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Timothy John Winton (born 4 August 1960) is an Australian writer and environmental activist. He has written novels, children's books, non-fiction books and short stories.

His most well-known novel, and the one that launched his career, was Cloudstreet, in 1991. He is also known for the novels Dirt Music (2001) and Breath (2009), as well as collections of short fiction, such as The Turning (2004), and several works of children's and young adult fiction, including Lockie Leonard, Human Torpedo. His latest novel is the 2024 climate fiction novel Juice. Many of his novels and stories have been adapted for stage and screen, and have been translated into many languages. Winton has also written some non-fiction works, including his 2016 memoir The Boy Behind the Curtain.

Winton is actively involved in the Australian environmental movement, and has roles in a number of conservation organisations. A new species of fish, Winton's grunter, was named after him after its discovery was announced in 2016. A three-part series written and narrated by him, called Ningaloo Nyinggulu, aired on ABC Television in 2023.

In 1997, he was named a Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia, and, among many other awards, has won the Miles Franklin Award four times. He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2023.

Early life and education

Timothy John Winton was born on 4 August 1960 in Subiaco, an inner western suburb of Perth, Western Australia. He grew up in the northern Perth suburb of Karrinyup, before he moved with his family to the regional city of Albany at the age of 12.

He studied at the Western Australian Institute of Technology (now Curtin University), graduating with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English in 1980, followed by a Graduate Diploma in English in 1981.

Career

Writing

While still a student, Winton wrote his first novel, An Open Swimmer, which won The Australian/Vogel Literary Award in 1981, launching his writing career. He has stated that he wrote "the best part of three books while at university".

His second book, Shallows, won the Miles Franklin Award in 1984. Winton published Cloudstreet in 1991, which properly established his writing career. In October 2026, Cloudstreet topped ABC Radio National's list of Australia's 100 best books, based on more than 280,000 votes.

On the publication of Dirt Music, he collaborated with broadcaster Lucky Oceans to produce a compilation CD, Dirt Music – Music for a Novel, released in 2001.

He has continued to publish fiction, plays and non-fiction material.

Style and themes

Winton draws his prime inspiration from landscape and place, mostly coastal Western Australia. In a 2008 interview about his 2009 novel Breath, he said: "The place comes first. If the place isn't interesting to me then I can't feel it. I can't feel any people in it. I can't feel what the people are on about or likely to get up to". In an interview about his 2019 novel The Shepherd's Hut, he repeated: "The place comes first, as it always does, and the landscape determines the parameters of the story; it throws the people up (one way or another) and they're what and who I have to work with. I guess by now I'm used to submitting to the environmental logic underpinning it all. The figures literally emerge from the landscape".

Winton's works often include underlying themes of violence, desire and belonging. Breath is about risks that young people take, and the sea's role in soothing the spirit and emotions as well as having the potential to be dangerous. The sea and surfing are often present in his novels, and he also employs a technique which he calls "character overlaps", in which the same character turns up in different stories or novels.

In his writing

Winton has always featured the environment and the Australian landscape in his writings.

His 2024 climate fiction novel Juice has been called "a potent vision of the future that points a finger at the complacency of the present", as it takes a look at the impact of climate change.

Organisations

Winton is actively involved in the Australian environmental movement. He has roles in a number of conservation organisations, in particular, the Australian Marine Conservation Society. He was vice-president of the WA branch from 1998, and has been a national patron since 2006. He has been involved in many of their campaigns, notably their work in raising awareness about sustainable seafood consumption in 2008, a campaign against shark finning in 2008, and the Protect Ningaloo campaign, since 2018.

In March 2017, Winton was named inaugural patron of the newly established Native Australian Animals Trust, based at the University of Melbourne's School of BioSciences The trust was established to help research and teaching about native animals and their environment.

Other roles in conservation organisations have included:

Advocate, Environmental Defenders Office, current as of 2023

Advocate, Australian Wildlife Conservancy, since 2001

Patron, Murujuga World Heritage Summit, 2018

Patron, Stop the Toad Foundation, 2005–2010

Advocate, Save Ningaloo Reef, 2000–2003

Advocate and co-founder, "Protect Ningaloo"

Patron, Jubilee Australia

Television

In 2023, ABC Television released a three-part documentary series called Ningaloo Nyinggulu, about the Ningaloo reef on the north-western coast of Western Australia. The series was written and narrated by Winton, and produced by Artemis Media and Matter of Factual. It was nominated for an AACTA Award for Best Documentary or Factual Program, and won Innovation Award for Television in the Western Australia Screen Culture Awards as well as Best Natural History or Wildlife program at the Asian TV Awards in Ho Chi Minh City. It is available for viewing on ABC iview.