The Last Whale

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 the path of an explosive harpoon.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

‘Given that whaling seems to be an eternally controversial issue it is a huge compliment to ex-journalist Chris Pash that he has managed to find an objective middle path in this engrossing story of the first Greenpeace campaign in Australia …’ Sydney Morning Herald

‘[Pash] captures the shift in the public mood that made whaling morally unacceptable … Carrying the emotional freight of the story are intriguing characters on both sides such as the Frenchman known as the Phantom …’ The Age

‘A timely reminder of how far we’ve come since the days of routine slaughter of how hard conservationists fought to bring it to an end and how vigilant we must be in making sure that the dark days of whaling are behind us forever.’ Tim Winton

‘… an important contribution to Australian history and to the protection of whales. From a historical perspective it chronicles the people and events which created Greenpeace in Australia and it also seeks to understand the minds and thinking of those who hunted whales in Australia …’ Steve Shallhorn, former CEO Greenpeace Australia Pacific

Officially endorsed by Greenpeace