre. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  55. "Blueback". Spare Parts Puppet Theatre. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  56. "The Turning Perth Theatre Company". Australian Stage. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  57. "The Riders Review (Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne) 25 September 2014". Daily Review. 25 September 2014. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  58. "Review: Cloudstreet (State Opera of South Australia)". Limelight Magazine. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  59. Mercer, Leah (15 May 2026), The power of Tim Winton's The Shepherd's Hut is gorgeously evoked in a new stage adaptation, The Conversation, doi:10.64628/aa.gxapyq5qd
  60. "That Eye, the Sky (1994)". Australian Screen. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  61. "In the Winter Dark". National Film and Sound Archive. Retrieved 7 July 2026.
  62. Stratton, David (15 June 1998). "In the Winter Dark". Variety. Retrieved 7 July 2026.
  63. "The Water Was Dark and It Went Forever Down". Cottesloe Films. Retrieved 7 July 2026.
  64. Newsome, Brad (18 May 2011). "Cloudstreet: series premiere, Sunday, May 22". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 7 July 2026.
  65. "The Turning". Arenamedia. 20 March 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2026.
  66. Van Hoeij, Boyd (28 October 2013). "The Well (Manto acuifero): Morelia Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 7 July 2026.
  67. "Elizabeth Debicki, Richard Roxburgh join cast of Simon Baker's film Breath 12 April 2016". The Sydney Morning Herald. 11 April 2016. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
  68. "Dirt Music trailer: Director Gregor Jordan on Tim Winton's book, casting non-Australians 21 May 2020". News.com.au. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  69. "Blueback: Tim Winton film adaptation – trailer". ScreenHub Australia. 7 July 2022. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  70. 1 2 3 "Tim Winton's dystopian thriller Juice is coming to the big screen". The New Daily. 3 July 2026. Retrieved 7 July 2026.
  71. "Winton's 'The Riders' to be adapted for film". Books+Publishing. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
  72. "Fully formed: 30 years of The Australian/Vogel Literary Award 23 January 2011". The Australian. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
  73. 1 2 3 4 "Miles Franklin Literary Award – Every Winner Since 1957". Better Reading. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  74. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 "Tim Winton Author Bio". Booktopia. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  75. "AWGIE Stage Award". Australian Plays Organization. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  76. 1 2 "Past Nominees and Winners 2002". Helpmann Awards. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
  77. "Shortlist 1995". Man Booker Prize. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  78. "Shortlist 2002". Man Booker Prize. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  79. Perkins, Cathy (Summer 2019). "Excellence in Literature and History". SL Magazine. 12 (4): 52–55.
  80. "Winton wins 2019 Voss Literary Prize for 'The Shepherd's Hut'". Books+Publishing. 10 December 2019. Retrieved 19 December 2019.
  81. "Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2025 shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 12 August 2025. Retrieved 29 September 2025.

Further reading

[edit]
  • The Fiction of Tim Winton: Earthed and Sacred, Lyn McCredden, Sydney University Press, 2017
  • Tim Winton: Critical Essays, Lyn McCredden and Nathanael O'Reilly (eds), University of Western Australia Publishing, 2014
  • Mind the Country: Tim Winton's fiction, Salhia Ben-Messahel, University of Western Australia Press, 2006
  • Tim Winton: The Writer and His Work, Michael McGirr, Macmillan Education, 1999
  • Tim Winton: A Celebration, Hilary McPhee (ed), National Library of Australia, (1999)
  • Reading Tim Winton, Richard Rossiter and Lyn Jacobs (eds), Angus & Robertson, (1993)
[edit]
External videos
video icon Tim Winton laments the power of toxic masculinity on young men, Matter Of Fact With Stan Grant, ABC News