Given Winton's Christian faith, one must question why the Jackson boy was named Abel.

The biblical Abel was, of course, known for providing God with an appropriate sacrifice.
Though Blueback's Abel is many years in arriving at the altar, he too makes a large
sacrifice, which ensures Longboat Bay's sustenance for generations to come.

And so it is that sacrifice is at Blueback's core. Winton is saying that no amount of airy
fairy tree-hugging or pot banging will provide us with a sustainable environmental future.
Winton's Christian faith informs his environmentalism. He knows it will take the ability for
many to make sacrifices akin to Abel and Dora's that will be the fuel for his Blueback fable
to be realised around Australia's coast.

Note: All photos are in the Public Domain.

A blue groper and a 400 + pound groper caught near Sydney in the 1920s.
'Cutting in', whaling industry, Norfolk Island 1911-1915

Activities
Remembering
 Make an illustrated timeline of events from the story.
 Complete a crossword and word search based on the story.
 Complete a cloze and reading comprehension activity from the book
 Make a list of quotations from the story and link them to the character that said it.
 Prepare a thumbnail sketch of important
characters including both appearance and character.

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  Children devise 5 quiz questions after reading several chapters of the story and
test each other after the book is completed.
 Make a list of ‘facts’ about the story or a list of diving / swimming rules.
 List 5 new words you’ve learnt from the story with definition and illustration if
appropriate.
 List the other children’s books written by Tim Winton (Get this information from
the internet)

Understanding
 Make a cartoon strip of the accident in the boat’ (Page 42 - 45
 Design a newspaper advertisement about fishing.
 Make an illustrated bookmark based on one of the characters from the story.
 Complete a literary socio-gram for major characters from the story
 What emotions was Abel feeling at pivotal points in the story? (You choose 4
major points. Eg When he learns of his father’s death on page 32 – 33 or discovers
the dead pilchards page 102-104)
 Develop a ‘How to….’ Fact sheet related to the book.
 List some of the equipment used for scuba diving while reading the book.
Contribute to a class poster, which explains how that equipment works and what it
is used for.
 Complete an events and motives chart.
 Did any character from the story do something you didn’t like? What was it? What
would you have done instead?

Application
 Design a map of Longboat Bay and Label interesting locales from the story.
 Make a travel brochure for Longboat Bay as if you were a developer trying to sell it
to potential customers or as an environmentalist trying to promote the area as an
important environmental refuge.
 Relate a personal experience similar to an event in the story. (Have you ever felt
like you don’t belong?)
 Design a newspaper front story as if you were a witness to an important event
from the story. (Mad Macka's death, Abel's father's death, the declaration of Long
Bay as a marine sanctuary.)
 Pretend you are Abel and write a letter or send a postcard to Dora about your first
few days at boarding school. Alternatively write a letter as Dora did on an
environmental issue that you are concerned about.
 Design a poster for the library to illustrate one of Tim Winton’s stories.
 Create a clay model of one of the sea creatures mentioned in the story.
 Create a PowerPoint project about some of the sea creatures mentioned in the
story or Australia’s whaling industry (Topical issues related to Japan’s continued

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 whaling practices can be explored.) or sharks, abalone fishing or marine ecological
disasters.
 Develop a home or school Evacuation Plan and Emergency Plan in case of an
emergency.
 What would the main character of the book do if he visited you at home?

Analyse
 Visit the Melbourne Aquarium.
 Make a list of conflict situations from the story. Were they resolved? If so, how? If
not, why not?
 Create a ‘Y Chart’ of an event from the story.
 Create a Venn diagram comparing the book to a similar Australian story with an
environmental message. (Storm Boy or Walking the Boundaries)
 List 5 ways that Abel is like you.
 If Dora hadn’t discovered the graveyard of whalebones how might the ending have
changed?
 Use a graphic organiser of your design to compare 2 characters from the book.
 Make a concept web about the story.
 What was the turning point of the story? Why did you think that? Did others in the
class think that as well? Paint a picture of the critical scene or incident.
 Explain an event only implied in the book.
 Create a scrim shore carving of your own. What do you think will be your destiny?

Evaluation
 Write 5 story chapter titles for the numbered chapters in the book.
 Give the book a rank or rating as part of an alternative book cover.
 Pretend you are a librarian or book reviewer. How would you recommend the
book to a friend?
 What character would you be a friend with and why?
 Write a letter to Tim Winton and ask him questions about his book.
 Write a school report for one of the characters from the story.

Creative
 Change the ending of the story. (Why did you change it?)
 Design a new dust jacket for the book and include a personal review of the book as
well as a blurb.
 If you included yourself in the story, who would you be? Why?
 Make a board game about the story.
 Choose a poetry style and write a poem about the book.

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  Create a short story using 2 characters
from the book as an infant reader or
tape dialogue between characters from
the book.
 Sell the idea of resuming the whaling
industry in Australia. How would you do
it? (Interesting information on this
industry can be found at the ‘Killers in
Eden’ site:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/killers/whaling.html )
 Create your own Scuba Diving World magazine front cover.
 Create a diving implement. Pretend it is a museum piece and create an
explanatory label for it and put it on display.
 Create a sound effects tape of noises from the sea.
 Study Jeannie Baker’s collages from books such as ‘Where the Forest Meets the
Sea’. And create one of your own inspired by the story.
 Write a sequel or prequel to the story.

The results of an oil tanker spill off the coast of Spain.

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Blueback crossword

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Across
2. Abel's mother
7. The shellfish harvested by Mad Macka.
9. the author of Blueback
10. Dora's son
11. The Jackson's dived for abalone off..................

Down
1. Abel and Dora lived at..............
3. The storm uncovered ........... bones on the beach.
4. Abel's father was killed by a .........
5. He came to the bay and was fined for over fishing.
6. Blueback was this type of fish.
8. These tiny fish were washed up dead on the beach.

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Blueback

Longboat bay Times

Price 10 c February 5th 1975

Black Beauty (Literary Sociogram)

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Blueback Postcard

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BLUEBACK co-ordinates

What will you find at these co-ordinates?

H9
………………………………………………………………………………………
F13…………………………………………………………..……………………
Q7…………………………………………………………………………………
U7…………………………………………………………………………………
S3……………………………………………………………………………………
P10…………………………………………………………………………………
B6…………………………………………………………………………………
M9…………………………………………………………………………………

At these co-ordinates draw

 Blueback L5
 Abel in the water S8
 Mad Macka on his boat at Q4
 Dora standing on the end of the jetty O9

Color in the scene.

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