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Northern Rivers Gothic, Ballina: A Seacoast Suite on Sharks, Shipwrecks, and the Sea
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Northern Rivers Gothic, Ballina: A Seacoast Suite on Sharks, Shipwrecks, and the Sea

Lynda Hawryluk
Gothic in the Oceanic South: Maritime, Marine and Aquatic Uncanny in Southern Waters, pp.120-133
Routledge, First edition
2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003282716-9
Appears in  Recent Faculty of Education Publications

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Abstract

The emerging genre known as Australian coastal Gothic writing (Hawryluk, "Exploring") describes a place with underlying Gothic tones. This paper continues research into Australian coastal Gothic writing, by using the history and ecology of the town of Ballina to create new work derived from the landscape and its influence on the town and its relationship to the sea. A seacoast suite of creative nonfiction poetry has been written, using evocative photographs of the coastal landscape as creative inspiration. A process of ekphrasis, focused on describing the landscape depicted in the photographs, weaves in historical knowledge and the experience of place evoked by visiting the location. The resulting poems demonstrates the Gothic elements extant in Ballina's landscape. The story of this landscape and townspeople are used to create examples of a very particular sub-genre within the body of work known as Australian coastal Gothic writing: Northern Rivers Gothic. The creative writing sits amongst a historical snapshot of Ballina's Gothic past and present. The poems demonstrate ongoing creative practice inspired by the Northern Rivers landscape, informed by research into the ecological, socio-cultural, and historical background of the region, particularly the experience of those who live by, in, and on the sea.

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