Whale of a Time

Albany, the site of Australia's last whaling station, defined itself in the 1970s by the whales it hunted. The sticker above was collected by Aline Charney Barber while taking direct action against the Cheynes Beach Whaling Company in 1977.

Extract from the as yet unpublished book, The Last Whale:

"Aline Charney noted the town used the whale to define itself. A whale of a town. A whale of a radio station. The whale was a symbol and yet they were killing the whales. They loved the image but were killing the real thing. The contradiction got to her.

"The locals liked the connection to whales. Whaling had been important to Albany since it was founded in 1826. Whaling ships would call in to Albany for provisions and the first local whaling was done from Middleton Beach in 1833 near where the anti-whaling protesters set up their headquarters.

"Love’s Bus Service, the local tour operator, ran four trips to the station each week during the whaling season. Tourists asked for the tour, the bus operator’s most popular, and expressed their displeasure if there were no whales on the flensing deck. The biggest disappointment for tourists was that the whaling station was closed over summer when most people holidayed in Albany. Eight out of ten people coming through the doors of the Albany Tourist Bureau asked for information about the whaling station. The 181,000 tourists visiting Albany in 1977 spent $7.6 million."