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Neverland - American and Australian surfers in Byron Bay 1960s & 1970s
Tricia Shantz, author
Dimensions: 244 x 210, portrait, hardcover, 184 pages
Published by Surf Research
Publication Date: August 2022
ISBN 978-0-9871522-3-7
Distribution by: Hardie Grant
Australian Shipping: $15.00 per order
International Shipping: $65.00 per order
Foreword by Simon Baker, award-winning actor and director, a surfer and north coast resident
Neverland is a social history of a surf town –Byron Bay. It is the story of the surfers, American and Australian, who made Byron Bay their home in the 1960s and 1970s. These stories, as told to the author, are of a time in Byron that changed its history forever. Culture wars. Freedom, rebellion, they believed they were going to change the world.
It explains how a backwater NSW slaughterhouse town became the beating heart of Australian counterculture, a crossroads creative Mecca, a world-class surf destination, and one of the planet's most desirable addresses and expensive real estate. If it wasn’t for the American and Australian surfers, Byron Bay may still be an industrial town rather than the cultural destination it has become. They changed Byron Bay town from black and white to colour.
Testimonials
Tricia has successfully woven personal stories of drama and daring into a layered social history of the far north coast seen through the eyes of a community of American and Australian surfers tied through a bond of understanding and respecting a feeling. A feeling born out of the joy we experience playing in the waves, how simple and yet how powerful that connection can be.
Simon Baker, award winning actor and director, a surfer and north coast resident
Byron Bay is rich in stories: something has happened in every corner, behind every tree, on (and under) every blade of grass...and of course in every take-off spot. This book is a treasury of those tales that give Byron its unique living spirit. To read it is to feel that you have been welcomed into a tribe. Malcolm Knox,Australian journalist, author and surfer
It’s fascinating, and I love the first-person style. The book is brilliant.
Sean Doherty, Surfing World magazine November 23, 2022
A strange feeling, something like vertigo, overcomes anyone familiar with the famous Northern Rivers area of NSW upon reading Neverland, Tricia Shantz's sumptuous social history/homage of surfer culture in Byron Bay. Neverland is an insanely enjoyable, albeit bittersweet read.
Steve Shearer, Surf Writer
Neverland is that rarest of combinations in Australian coastal storytelling: Tricia’s serious archival research and scholarship harnessed to the lifelong joy and stoke of the surfers’ great odyssey. More than a ’surf book’ this is a social document of lasting value.
Jock Serong, Australian writer and surfer
Everybody wishes they’d been in Byron before the hype, before it was cool and before the crowds. The people in Neverland were. The picture they paint may not always be pretty but wow, it’s one hell of story.
Mark Bannerman, ABC journalist
Evocative images combined with the recollections of surfers captures the unique vibe and spirit of the days.
Fiona Capp, Book Reviewer, Spectrum Sydney Morning Herald
The true history of Byron Bay revealed… surfers seeking swells.
Rob Hirst, Midnight Oil drummer
About the author
Tricia Shantz is a social geographer, research consultant, and author who works and lives in Byron Bay, Australia. She is committed to knowing the environmental and social construct of her community.
Tricia co-wrote and published her first two books with Rusty Miller: Turning Point Surf Portraits and Stories from Bells to Byron 1970 - 1971 in 2012 and Turning Point II Surf Portraits and Stories Hawaii: Oahu-Kauai-Maui 1968-1972 in 2014.
A third book, No Fixed Abode; Stories from the streets around Byron Bay in 2017, was in association with the Byron Bay Community Centre and Byron Writers Festival. Neverland. American and Australian surfers in Byron Bay 1960s and 1970s was published in 2022 with a re-print in 2024.
She co-publishes and edits the Rusty’s Byron Guide magazine about people, politics and culture.
Musicland. When the Music Came to Byron 1970-1995 is her most recent book.
Tricia Shantz, author
Dimensions: 244 x 210, portrait, hardcover, 184 pages
Published by Surf Research
Publication Date: August 2022
ISBN 978-0-9871522-3-7
Distribution by: Hardie Grant
Australian Shipping: $15.00 per order
International Shipping: $65.00 per order
Foreword by Simon Baker, award-winning actor and director, a surfer and north coast resident
Neverland is a social history of a surf town –Byron Bay. It is the story of the surfers, American and Australian, who made Byron Bay their home in the 1960s and 1970s. These stories, as told to the author, are of a time in Byron that changed its history forever. Culture wars. Freedom, rebellion, they believed they were going to change the world.
It explains how a backwater NSW slaughterhouse town became the beating heart of Australian counterculture, a crossroads creative Mecca, a world-class surf destination, and one of the planet's most desirable addresses and expensive real estate. If it wasn’t for the American and Australian surfers, Byron Bay may still be an industrial town rather than the cultural destination it has become. They changed Byron Bay town from black and white to colour.
Testimonials
Tricia has successfully woven personal stories of drama and daring into a layered social history of the far north coast seen through the eyes of a community of American and Australian surfers tied through a bond of understanding and respecting a feeling. A feeling born out of the joy we experience playing in the waves, how simple and yet how powerful that connection can be.
Simon Baker, award winning actor and director, a surfer and north coast resident
Byron Bay is rich in stories: something has happened in every corner, behind every tree, on (and under) every blade of grass...and of course in every take-off spot. This book is a treasury of those tales that give Byron its unique living spirit. To read it is to feel that you have been welcomed into a tribe. Malcolm Knox,Australian journalist, author and surfer
It’s fascinating, and I love the first-person style. The book is brilliant.
Sean Doherty, Surfing World magazine November 23, 2022
A strange feeling, something like vertigo, overcomes anyone familiar with the famous Northern Rivers area of NSW upon reading Neverland, Tricia Shantz's sumptuous social history/homage of surfer culture in Byron Bay. Neverland is an insanely enjoyable, albeit bittersweet read.
Steve Shearer, Surf Writer
Neverland is that rarest of combinations in Australian coastal storytelling: Tricia’s serious archival research and scholarship harnessed to the lifelong joy and stoke of the surfers’ great odyssey. More than a ’surf book’ this is a social document of lasting value.
Jock Serong, Australian writer and surfer
Everybody wishes they’d been in Byron before the hype, before it was cool and before the crowds. The people in Neverland were. The picture they paint may not always be pretty but wow, it’s one hell of story.
Mark Bannerman, ABC journalist
Evocative images combined with the recollections of surfers captures the unique vibe and spirit of the days.
Fiona Capp, Book Reviewer, Spectrum Sydney Morning Herald
The true history of Byron Bay revealed… surfers seeking swells.
Rob Hirst, Midnight Oil drummer
About the author
Tricia Shantz is a social geographer, research consultant, and author who works and lives in Byron Bay, Australia. She is committed to knowing the environmental and social construct of her community.
Tricia co-wrote and published her first two books with Rusty Miller: Turning Point Surf Portraits and Stories from Bells to Byron 1970 - 1971 in 2012 and Turning Point II Surf Portraits and Stories Hawaii: Oahu-Kauai-Maui 1968-1972 in 2014.
A third book, No Fixed Abode; Stories from the streets around Byron Bay in 2017, was in association with the Byron Bay Community Centre and Byron Writers Festival. Neverland. American and Australian surfers in Byron Bay 1960s and 1970s was published in 2022 with a re-print in 2024.
She co-publishes and edits the Rusty’s Byron Guide magazine about people, politics and culture.
Musicland. When the Music Came to Byron 1970-1995 is her most recent book.