The Pelican Brief THE SHALLOW REFLECTIONS OF SHAWN SEET’S STORM BOY

Colin Thiele’s 1963 novella Storm Boy was meant for children first and foremost, and the same can be said about Henri Safran’s beloved 1976 film adaptation, scripted primarily by Sonia Borg. But the story told in both is part of the larger body of white Australia’s mythology. Unlike many such myths, this one concerns a hero at home in the landscape – specifically, the landscape of the Coorong, the long stretch of saltwater lagoons running parallel to the coastline in the eastern part of South Australia.

In a shack between the Coorong and the sea lives an eccentric beachcomber nicknamed Hide-Away Tom (played by character actor Peter Cummins in Safran’s film), who has retreated from civilisation following the death of his wife. But the real escape is accomplished by his young son, the titular Storm Boy (Greg Rowe), who roams wild and free and stays out in all weathers – not because he is neglected, but because, as Thiele explains, he can’t bear to be indoors:

He loved the whip of the wind too much, and the salty sting of the spray on his cheek like a slap across the face, and the endless hiss of the dying ripples at his feet.

For Storm Boy was a storm boy.¹

Easily read in one sitting, Thiele’s novella is dense with lyrical detail but relatively short on dramatic incident. With no companions of his own age, Storm Boy befriends another solitary resident of the