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Montebello: A Memoir
'Listen to me,' my mother says. 'They've let off an atom bomb today. Right here in W.A. Atom bombs worry the blazes out of me, and I want you at home.'
In the sleepy and conservative 1950s the British began a series of nuclear tests in the Montebello archipelago off the west coast of Australia. Even today, few people know about the three huge atom bombs that were detonated there, but they lodged in the consciousness of the young Robert Drewe and would linger with him for years to come.
In this moving sequel to The Shark Net, and with his characteristic frankness, humour and cinematic imagery, Drewe travels to the Montebellos to visit the territory that has held his imagination since childhood. He soon finds himself overtaken by memories and reflections on his own 'islomania'.
In the aftermath of both man-made and natural events that have left a permanent mark on the Australian landscape and psyche – from nuclear tests and the mining boom to shark attacks along the coast – Drewe examines how comfortable and familiar terrain can quickly become a site of danger, and how regeneration and love can emerge from chaos and loss.
In the sleepy and conservative 1950s the British began a series of nuclear tests in the Montebello archipelago off the west coast of Australia. Even today, few people know about the three huge atom bombs that were detonated there, but they lodged in the consciousness of the young Robert Drewe and would linger with him for years to come.
In this moving sequel to The Shark Net, and with his characteristic frankness, humour and cinematic imagery, Drewe travels to the Montebellos to visit the territory that has held his imagination since childhood. He soon finds himself overtaken by memories and reflections on his own 'islomania'.
In the aftermath of both man-made and natural events that have left a permanent mark on the Australian landscape and psyche – from nuclear tests and the mining boom to shark attacks along the coast – Drewe examines how comfortable and familiar terrain can quickly become a site of danger, and how regeneration and love can emerge from chaos and loss.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
11 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
Robert Drewe
60 books81 followersRobert Drewe is among Australia’s most loved writers – of novels, memoir and short stories. His iconic Australian books include The Shark Net, The Bodysurfers and Our Sunshine. He is also editor of Black Inc.’s Best Australian Stories annual series. Recently, he has revisited the short story himself, with a masterful new collection, The Rip. Jo Case spoke to him for Readings about storytelling.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
September 4, 2013
This was rather episodic- and I prefer stories that develop and go somewhere. Memoirs are not really my favourite, and this did not really have much to say. I could see it as useful for selecting excerpts to torture students with, but otherwise, give it a miss.
March 7, 2020
Drewe is one of my favourite Australian authors & this is another volume of his memoirs. The stories move backwards & forwards through his life but the narrative throughline explores his expedition to the Montebello Island group off Western Australia - the site of English nuclear tests in the 1950s. Fascinating & insightful. If you haven't tried this author he works in both fiction & fact & always provides a nourishing read.
October 1, 2019
Bonus star for WA NW, otherwise not hugely exciting.
March 14, 2024
I enjoyed the historical info about the Islands, the personal story was not my taste in reading material.
March 26, 2013
Montebello has the most compelling of openings. The writer, alone in his house apart from his young daughter, is singing her to sleep. It’s dark, there is a storm, his marriage has recently failed, his daughter is reluctant to doze off. He is alerted by a movement – a snake has slithered into the house. It’s a great archetypal Australian scene, referencing Henry Lawson and Australian rural gothic as a genrte. It arouses both our curiosity and prurient interest. Will he be able to kill the snake? Why has the marriage failed? What else will we find out about Drewe in this memoir?
The opening tells us that he can create a sense of vivid urgency, of empathy and of focus. It promises much more than he delivers in this rambly memoir. He loosely uses the locale of the Montebello Islands to tell us a little more about his life and his cental preoccupations. But the book needed a tough editor – someone who could say to Drewe – “Stay with the Montebellos” or “Enough with the tease about your personal life, because you’re not delivering on that score either.”
I liked the sections about the Montebello Islands where the British carried out nuclear tests in the 50s. I knew nothing of this period (apart from the testing that happened at Maralinga in South Australia) What happened was shocking. The Australians who were part of the tests were given minimal or no advice in terms of protecting themselves against the radioactive fallout. “Turn around and put your fists in your eye sockets” is an example of the advice that some were given as a device was exploded. It’s a timely reminder of the era – of the competition between America and Britain, and of Australian connection to Britain that allowed this kind of thing to happen - so close on the heels of Hiroshima. When at least one of these devices was exploded, the authorities had failed to factor in the westerlies that were prevailing, so the fallout blew west into mainland Australia. Wikipedia says that Queensland towns such as Mount Isa, Julia Creek, Longreach and Rockhampton were contaminated by the fallout from one of the tests.
Drewe was able to visit these islands as part of a team interested in re-populating the islands with birds and animals likely to be impacted by the Gorgon (!) development of gas field within neighbouring islands. We read a little about the team and its interactions but little about the larger picture. This is where the locus of the book should have been, in my view. Once again, the natural environment of this area will be impacted by larger forces, in this case, commercial interests. The politics of the development, along with the Drewe’s interaction with the small band of scientists that he shares accommodation with on the island, would have been a more compelling focus for me.
Drewe instead meanders around aspects of his personal history and current circumstances. We learn a little about an affair he is currently pursuing, but not much of substance. For a memoir, we learn remarkably little about the impact of his three marriages and fatherhood. The compelling beginning fades away. Peter Pierce has written a wide-ranging review of this book, putting it in the context of all of Drewe’s work, and of Australian writing generally. He says “One of the most used of Drewe’s motifs, drowning is also a metaphor for his intuition of what in the human, and particularly the male, condition is most vital. What prompts his deepest reflections is the plight of men who might go under, men from whom the sustaining force of personal and professional structures – such as parents, marriage and career – have been removed.” (http://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/the-as...) This may have been the aim of the memoir. I have to agree with Pierce’s view, however, that: “Drewe’s journey to an archipelago that ‘appear(s) like a maze stuck in the middle of the ocean’ seems both dreamlike and desultory. There is not much to be found there any longer, and neither does he discover much about himself.’
The opening tells us that he can create a sense of vivid urgency, of empathy and of focus. It promises much more than he delivers in this rambly memoir. He loosely uses the locale of the Montebello Islands to tell us a little more about his life and his cental preoccupations. But the book needed a tough editor – someone who could say to Drewe – “Stay with the Montebellos” or “Enough with the tease about your personal life, because you’re not delivering on that score either.”
I liked the sections about the Montebello Islands where the British carried out nuclear tests in the 50s. I knew nothing of this period (apart from the testing that happened at Maralinga in South Australia) What happened was shocking. The Australians who were part of the tests were given minimal or no advice in terms of protecting themselves against the radioactive fallout. “Turn around and put your fists in your eye sockets” is an example of the advice that some were given as a device was exploded. It’s a timely reminder of the era – of the competition between America and Britain, and of Australian connection to Britain that allowed this kind of thing to happen - so close on the heels of Hiroshima. When at least one of these devices was exploded, the authorities had failed to factor in the westerlies that were prevailing, so the fallout blew west into mainland Australia. Wikipedia says that Queensland towns such as Mount Isa, Julia Creek, Longreach and Rockhampton were contaminated by the fallout from one of the tests.
Drewe was able to visit these islands as part of a team interested in re-populating the islands with birds and animals likely to be impacted by the Gorgon (!) development of gas field within neighbouring islands. We read a little about the team and its interactions but little about the larger picture. This is where the locus of the book should have been, in my view. Once again, the natural environment of this area will be impacted by larger forces, in this case, commercial interests. The politics of the development, along with the Drewe’s interaction with the small band of scientists that he shares accommodation with on the island, would have been a more compelling focus for me.
Drewe instead meanders around aspects of his personal history and current circumstances. We learn a little about an affair he is currently pursuing, but not much of substance. For a memoir, we learn remarkably little about the impact of his three marriages and fatherhood. The compelling beginning fades away. Peter Pierce has written a wide-ranging review of this book, putting it in the context of all of Drewe’s work, and of Australian writing generally. He says “One of the most used of Drewe’s motifs, drowning is also a metaphor for his intuition of what in the human, and particularly the male, condition is most vital. What prompts his deepest reflections is the plight of men who might go under, men from whom the sustaining force of personal and professional structures – such as parents, marriage and career – have been removed.” (http://sydneyreviewofbooks.com/the-as...) This may have been the aim of the memoir. I have to agree with Pierce’s view, however, that: “Drewe’s journey to an archipelago that ‘appear(s) like a maze stuck in the middle of the ocean’ seems both dreamlike and desultory. There is not much to be found there any longer, and neither does he discover much about himself.’
January 20, 2016
Montebello is a fascinating book which provides more than a little food for thought. It’s the successor to Robert Drewe’s memoir The Shark Net (which was made into a TV series), and it’s likewise much more than a memoir.
Drewe’s' islomania’ is the launchpad for a collection of anecdotes that link together his experiences on islands off the Western Australian coast. Some anecdotes are humorous, others are nostalgic. From his adolescent discovery of love on Rottnest Island to his reportage of nuclear bomb testing in the Montebello archipelago, he shares his journeys of love and loss, beauty and danger, naïveté and cynicism.
Having visited Rottnest Island twice as a tourist and failed to fully understand why it is so beloved by everyone in Perth, I was pleased to have its secrets revealed at last. Just as Schoolies on Australia’s east coast decamp to the Gold Coast to celebrate their freedom and experiment with all kinds of foolish frivolity, so too do young people in the faraway west, decamping to Rottnest Island during Leavers Week to discover love and lust and who knows what else besides. None of these romantic overtones are obvious to tourists like me who tramp around looking at the historic buildings and the cute little quokkas – because the island is closed to the public while the Leavers have their fun.
I was also most interested to learn about the ferry wars and accompanying sabotage – but was glad I didn’t know about this back then!
But that’s not the only revelation in this intriguing book.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2012/12/13/mo...
Drewe’s' islomania’ is the launchpad for a collection of anecdotes that link together his experiences on islands off the Western Australian coast. Some anecdotes are humorous, others are nostalgic. From his adolescent discovery of love on Rottnest Island to his reportage of nuclear bomb testing in the Montebello archipelago, he shares his journeys of love and loss, beauty and danger, naïveté and cynicism.
Having visited Rottnest Island twice as a tourist and failed to fully understand why it is so beloved by everyone in Perth, I was pleased to have its secrets revealed at last. Just as Schoolies on Australia’s east coast decamp to the Gold Coast to celebrate their freedom and experiment with all kinds of foolish frivolity, so too do young people in the faraway west, decamping to Rottnest Island during Leavers Week to discover love and lust and who knows what else besides. None of these romantic overtones are obvious to tourists like me who tramp around looking at the historic buildings and the cute little quokkas – because the island is closed to the public while the Leavers have their fun.
I was also most interested to learn about the ferry wars and accompanying sabotage – but was glad I didn’t know about this back then!
But that’s not the only revelation in this intriguing book.
To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2012/12/13/mo...
July 15, 2021
I am a fan of Robert Drewe’s short stories and his newspaper columns and I enjoyed some of this book. In general I find his work compelling - probably because I first read it at an impressionable age, or perhaps because I’m from the parts of Western Australia he has claimed as his writing territory. Either way, Drewe is entwined with road-tripping to my grandparents wheatbelt country-town home, which is for me the epitome of childhood joy, so no wonder I am fond of Drewe.
Having read many other works by Drewe, I enjoyed how he tied some of his fictional tales to his own life experiences and fascinations. The anecdotes were humorous, some more interesting than others. The actual trip to Montebello really didn’t capture my interest much though and at times (I know it’s a memoir but..) the writing felt self-indulgent. Drewe touches on his own messy personal circumstances but didn’t really follow through and it kind of made me like him a little less, which was disappointing.
I considered abandoning the book in the middle as it got a bit rambling there for a while, glad I persevered though as it did improve later. A decent read for an already-fan of Drewe, but I think this won’t appeal to the majority of readers. If this is your first Drewe put it back and read The Body Surfers instead, then decide if Drewe is for you.
Having read many other works by Drewe, I enjoyed how he tied some of his fictional tales to his own life experiences and fascinations. The anecdotes were humorous, some more interesting than others. The actual trip to Montebello really didn’t capture my interest much though and at times (I know it’s a memoir but..) the writing felt self-indulgent. Drewe touches on his own messy personal circumstances but didn’t really follow through and it kind of made me like him a little less, which was disappointing.
I considered abandoning the book in the middle as it got a bit rambling there for a while, glad I persevered though as it did improve later. A decent read for an already-fan of Drewe, but I think this won’t appeal to the majority of readers. If this is your first Drewe put it back and read The Body Surfers instead, then decide if Drewe is for you.
November 5, 2012
Robert Drewe looks back over his entire life in this memoir. His memories come lapping in from the present day when he visits islands in the Montebello archipelago off the coast of Western Australia. He is there as a writer accompanying a scientific expedition which is checking on wildlife that has been restored to the island after the atomic tests that were held there in the 1960s.
Drewe is a writer who wears his erudition and his learning lightly. His memories flow like water; they appear conversational, matter-of-fact, full of humorous asides and side-splittingly funny stories like one might hear in truly congenial company over a couple of beers. The humour, the lightness, is accompanied by deeply personal stories of love and loss, both his own and others, and moments of philosophical enquiry such as the questions about humans as animals and just another meal in the giant food chain of life which Drewe has also explored in his fiction.
This book was a relaxing, easy read; it made me laugh and it also made me cry.
Drewe is a writer who wears his erudition and his learning lightly. His memories flow like water; they appear conversational, matter-of-fact, full of humorous asides and side-splittingly funny stories like one might hear in truly congenial company over a couple of beers. The humour, the lightness, is accompanied by deeply personal stories of love and loss, both his own and others, and moments of philosophical enquiry such as the questions about humans as animals and just another meal in the giant food chain of life which Drewe has also explored in his fiction.
This book was a relaxing, easy read; it made me laugh and it also made me cry.
October 11, 2013
I mostly enjoyed Drewe's memoir, although I wanted it to grab me a little more than it did. Nevertheless it was a good read. Lots of references to Perth which I appreciated. I particularly enjoyed his description of accidentally stepping on a small endangered native animal on the Montebellos, a scene full of awkward pathos and humour.
I was also struck by the blind faith shown by the Australian Government of the time in the British nuclear testing program, naïve and very dangerous. It begs the question in present times regarding why should we still be fooling around with nukes, there are too many variables including uninformed governments to do so. Mistakes made with nukes are final and lasting. Drewe's final point seems to fly in the face of wanting to say much the same, as the Montebello's seem to be on the road to recovery. I think Drewe's honest writing style comes to the fore on this point. In my opinion this is the attraction in Drewe's work, he has no pre-ordained conclusion, he allows the subject matter to speak it's own truth.
I was also struck by the blind faith shown by the Australian Government of the time in the British nuclear testing program, naïve and very dangerous. It begs the question in present times regarding why should we still be fooling around with nukes, there are too many variables including uninformed governments to do so. Mistakes made with nukes are final and lasting. Drewe's final point seems to fly in the face of wanting to say much the same, as the Montebello's seem to be on the road to recovery. I think Drewe's honest writing style comes to the fore on this point. In my opinion this is the attraction in Drewe's work, he has no pre-ordained conclusion, he allows the subject matter to speak it's own truth.
November 19, 2013
I wanted to learn about Montebello, and I had hoped that this would be an interesting way to learn about it. It was, sort of, but the vast majority of this book is not about Montebello. Sure, this is a memoir and not a history book, but it failed for me on that count too, as the narrative was disjointed. One chapter did not flow easily to the next, and mostly the transitions were jarring. this was my first Drewe book, and I have been encouraged to read another (such as the Shark Net). I probably will eventually, as I do enjoy reading a bit of Australian literature, which is very rare for me. I didn't hate this book, and Drewe kept me reading, but I am not entirely sure why. He has a light, entertaining style and can be really funny at times, but the narrative was disjointed and fairly self-indulgent. If you enjoy Drewe's other works, perhaps you will enjoy this, but it wasn't for me.
January 26, 2013
I really enjoy Robert Drewe's writing; he is such a good story teller with a very evocative style. This book started promisingly, but I think petered off towards the end as it became more about him and less about the fascinating story of nuclear testing by the British off the coast of Western Australia. This was probably more to do with my expectations rather than any failing of the book (it is, after all, titled 'Montebello: A Memoir'). It is still beautifully written but I didn't enjoy it as much as I have his previous titles.
January 5, 2013
A collection of memories from an Australian author, who began his career as a reporter for The Age and The Australian. His anecdotes include fatal shark attacks, romantic interludes and childhood experiences in various parts of the country. Although the book doesn't flow very well - jumping backwards and forwards between present and past events - the constant thread is the Montebello islands, where nuclear testing occurred decades before. The author accompanies a group of conservation biologists to the islands for a relocation project with endangered species.
March 23, 2016
Supposedly a follow up to his previous memoir, The Shark Net. A lot of stories from The Shark Net appears in this book as Drewe muses over the loss of his long term wife, a possible new love and a voyage to the Montebello Islands where he discusses their use as an atomic bomb test site in the 1950s.
The book reads like he sat down and came up with a set of random memories as he flits between the pass and the current day with no connection between the two.
I was disappointed, as I had liked The Shark Net.
The book reads like he sat down and came up with a set of random memories as he flits between the pass and the current day with no connection between the two.
I was disappointed, as I had liked The Shark Net.
January 24, 2013
A lovely book, bits and pieces of memoir loosely gathered around the theme of islands, and particularly the Western Australian island of Montebello, site of British nuclear tests in the 1950's. There's pieces about love, death, life, literary adventures, sharks, dreams. The book's not as tight and striking as Drewe's previous non-fiction book, the brilliant The Shark Net but it's very readable and enjoyable.
November 1, 2012
At turns anecdotal and historical, aesthetic and hilarious, a companion memoir to The Shark Net focussing on the horror and secrecy of the atomic bomb exploded in the Montebello islands, Western Australia, 1952 resulting in the deaths of many unsuspecting sharks (and dugongs and people eventually); and the shark attacks in WA waters recently resulting in the deaths of many unsuspecting people.
June 2, 2013
More a string of anecdotes than a memoir, but they are very good, well-told anecdotes. The central theme, his visit to the Montebello islands, and their nuclear history, is fascinating. The other theme, which I think I will call 'failed marriages and new beginnings' contains some lovely writing. Other stories, while good enough in themselves, feel like filler.
January 23, 2016
I enjoyed the honesty in this memoir, and the random following of thoughts and information from one topic to the next. As always, it is a pleasure to read about our own territory, and the prose is smooth.
June 16, 2016
After reading 75 pages of the writers meanderings, I put the book down. I had expected to read about the detonation of the British A bombs in the area.
The book appeared to be without an objective.
The book appeared to be without an objective.
December 11, 2012
The book was one tangent after another. While some of them were almost interesting the rest were really random, boring or both.
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April 23, 2013An insight into the development of attitudes as well as individuals in Australia
August 3, 2013
Robert Drewe is one of my favourite Australian authors. Mix life on the coast and raw honesty with great storytelling and what is there not to love?
November 3, 2015
Good read.
Especially enjoyed the parts about Perth and surrounding environments (which is much of the book).
Especially enjoyed the parts about Perth and surrounding environments (which is much of the book).
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews