Fiction

Tasty yabbies

A novel about Indigenous family

by Julie Janson •

December 2025, no. 482

The Warrumbar by William J. Byrne

UWA Publishing, $34.99 pb, 300 pp

Fiction

Tasty yabbies

A novel about Indigenous family

by Julie Janson •

December 2025, no. 482

Adorning the cover of The Wurrumbar, a début novel by William J. Byrne, is a green and brown yabby, an Australian freshwater crustacean; it emerges from slimy brown water and is at once sinister and potentially delicious. I remember catching them in much the same way as the young protagonist does in the novel, crouching by a clear pond in the bush with some bloody meat in a paper bag ready to tie on to a piece of string and catch a big fat yabby to boil in a billy on a fire. In some ways, this novel captures parts of my life, and for that reason it calls to my heart and no doubt conjures childhood memories for countless older readers.

Julie Janson

Julie is a Burruberongal woman from the Darug Aboriginal nation in NSW. She is a novelist, playwright and poet whose works have won and been shortlisted for numerous awards. Her most recent book, Compassion (2024), was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award 2025 and longlisted for the Voss Literary Award 2025. Madukka the River Serpent (2022) was longlisted for both the Miles Franklin Award 2023 and the Davitt Award 2023. Benevolence (2020) was shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Award 2022, the NIB Award 2020, and the Voss Literary Award 2020. Julie’s poetry has also won numerous awards: she was the co-recipient of the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Prize 2016 and the winner of the Judith Wright Prize 2019. In 2025, she was the runner up in the Gwen Harwood Prize. Her plays include Black Mary (Belvoir St Theatre and SOGOC Festival of the Dreaming, 1997), Gunjies (Belvoir St Theatre, 1993), and The Eyes of Marege (Sydney Opera House, 2007).