Fin has always been passionate about fishing, so when he discovers an illegal net full of undersized fish in Sydney’s northern waterways, his first reaction is to empty it. The subsequent events turn a joint Kiwi-Australian family holiday into a rather more complex experience.
This deeply satisfying Ransome inspired tale has strong appeal to older readers as well as their grandchildren. Underlying a clear environmental message is the conclusion that modern children can still find adventure when their parents are prepared to give them a little trust and freedom.
| “ … if we put our kids in mothballs and don’t let them out of our sight then they’ll never get to learn their limitations. They won’t learn to respect water or gravity or speed or fire if they only have virtual games to play from the safety of a computer desk. There’s no re-play button in real life.” |
BACKGROUND TO THE BOOK:
If you fly in to Sydney, you can be at Cowan or Hawkesbury River Stations by train in less than two hours, just like these three Tasmanian kids. This waterway is a real place – still largely as unspoiled as it has been for thousands of years.
Although this is essentially a work of fiction, the places are real and the characters are based on real people. The location of the secret cave camp has been changed to protect Gray and Charlie’s privacy, as have their names. Anyone can climb to the Tanks or climb inside the waterfall at Refuge Bay.
As for the lifestyle of the Kiwi twins, my own kids have lived just like them, sailing away for a year or longer with all their schoolwork in boxes, plotting expeditions and negotiating their own schoolwork-free days.
And as for the fish in these waterways, there is hope for recovery now that more people have realised that the world’s oceans may soon have little else but jellyfish, unless we all work together.