Beaches then, especially those located near coastal towns (as opposed to those that are isolated or less accessible), can be considered part of the everyday fabric of the community. And while perhaps lacking the singular, striking image of Uluru, Australian beaches do regularly feature in iconic tourism imagery. Therefore, although the outback is regularly considered a marker of Australian identity, many Australians are more familiar with a coastal landscape. However, most of the Australian population are actually coast dwellers, densely concentrated along the eastern coast and some parts of the western coast.
One of the first images associated with Australia is Uluru, the enormous monolith in the outback that dwarfs everything around it. Keywords: Memoir - creative writing - life writing - Robert Drewe - Tim Winton - Australian beaches - coast - landscape The Australian coast acts as both a space of awe and solace in Winton’s work while being inevitably intertwined in ‘memories and murder’ in the memoirs of Drewe. By investigating these two authors’ works of memoir - both bound by their ongoing appreciation and inspiration of Australian landscape - this article examines how these coastal memoirs reveal how landscape can represent notions of national identity. Both authors make clear that these works are inspired by their relationship with landscape - particularly coastal landscapes on the western coast of Australia. Winton and Drewe have written five memoirs between them, ranging from 1993 to 2016. This is also apparent in their fiction in which characters use the beach as a touchstone or comfort. Both are from Western Australia and both are fascinated and influenced by the coastal landscape. In this article, I explore two examples of writers who have been inspired - openly and explicitly - by the beach: Tim Winton and Robert Drewe. Interestingly, in the case of two prominent Australian authors, the memoir allows for a passionate investigation of landscape and how it permeates through their lives and their writing. Memoir often reveals much about a writer: their childhood, their memories, their motivations to pursue their chosen career pathway. The inclusion of memoir in an experienced author’s oeuvre is interesting although not uncommon.
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