Colin Thiele

• Name — Colin Thiele • Honorific Suffix — AC • Birth Name — Colin Milton Thiele • Born — 16 November 1920 • Birthplace — Eudunda, South Australia, Australia • Died — 4 September 2006 • Place of death — Brisbane, Queensland, Australia • Occupation — Novelist, poet, educational writer • Subject — Australian history, Australian biographies • Notable Works — Storm Boy, Blue Fin, Sun on the Stubble, February Dragon, Jodie's Journey

Thiele was born in Eudunda, South Australia, to a Barossa German family. The young Colin only spoke German until he went to school at Julia Creek. He was educated at several country schools including the Eudunda Higher Primary School, and Kapunda High School before studying at the University of Adelaide, graduating in 1941. He later taught in high schools and colleges. He became principal of Wattle Park Teachers College in 1965, principal of Murray Park CAE in 1973, and director of the Wattle Park Teachers Centre until his retirement in 1980. Thiele enlisted in the Australian Army in December 1940, and was posted to the 18th Light Horse (Machine Gun) as a private. He transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in July 1942, serving out the remainder of the war as a corporal posted to Air Defence Headquarters, Higgins Field, at the tip of the Cape York Peninsula. He started teaching at Robertstown South Australia, before war service. His first post war teaching post was Port Lincoln, where he wrote his first book, a geography textbook due to frustration with the available textbooks. Thiele wrote more than 100 books, which often described life in rural Australia, particularly the Eudunda, Barossa Valley, and Murray River/Coorong regions of South Australia. Several of his books have been made into films or television series, including Sun on the Stubble, The Fire in the Stone, Blue Fin and Storm Boy. In 1977, he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, then the second highest level of the order, for his services to literature and education. Thiele suffered from severe arthritis from 1955 and in his later years left South Australia to settle in warmer conditions near Dayboro, Queensland. On 4 September 2006, Thiele died from heart failure in a Brisbane hospital, aged 85. He was survived by his wife, Rhonda, two children, seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Media coverage of his death was minimal, as he died on the same day as Australian conservationist and media personality Steve Irwin.