Dana Wortley (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak tonight about a great South Australian, a man who gave so much, who opened our eyes and led so many of us as children on journeys we may have missed had we not turned that first page of one of his books. I speak of renowned author and poet Colin Milton Thiele, who died on 4 September at the age of 85.

Colin was a man who walked two roads: one as an author and one as an educator, providing inspiration, encouragement and insight to those who knew the man and those who came to know him and know of him through his writing. Born on 16 November 1920 near Eudunda, in South Australia’s Barossa Valley, Colin attended school at Julia Creek and Eudunda primary schools, and did his secondary schooling at Kapunda. He completed a degree at the University of Adelaide in 1941, followed by a course at Adelaide Teachers College in 1942. He served with the Royal Australian Air Force in the Northern Territory and in New Guinea from 1942 to 1945, completing a Diploma of Education on his return.

In 1945 Colin married Rhonda Gill, also a teacher, and they had two daughters, Janne and Sandy. From 1946 to 1955 he taught English at Port Lincoln, on the Eyre Peninsula, wrote for ABC radio, and presented Regional Magazine on radio 5LN. He later taught in Adelaide for a year, at Brighton High school.

Colin joined the staff at Wattle Park Teachers College as a lecturer in English from 1957 to 1963 and during this time he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study teacher education. In 1964 he was appointed as vice principal; and from 1965 to 1972 he served as principal of the college. In 1973 Colin became principal of Murray Park College of Advanced Education; and from 1974, until his retirement in 1980, he served as director of Wattle Park Teachers Centre.

An author, poet and educator, Colin was awarded Australia’s highest award, the Companion of the Order of Australia, in 1977 for eminent and meritorious services to literature and education. In the words of his close friend, Walkley award winning journalist and much admired South Australian author, Max Fatchen:

Colin Thiele illuminated our lives, generations of us, with the joy and warmth of his prose, the humour and images of his verse and his own character as strong and productive as the paddocks of Eudunda where he spent his boyhood ...

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It is not too extravagant to say his mind was a magnificent mansion which we entered when we turned the first page of one of his books. He engaged us, entertained us and often enchanted us.

Colin Thiele was the last surviving member of the Jindyworobaks—a literary movement which aimed to revive a particular kind of Australian nationalism through exploration of images of the landscape and an affinity with Aboriginal culture. They turned for inspiration to Aboriginal art and to the stories of the Dreamtime.

Colin’s best-known work is his children’s book, Storm Boya tale about a young boy who saves a pelican, which he names ‘Mr Percival’. The boy forms a friendship with it and the Aboriginal character, ‘Fingerbone Bill’, in the sea setting of the Coorong in South Australia. In the author’s words:

Storm Boy teaches something of grief and joy of life, of beauty of natural places and preserving our precious heritage; the richness of the life of the Aboriginal people.

Storm Boy was published in 1966 and adapted to film in 1976. It won the Jury and Best Film awards at the 1977 Australian Film Institute awards. Other works by Colin Thiele include: The Sun on the Stubble; Magpie Island; The Fire in the Stone; Blue Fin; Poems in My Luggage; Gloop the Bunyip; Uncle Gustav’s Ghosts; and The Hammerhead Light.

Colin wrote about the Flinders Ranges, the Barossa Valley, the Coorong and the River Murray, as well as the hard life on the land, living as children with the seasons, the environment, castaways on islands, dramatic bushfires, lighthouses and lonely magpies. He won numerous awards, including the Dromkeen Medal and the Centenary Medal. He wrote his first book at the age of 11 and continued writing up until a few weeks ago. His final book, The Fiery Salamander, will be published in 2007.

Colin wrote and edited well over a 100 books on poetry, fiction, drama, history, biography, education and the environment. He was a great storyteller, and now his story forms part of the history of our nation. He has left an imprint on our society, among the people and the land he loved and portrayed so well through his imagination, insight and love for the written word. In Eudunda’s Memorial Park, South Australia’s famous son sits in bronze, with notebook and pen in hand and Mr Percival, the pelican, by his side.