Distinguished and Famous people from Aireys Inlet and Fairhaven

Around Aireys Inlet and Fairhaven, the coast has provided more than scenery for writers. Two documented Aireys Inlet connections show how local places and community life can find their way into fiction and essays.

📚 Arthur Upfield

Crime novelist Arthur Upfield lived at Aireys Inlet, where the district supplied the setting for The New Shoe, published in 1951. The book belongs to his series featuring detective Napoleon Bonaparte, usually known as Bony. Upfield's local home was Cliff Cottage at Sandy Gully; he expanded it during his time there. The township and lighthouse became material for a mystery, giving the familiar coastal landscape a rather less relaxing role than it plays in most holiday itineraries.

📚 Gregory Day

Aireys Inlet writer Gregory Day has explored the relationship between language and place in both essays and community work. In 2015 he helped develop a Wadawurrung Word of the Week project at Aireys Inlet Primary School, including a song bringing English and Wadawurrung together. His essay The Watergaw won the Nature Conservancy Australia's Nature Writing Prize in 2021. His local association therefore extends from a nationally recognised literary essay to work with the town's children.