The Death of a Wombat

by Ivan Smith

The Death of a Wombat was written as a radio documentary and has now been broadcast in several countries. I have been very interested in individual reactions to it.

62 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Ivan Smith completed an Arts undergraduate degree and a postgraduate degree in Modern Literature in Perth, Western Australia. He worked for two years for United Nations Radio in New York, commentating on meetings of the General Assembly and the Security Council. He then became an editor, then Features Writer-Producer with the ABC in the United States of America. On his return to Australia he became known as a radio writer and director, and later a screen writer and director.

Reviews

[Elise McCune · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Death of a Wombat is a masterpiece IMHO. It is beautiful, sad, and hopeful all at the same time. Beautifully written, sad because of the death and destruction that bushfires cause and hopeful because the animals themselves never giving up trying to survive. The slow and lumbering wombat who lives a simple and quiet life follows his instincts and heads for the river with small fires already burning in his fur. He is so close but far too slow with his lumbering walk. The river in the end soothes his pain and he drifts down and drowns not really knowing what has happened. (not a spoiler because of the title of the book). All because someone dropped a bottle in the bush that glinted in the sun, finally shattering, causing an unstoppable fire.

I loved this book!

A five star book.

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a picture book I was not expecting something as upsetting and emotional as this. Reader be warned - only share with kids who are ready for it and it may impact Aussie kids who experienced the 2019 bushfires negatively.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking. I have read this book to hundreds of children in my classes, and I always struggled to compose myself at the end.

[Magpie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Devastating 😢😢😢

[Sam]

I remember having this book read to me in a classroom when I was about seven years old, and only just managed to find the title. It's haunted me ever since!

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book when I lived in a small town in Victoria, Australia. It touched me so much I brought it back here in the late 70s. I pulled it out & dusted it off after hearing about the horrific fires in Australia this past month. It is a simple story, written to be allegorical, but the environmental message seemed most urgent. A tossed bottle ignites a wildfire under the harsh summer sun... and it spreads. The story is told at the level of the wild animals, how they meet the fire, how they are condemned be the fire. Starkly beautiful artwork of the fire and its aftermath made the story more personal for me.

[Simon Bendle · Rating 3 out of 5]

When a manmade fire sweeps through the Australian bush, birds and animals panic. Kangaroos flee. Koalas cling stupidly to trees. Dingoes turn and race towards the flames. We find ourselves rooting for a humble wombat as he tries desperately to reach the safety of a lake, waddling as fast as he can manage on “short, stubbed legs” as the racing fire bears down. The Death of a Wombat is a simple, imaginative and unusual little story. It’s also strangely touching. As the author says, “Everything likes a waddler.”

[Wade]

An eco-fable about our response to the (at the time of writing) looming environmental catastrophe. The responses of different australian animals to a wildfire that sweeps across the bush can be read as parables of how we might respond to man-made environmental threats such as pollution: turn and face them, laconically ignore them, or carry on and hope for the best. Not a children's book, per se, and will probably not be enjoyed by readers of the Muddleheaded Wombat or Angela McAllister's wombat books.

[Heather]

I'm not sure how to rate this. It was well done, but jeez what a thing to come across as a child in the bookmobile!