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The Last Whale

by Chris Pash (Goodreads Author)

4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 · rating details · 26 ratings · 10 reviews

At the end of the 1970s, one young reporter bears witness to the final days of Australia’s whaling industry. Thirty years after the last whale was captured and slaughtered in Australia, this incisive account tells the very human story of the characters and events that brought whaling to an end. This fair and balanced account portrays the raw adventure of going to sea, the...more

Paperback, 240 pages

Published September 1st 2008 by Fremantle Press (first published January 1st 2008)

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Jan 16, 2011 Sean Kennedy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Albany, in the southwest of Western Australia, is one of my favourite places in the world. It has a beautiful coastline that lends itself to sheer romanticism, and the fact that it has a history of whaling no doubt plays into that. It was also the site of the last whaling station in Australia, closed for both financial and societal reasons at the end of the seventies. This book gives quite a balanced view of the people involved in the fight both for and against whaling. The people of Albany took...more

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Nov 01, 2008 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars · (Review from the author) Recommends it for: all

Recommended to Chris by: me

It’s the end of the seventies and one young reporter is bearing witness to the final days of Australia’s whaling industry.

Thirty years after the last whale was captured and slaughtered in Australia, Chris Pash, tells the very human story of the characters and events that brought whaling to an end.

This fair and balanced account portrays the raw adventure of going to sea, the perils of being a whaler and the ‘crazy, but somehow magical’ commitment that leads activists to throw themselves into th...more

2 likes · like · see review

Nov 10, 2010 Stephanie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, mainstream

Holidaying south of Perth last year, I visited a lighthouse that had once run on whale oil, a clean and bright burning oil that was a popular choice for illumination at the time. While such lamps clearly no longer rely on animal sources for fuel, it's surprising to realise for just how long whaling persevered in Australia. Western Australia is known for its remote towns and cities, and perhaps it's this very remoteness that led to the general lack of awareness among Australians that whaling was...more Holidaying south of Perth last year, I visited a lighthouse that had once run on whale oil, a clean and bright burning oil that was a popular choice for illumination at the time. While such lamps clearly no longer rely on animal sources for fuel, it's surprising to realise for just how long whaling persevered in Australia. Western Australia is known for its remote towns and cities, and perhaps it's this very remoteness that led to the general lack of awareness among Australians that whaling was still alive and well in the small portside town of Albany until the late 1970s. The last whale killed by Australians, in fact, was in 1978, many years after other western countries desisted from such approaches, and it's a sad fact that our tardiness in taking a stand is echoed throughout many other social and environmental issues. Unlawful whaling, however, remains an issue in and near Australian waters, and Chris Pash's The Last Whale is a timely reminder of the issues and constructed norms surrounding such an occupation.

Pash was a young reporter in working in Albany in the mid-to-late 1970s, a time during which Australian and international activists took interest in the whaling that continued to take place off Australia's western coast and began sustained and comprehensive efforts to raise awareness about these practices on both a social and political level. Curiously, Australia's laissez faire perspective towards whaling was apparently less to do with general public attitudes and more to do with the fact that few people were aware that whaling was still taking place at all in Australia. As such, the activists, who together formed what was to become Greenpeace's first direct action, met with a fairly receptive audience in doing so. Receptive, of course, except for those whose livelihoods depended upon continuing current whaling practices.

Pash recounts the events that led from sudden piqued activist interest in whaling in 1977 to its eventual outlawing in 1978 from multiple perspectives, weaving together a narrative that takes into account a vast number of actors and participants in this scenario. It's a surprisingly balanced approach given what is ultimately quite an emotional issue, and Pash elucidates the key perspectives with unemotional matter-of-factness. We hear of how the various activists came to trek across Australia to Albany, collecting in the sleepy town and raising media and political awareness; we are also taken on board the whaling boats to face the day-to-day lives of men struggling to earn a living in the face of Soviet poachers, watching them battle the elements and the gruelling existence that can comprise life at sea. We shift from time to time to bit players, such as Malcolm Frazer's then young daughter Phoebe, whose avid interest in whaling due to a school project helped shift the slowly snowballing awareness of whaling into the public sphere.

This isn't, though, an attack on whalers and whaling. Pash rather spends time examining the motives and the lives of those on both sides of the battle, and rather movingly addresses the issue of unemployment and loss of personal identity that occurred amongst the whalers of Albany once whaling operations were shut down. Interestingly, we're given an activist's words to explain the feelings of the whalers, and these words highlight the need to not simply make something verboten and shift direction without warning, but rather the need to put in place a series of checks, balances, and alternatives. Albany, as a result of this sudden shift in industry, was left to flounder and flail, and while some efforts were made to provide the newly unemployed residents with work alternatives, these were typically undesirable positions that were frequently turned down.

The Last Whale is a moving and thoughtful account of the history and context of wailing in Australia, but readers should note that Pash's background as a journalist is clearly evident in its pages, and that the prose is subsequently rather flat and workmanlike. The book itself also feels rather like a series of stitched together feature articles, with one from each major perspective, and progresses a little unevenly as a result. If you're after astonishing prose and a beautifully wrought anthropological and ecological account of a similar issue, you may wish to try John Vaillant's stunning book The Tiger instead, but if you're likely to be satisfied with a thoughtful, factual account of whaling in Australia, The Last Whale will be more than adequate for most readers.
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Aug 14, 2012 JusMe rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

I don't normally read this genre and I am so glad that I did. I am in awe of the Last Whale, a real eye opener. Reading The Last Whale was a history lesson, I had no idea that we here in Australia at one time hunted whales. These beautiful creatures of the deep how can anyone want to hurt or destroy them.

"Humpback whaling stopped in 1963. The whales had been overfished to the point of near extinction."

"The whale rolled on its side and peered at Jean-Paul. Whatever he saw in those eyes, it convin...more

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Oct 22, 2009 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars

It never fails that when my five year-old borrows a book from his school’s library it’s about whales or dolphins. Feeding the belugas and watching the orcas at Canada’s Marineland was the highlight of our family vacation. So when I had the opportunity to review The Last Whale by Chris Pash, I was thrilled.

The minute I began reading it, I had flashbacks of the movie Free Willy 3: The Rescue, where whalers illegally hunted killer whales. The Last Whale, though, is the incredible story of how whali...more It never fails that when my five year-old borrows a book from his school’s library it’s about whales or dolphins. Feeding the belugas and watching the orcas at Canada’s Marineland was the highlight of our family vacation. So when I had the opportunity to review The Last Whale by Chris Pash, I was thrilled.

The minute I began reading it, I had flashbacks of the movie Free Willy 3: The Rescue, where whalers illegally hunted killer whales. The Last Whale, though, is the incredible story of how whaling came to an end in Australia, the last of the English-speaking countries to do so in 1978. The author says he was a pimply reporter at the time (1977), when activists launched Greenpeace’s first direct action in Australia. This small group of men and women risked their lives as they daily went out in open dinghies (Zodiacs), and became a human shield between the whales and the towering steel ships. They braved the rough Southern Ocean, the blistering sun, flying harpoons, and endless hours miles away from land in water that was also home to great white sharks. The threat of their appearance was real every time a whale was killed and its blood spilled.

What I loved most about this well-told story was that the author gave us a detailed account relating not only the actions and feelings of the anti-whaling activists, but also the fears, motives and actions of the whalers. We get a chance to know their story and their history as some of the whalers learned their trade from their fathers who in turn learned from their fathers. It is a story about Albany, the town where it all took place, whose port is one of the five largest in the world, and the unemployment rate one of the highest in Australia. The struggle they all faced with the ethical issue of whether it is right or wrong to hunt whales was clear, and it needed to be addressed. The world took notice, and the small band of activists soon had many allies.

Although the book is a non-fiction account, it reads like a novel thanks to Pash’s writing skills. I felt I was in Western Australia in the seventies watching the fight unfold before me. The black and white photographs add drama to the account as we could see exactly what a whale chaser looked like with a loaded harpoon gun at its helm, or the upclose face shot of The Phantom—as one of the leading activists was known—as he sits in the open seas with a chaser seen clearly behind him. And the book’s cover is so attractive. It led me to really want to read this account. By the end of the book, I wanted to meet some of these interesting folk, both from the activist and whaler groups.

I highly recommend this book to conservation groups, whale and animal lovers, activists, journalists, and just about anyone who loves happy endings. It is an inspiring tale. One that will surely come to mind when next summer I visit Tadoussac in my own province of Quebec, where the mouth of the St-Lawrence River opens invitingly to welcome back the migrating whales—those beautiful ocean creatures that fascinate both young and old alike.

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Apr 20, 2010 MelbourneWriters Festival marked it as to-read

Since coming across @TheLastWhale on Twitter, our social media intern can't wait for an opportunity to throw her textbooks aside and get her hands on a copy of this book.

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May 11, 2010 Helene Young added it

I wish I'd read The Last Whale before we stayed in Albany...

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Jun 26, 2009 Amanda Curtin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Creative non-fiction at its best.

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May 22, 2010 Robyn Mundy rated it 4 of 5 stars

An historical turning point in Australia's whaling industry, chronicled by a local writer who saw the battle play out between conservationists and Albany's staunch whaling community. Well done, Chris Pash. The successful push to stop whaling led to the formalisation of Greenpeace in Australia.

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Nov 16, 2012 Andrew Thelander rated it 4 of 5 stars

A well-crafted and interesting account of the campaign to end whaling in Australia. Pash has gone beyond the stereotypes and looked at the people on both sides - people who it seems with the passing of time now stand united in their admiration of whales. A good reminder that people usually have more in common than they care to admit in the heat of battle!

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Mar 14, 2012 Trish rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, western-australian

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About Chris Pash

Reads everything including the back of the cereal packet: science fiction; La detective genre; history; biography ...
Chris Pash's creative nonfiction book, The Last Whale, about the Save the Whale campaign in the 1970s, was published by Fremantle Press in October 2008. He also writes the Cliché of the Week column for the media section of The Australian newspaper. He is currently working on a biogr...more

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