Disillusioned with her relationship with the local fisherman legend Jim Buckridge, she contrives a meeting with the stranger and soon passion runs out of control between two bruised and emotionally fragile people.

The secret quickly becomes impossible to hide, and Jim wants revenge, whilst the poacher hikes north via Wittenoom (out of respect for his father who died of mesothelioma in the town) and Broome, to an island off the remote coast of Kimberley, beyond Kununurra, so as to escape a confrontation.

"[4] A review by Leigh Mytton on the BBC describes Winton's characterisation as "incisive" that he "intersperses raw and vernacular language with lyrical passages ...

Family dysfunction, loneliness and alcoholism in Winton's part of the world - the harsh, beautiful West Australian coast - are among the elements of this raw, tender and disquieting love story.

"[6] Jules Smith, for the British Council, writes that in Dirt Music Tim Winton, "brings his human and environmental themes together in ways that are always intensely realized and touching".