Into the WILD

Much-loved author Tim Winton introduces us to Ningaloo, the awe-inspiring piece of Australia he holds closest to his heart.

- SAMANTHA TRENOWETH

The water was deep, dark, indigo. It was Tim Winton’s first trip to Ningaloo and he was on a boat, out beyond the reef. Suddenly the skipper called, “Timmy, get your mask and snorkel on,” which he did in such a hurry, he says, “that I jumped in wearing my undies. I couldn’t see a thing because it was such deep water, and then out of the gloom came these dots. The dots grew bigger and bigger, until I could see this huge spotted creature swimming towards me. It was a massive whale shark, and I swam with it for half an hour … That was my introduction to Ningaloo and I just about lost my mind.”

Considered the finest Australian novelist of his generation, Tim Winton is rarely lost for words but when faced with the magnificence of this remote stretch of West Australian coast, where red earth meets turquoise sea, he is often silently awestruck.

He revisited his encounter with the whale shark for a documentary, Ningaloo Nyinggulu, which screens on the ABC in May. This time, with a scientific permit and clad in a wetsuit, Tim approached the immense creature and gently brushed tiny parasites from around its mouth. That moment in the film is alive with suspense and a sense of mutual trust: the shark trusting Tim to perform such an intimate act, and Tim trusting the shark not to fling him away with the sweep of a massive fin.

After 30 years visiting and defending Ningaloo, Tim had signed on with a crew of documentary filmmakers, back in 2019, to share its beauty and vulnerability. “It’s been a labour of love,” he says. And that’s evident. The three-part series is both spell-bindingly beautiful and moving, as it quietly puts the case for greater protection.