austoryplace

Yr 7F Jindalee State School :

2011-10-13T13:31:00.002+10:00

2011 was an exciting year for the Year 7 classes at Jindalee State School because they all went together on a camp to Tallebudgera on the Gold Coast.

When they got out of the bus they could see lots of buildings and some had work being done on them. On the far side of the camp was the ocean with the surf rolling into the beach and on the other side there was Tallebudgera Creek.

As they looked across the creek they could see the scrub rolling up to the top of Burleigh Heads National Park.

One of the teachers, Mrs Foxcraft, said, "Students, welcome to Tallebudgera Camp. In a minute I'm going to be introducing you to one of the camp instructors. While you are at Tallebudgera, one of the rules is - anytime one of the instructors asks you to do something, you do what they say. Is that clear?"

"Yes Mrs Foxcraft."

"Good now your luggage is off the bus so I want you to grab your bags and file past me. I will give you a cabin tag. That is the cabin you'll be sleeping in. So take your luggage to your cabin and make up your bunk. I would like everyone back here in 10 minutes to meet Bob."

So that's what they did, grabbed their suitcases, grabbed their tags and off they went. The cabins held up to seven students. There were three double bunks and one single bunk. Most of the cabins worked it out quite peacefully but in one of the girls cabins, a fight broke out.

Mrs Foxcraft heard a scream. She went running down to the cabin and when she arrived there were two girls screaming at each other.

"I'm not going on the top bunk!"

"Yes, you are!"

"Girls. Stop fighting please. We've only been here 10 minutes." She closed her eyes, spun around three times and the girl she was pointing at got to sleep on the top bunk. She left the cabin to check on the rest of them.

When the students got up to the assembly area though, the instructors were there but the teacher wasn't. Everyone was looking around but they couldn't see her anywhere so they sat down and waited. After a few minutes, one of the instructors came over and said, "Your teacher did say, she would be back here didn't she?"

One girl said, "Yes. She said she was going to introduce you. Oh my name's Carla by the way."

The instructor said, "Oh my name's Bob. You can call me Mr Singer."

Bob said, "Look can one of you volunteer to go down to the teachers' cabin and see if she is there?"

The school captain said, "I'll do that."

He jumped up and ran down to the teachers' cabin and knocked on the door. There was no answer. He knocked again but there was no answer. He was just about to go back when he saw something at the foot of the steps. He bent over and picked up the teacher's name tag and realised that it was partly cracked.

He ran back and said to the instructor, "She's not there but I found her name tag at the bottom of the steps."

Bob said, "Ah, that sounds a bit serious. Everyone wait here. I'll go and make an announcement over the PA system. She might be in hearing. She might have just lost her tag and someone stood on it."

Bob walked into the hall and into the office and they heard over the PA. "Attention, attention, we're looking for Mrs Foxcraft. If Mrs Foxcraft can hear this can you come to assembly please. We're outside near the main hall."

The students listened but there was just silence apart from the traffic on the main road. They could hear the waves crashing onto the beach.

Bob tried again, "Mrs Foxcraft are you within the camp area? If anyone sees Mrs Foxcraft ask her to come to the assembly area please."

He walked back out and said, "No sign of her eh?"

Students and teachers said, "No."

Bob said, 'We'd better organise a search and I think I'll call the police just in case."

Well pretty soon the students were organised into search parties with a teacher or an instructor with each group of students. First of all they looked around the camp area.

Just then the two girls that had been fighting came out of a cabin and said, "What's happening?"

"We're looking for Mrs Foxcraft. She's disappeared. We've found her badge."

They said, "That's strange. We were just getting over our fight and we didn't come up to assembly but we did hear something."

"What did it sound like?"

"It was like glass breaking or something."

Bob said, "Oh, we'd better check all the windows. Can everyone run around all the windows and see if any are broken. Come straight back here."

"There's no windows broken anywhere."

Bob scratched his head and looked down at his feet and realised that there was broken pieces of glass on the grass. He bent down and picked some up.

One of the students said, "That looks like it could be from Mrs Foxcraft's glasses."

Five steps away they found the broken frames of her glasses and some scuff marks on the ground.

"She must have been grabbed and swung around and her glasses fell off. I think she was dragged away. They went that way," said a student pointing towards Tallebudgera Creek.

They stood looking but the silence was broken by the strident shreak of a police siren and they turned and looked as two police vehicles pulled up in the car park.

Four police officers were quickly out of the cars and one opened up the back of the ute and let out a big, black labrador police dog. They walked over and the instructor said, "It's a bit suspicious. One of the teachers is missing after she said she would be here at assembly. When we organised a search we found these."

He held up the broken glasses and pointed to the scuff marks.

One of the police officers said, "Right we'll see what we can find."

They brought the dog over so he could sniff at the broken glasses. The dog sniffed, barked and went bounding over the sand towards Tallebudgera Creek. The police officer called out, "Burlo. Burlo."

But the dog just jumped into Tallebudgera Creek and started swimming towards the other side.

One of the students said, "Hey, he's swimming towards Burleigh Heads."

"Come back you stupid dog." But the dog kept swimming.

Everyone started to run along the creek and across the bridge to the other side of the creek. They ran along the track towards where the dog had disappeared.

"Burlo, Burlo, Here boy."

"Oh where's that dog gone?"

They heard him barking in the scrub and went running along the track towards the sounds. Past the scrub turkey's mound and around the corner towards the big, black basalt columns.

Well that's as far as we completed the story in our story creation session. The year sevens have agreed to finish it off for us. Come back next week to read the rest of the story.

'Oh that flood!'

2011-10-10T21:17:00.001+10:00

Centenary State High School is located in the middle of Jindalee, and is sandwiched between 4 streets; Jarup, Curragundi, Moolanda and Yallambee. It is built on a hill, which can make travelling around the school tedious and tiring, however it did that the area was not subject to flooding during the Brisbane floods of January 2011. Jindalee State School on the other hand was heavily flooded, particularly one block. It was decided by the Principals of both Centenary High and Jindalee State School that the year 7s at the state school would be housed at Centenary for the first 8 weeks of the school year while the flooding was dealt with.

I saw a small blond girl near the tuckshop. She was wearing a yellow and blue shirt with a large sun on the left side of her chest that said ‘Jindalee State School’. She appeared to be nervous. I came across to her and said, “Are you okay?” She shrugged and said, “I feel a little out of place, but I’m okay”. She then shuffled off silently and sat on a patch of grass. I noticed that she had assumed a cowering position by sitting down and hugging her knees. Her eyes were darting from left to right and back again, and her lip was quivering.

I realised that she seemed anything but okay. I went over to her again. I bent down and patted her on the back, and asked her again, “Are you sure you’re okay? All of a sudden the small girl jumped up and screamed in my face, “Don’t touch me!” She waved her hands around like a lunatic, and before I knew it, she slammed a meat pie from the tuckshop straight into my face. She then said sighing, “Oh that flood!”

I was confused, why would that small nervous girl shove a pie into my face? The pie dripped slowly off of my face and onto the grass. The girl suddenly burst out crying and ran away into a toilet saying the word “Flood”, over and over again. I then remembered what she had said before. “Oh that flood!” What does that mean? It must be something to do with the floods earlier this year, but what? I then saw the girl walking out of the toilet, body quivering with red teary eyes. I was about to approach when she saw me and ran off to another block. The bell rang and I knew that I had to ask her after class what she meant about the floods.

Once class was over I raced down to the block where I saw the girl running to earlier which was the English block. I found her coming out of one of the classrooms head down, looking forlorn. I approached her and before she could do anything, I began steering her away from the rest of her class back to the tuckshop. Once we got there I asked her as gently as I could what she meant when she said “oh that flood!” and suddenly, the girl’s face had a faraway and distant look to it and for once she didn’t run away but instead, she launched into a story.

“It was a day that wouldn’t stop raining. It was the Christmas holidays so we didn’t have to go to school. It had been raining nearly every day but not as bad as that day. I never liked rain so I stayed inside watching movies, huddled on the couch, not wanting to go outside at all. Suddenly thunder rumbled and lighting struck so I buried my head into the couch because I hated storms more than I hated rain. But this was no ordinary storm. As the storm violently continued on, a strange noise started ringing in the house. It sounded like a creepy wind gust that had an eerie feel to it. I was curious so I ventured off the couch to discover where the noise was coming from. After looking through a few rooms I found that the noise was coming from my bedroom. But when I opened my bedroom door I got the biggest shock of my life!

Dozens of lit candles were floating in my room. They provided the only light from the pitch black bedroom. There was a mini storm of lightning, rain and thunder pouring down from my ceiling which created a mini flood on my carpeted floor. I was so scared and shocked that I went to leave the room when I realised that the door was somehow locked and I was stuck in there. I screamed my head off for help but I then realised that my dad was working and that my mum had gone out grocery shopping. I was helpless!

I didn’t know what to do and then I saw some writing on the wall in the colour red that said, “You have been warned from this storm. Much pain and loss will come your way!” I wept and wept. Those very frightening words reminded me of a story an old man was telling me when my parents and I moved into this house a few years ago. Apparently someone died here in this house before us and his spirit still lives in the house, creating weather like no other. My parents told me it was just a silly old ghost story and I believed them until now.

Between sobs and screams for help my parents arrived home and rushed into my room which suddenly turned back to normal. They started asking me what was wrong, but I couldn’t speak so they comforted me and gave me a glass of water; none of which helped. Not late after that, the floods occurred and we had to evacuate. We stayed at a friend’s house and helped clean up the neighbourhood after the wrath of the floods finished. But I still couldn’t stop thinking about what happened in my bedroom. Our house was destroyed which was devastating but we soon enough bought a new house a few streets down from our old one. Whenever I walk by the remains of my old house I can always see a faint glow of a candle hovering within the rubble.”

I was shocked beyond belief. Was this girl telling me the truth? She seems genuine, so I comforted her and this time she took my sympathy with gratitude and we soon enough became friends. But even to this day I have never stopped thinking about that story and how there always seemed to be a faint glow of a candle at that girl’s old house.

co-created by
Mikala Crawley
Year 8
Centenary State High School

as part of the CLASS Project
with Daryll Bellingham
(the first 3 paras of the story were created in a group improvisation with the Year 8's)

Story Starters

2011-10-05T20:34:00.000+10:00

It's good to keep narrative structure (character, setting, problem, resolution) in mind when you are starting a story.

Here are some settings that also suggest problems. See if you can create a story with one of these ideas as your story start.

Brisbane River Flood - Jan 2011

Who left the umbrella? What happened to him/her? What happened inside this house?

Children's play equipment in the river. How? Why? What happened?

Storms and Cyclones


Tree brought down by Cyclone Yasi

What were they doing out in that storm?

Anecdotes & Tall Stories at Centenary High

2011-10-05T15:13:00.003+10:00

Spent the day at Centenary High today with Year 10's, Year 8's and Year 11's.

We were working with anecdotes with the 10's and 11's and tall stories with the year 8's.

Anecdotes are a bit challenging for high school students because they are basically personal stories. Still my 'All the People Who ' game comes in handy.

Tall Stories are related of course. Often the start of a tall story is an anecdote. Worked with the year 8s to do the start of a tall story set in Jindalee. Here's the start. They have to finish it off.

Centenary State High School is located in the middle of Jindalee, and is sandwiched between 4 streets; Jarup, Curragundi, Moolanda and Yallambee. It is built on a hill, which can make travelling around the school tedious and tiring, however it did mean that the area was not subject to flooding during the Brisbane floods of January 2011.

Jindalee State School on the other hand was heavily flooded, particularly one block. It was decided by the Principals of both Centenary High and Jindalee State School that the year 7s at the state school would be housed at Centenary for the first 8 weeks of the school year while the flooding was dealt with.

One morning I saw a small blond girl near the tuckshop. She was wearing a yellow and blue shirt with a large sun on the left side of her chest that said ‘Jindalee State School’. She appeared to be nervous.

I came across to her and said, “Are you okay?”

She shrugged and said, “I feel a little out of place, but I’m okay”. She then shuffled off silently and sat on a patch of grass.

I noticed that she had assumed a cowering position by sitting down and hugging her knees. Her eyes were darting from left to right and back again, and her lip was quivering.

I realised that she seemed anything but okay. I went over to her again. I bent down and patted her on the back, and asked her again, “Are you sure you’re okay?”

All of a sudden, the small girl jumped up and screamed in my face, “Don’t touch me!” She waved her hands around like tree branches in a storm, and, before I knew it, she slammed a meat pie from the tuckshop straight into my face.
................

I got an email today with a Year 8 story in it. Mikala has finished the story off. Here it is.

Gindie Silos

2011-10-04T21:16:00.004+10:00

A little over 10 years ago in 2001, I was invited to take part in a Writers in Residence project in Springsure. Along with a number of writers, poets, illustrators and publishers I was flown up to Emerald and then driven down to Springsure. I spent most of the week working in two schools in Springsure itself.

I enjoy both telling and creating stories with students and Springsure was no exception. Of all the stories that we created then, there are two that I still regularly tell. One was from the Catholic School, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Primary School, and the other from the state primary to year ten school.

The state school one was called 'The Gindie Silos'. It came about because I chipped a school student who was sitting up the back of the group. He'd lifted up a bandaid on his leg and was scratching an itchy scab. I told him to put the bandaid back on and asked him what happened.

He told us all what happened in his backyard in Gindie and we worked on creating the story. You can read it as I published it on my website here.

Now I usually try to publish more than just the text. I usually invite students to do some illustrations. Find a Google map reference, maybe some Creative Commons photos and sometimes an audio podcast.

Since 2001 the Google maps and satellite images have got heaps better and so has their street view. Now if you want to have a look at the silos in the Gindie Silos stories you can. Go here and place the 'street view orange man' near the yellow house marker.

Here's a screen grab from the street view.

After the week had finished we were driven back to Emerald to fly home and, of course, drove through Gindie. I had trouble working out which house was David's but we did drive right past the silos and there was some burnt grass around the base of them. Maybe that's why I remembered the story so well.

Scrub Turkey Adventure

2011-09-02T12:41:00.039+10:00

One Monday at Belmont School, a year one student asked the teacher, " Miss, are we going to Boondal Wetlands tomorrow or on Thursday?"

"Tomorrow, Jimmie. Don't forget your hat, your water bottle and your lunch. Don't bring anything else except you permission slips please."
Well, the next day after parade all of the students were excited but their teacher said, "We'll stay here till the bus arrives."
As soon as they heard a bus horn the teacher said, "Come on line up at the door. I need to check you off on the list."

They walked together down to the bus and when the door opened with a hiss they walked up the steps and sat down in the seats.

Once the teacher had collected all of the permission slips and marked everyone off on her role, she said, "All right, we are going on an excursion to Boondal Wetlands. On the way, stay in your seats and watch where we go."

Jimmy said, "Will we go over the Gateway Bridge miss?"

"Yes Jimmy."

"Cool. You can see ships in the river from the top of the bridge."

Well the bus driver closed the door, started up the bus and drove slowly out of the carpark at the back of the school. He turned left into Scrub Road and turned right at the traffic lights into Old Cleveland Road.

"Next left bus driver. That's the Gateway entrance," said Jimmy.

The bus accelerated onto the Gateway and was soon zooming along with the cars and trucks. It slowed down at the toll booth and as it went by they heard the 'beep' of the toll tag.

At the top of the bridge everyone was looking down to the river and shore enough there was a passenger liner being pulled down the river by a tug boat. They waved to the passengers on the deck and were really pleased when some waved back.

Not far past the airport turnoff the bus slowed down and turned off the Gateway. They drove around the roundabout and into the Boondal Wetlands Centre. Standing in the carpark was one of the Boondal Wetlands Guides.

"Welcome to the Boondal Wetlands today we are going to go for a walk along the track and see what bush tucker and what animals and plants we can see."

"Excuse me, what's bush tucker."

"Food. Bush food. The Aboriginal people who lived around here knew all the plants and animals that were good for eating."

"Oooooh!"

"No, bush tucker is good for you. Not that we are going to kill any animals to eat today but we should see lots."

Off they set along the track following the Boondal Wetlands Guide. They walked over a bridge and beside a swamp.

"Now, what can you all here?"

"Quack, quack, quack."

"That's right. Ducks, Black Ducks. They're really good to eat."

"Oooooh. Do you eat their feathers?"

"No. You have to burn the feathers off in the fire or pluck them out.

Now look at this paperbark tree here. What do you think you could use the bark for?"

"Cooking ducks?"

"Well yes you could. You could also cook fish or crabs. You wrap them up in wet bark and bury them in the ashes of a fire. You can also use it to make a roof of a house."

"What's that bird?"

"That's a scrub turkey. Look at it scratching in the leaves and grass."

"Dad said that they're like a bulldozer with feathers."

"That's about right," said the guide, "he's making a mound."

"What's the mound for."

"Well that's where Mrs Scrub Turkey lays her eggs."

"Not in a nest? Birds lay eggs in nests."

"Yes but not Mrs Scrub Turkey. She lays her eggs in the mound that Mr Scrub Turkey scratches up and they keep nice and warm. Don't leave anything laying around or that scrub turkey will scratch it up onto the mound."

'Beep, beep, bip, bip, bop.'

'What bird's making that sound?"

"Nah, that's not a bird that's young Jimmy over there playing on his video game."

"Jimmy!" said the teacher, "Bring that game here."

"Oh Miss."

"Well put it in your pocket then and listen. You might learn something."

Jimmy hurried to catch up and slipped his video game into his pocket. Well, he thought he did. He wasn't concentrating and it fell straight onto the path.

As quick as feathered lightning that Scrub Turkey scratched it up onto the mound.

"Hey Jimmy look. The Scrub Turkey is going to play on your video game!"

"Oh no," said Jimmy, "Give me back my game you silly turkey."

Jimmy went to climb up onto the mound to get back his video game but the Scrub Turkey was too fast. It scratched Jimmy up onto the mound as well and was soon covering him over with leaves.

"Help!"

The teacher said, "Oh no." She started to walk up to the mound and you can guess what happened can't you?

Chmmm, chmmm, chmmm. The Scrub Turkey scratched the teacher up onto the mound as well. "Help! Help!"

To be continued ...

Spanish Pilgrims Magic Soccer Game

2011-08-31T12:54:00.002+10:00

One morning in Spain, the church bells were ringing as a line of pilgrims were walking down from the mountain towards the church. The first in line was a priest carrying a cross.

The second in line was a famous Portugese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo carrying a soccer ball. He had a broad smile on his face and when everyone saw him coming they all cheered.

Third in line was a young girl. Her name was Lucy and she was looking really sad.

She was saying, "Where's my mummy?"

When all the people heard her they said, "Oh."

An old Spanish Grandmother came hurrying out. She had a shawl around her shoulder and a walking stick.

She reached out her hand to touch the girl on the shoulder and a ring on her finger sparkled in the sunlight.

The old lady said something in Spanish to the girl. The ring turned into a necklace around the girl's neck. She said, "Oh that's nice. I wish, I wish my mother was here to see it."

There was a loud woosh and her mother appeared and gave her a big hug. "Oh. Wow! That's great. This necklace must be magic!"

The priest turned to her and said, "Sssssh!"

Lucy said, "Oh I wish you would go away!" and woosh, the priest disappeared.

Ronaldo the soccer player said, "Cool!"

Lucy said, "Oh. You're Ronaldo the soccer player. Oh, I wish I could play soccer with you."

Woosh! Lucy and Ronaldo appeared in a huge soccer stadium and all of the people were cheering.

The soccer ball landed between them. Ronaldo kicked the ball to Lucy.

Lucy headed the ball back to Ronaldo. Every called out "Viva Lucy!" Lucy said, "Cool this is great!"

Ronaldo kicked to ball again and Lucy kicked it forward to Ronaldo and kicked the ball into the goal.

Hooray! Lucy and Ronaldo were so excited that they went running across the field and skidded across the grass on their knees. Lucy was jumping up and down she was so excited but she didn't realise that the necklace had caught on the corner post and broken and that the jewels were scattering across the soccer field.

The other team kicked off with the ball sailing high up into the air. Lucy called out, "Oh I wish I could intercept that ball."
But nothing magic happened. Lucy missed it and one of the other team members scored a goal.

Ronaldo gave Lucy a disappointed look and Lucy realised something was wrong but what?

She reached up to touch the necklace but it wasn't there.

The other team had the ball again and Lucy said, "Oh I've got to do something quickly. Oh I wish someone would help me."

High up in the stadium was sitting an old Spanish lady with a walking stick. She pointed her walking stick at the broken necklace where it lay on the grass. With a woosh, all of the stones slipped back onto the necklace and the necklace came flying through the air.

It hovered over Lucy's head and when she looked up it dropped over her neck. Lucy said, "Oh, I wish we could win!"

Lucy could see the ball flying towards her. She jumped up and headed the ball down towards Ronaldo. He passed it back to Lucy who gave the ball a tremendous kick and it sailed over the goalie's head and into the corner of the goal.

"Yes, yes. We've won. We've won."

They ran off the field and into the change rooms as everyone cheered. Ronaldo said, "Thank you. Thank you." He gave Lucy a big kiss.

Lucy said, "Oh it wasn't me. It was the old lady's magic necklace."

Ronaldo said, "Lucy could you give me the magic necklace?"

Lucy said, "Oh no. I need it to wish my mum back."

As soon as she did, Lucy's mum appeared, and Lucy said, " I wish, I wish my mum could marry Ronaldo."

There was a woosh and the priest appeared with his cross and straight away he married Ronaldo and Lucy's mum. And sometimes, just sometimes, Lucy lets Ronaldo borrow the magic necklace so he can score more goals.

(This story was created by Daryll Bellingham and the students from year 2A and 2B from Belmont State School as part of the 2011 Belmont Literature Festival.)

Jimmy and the Trampoline Bug

2011-08-30T22:33:00.000+10:00

One day Jimmy and Lucy were playing on Lucy's trampoline.

They were seeing who could bounce the highest.

Jimmy bounced so high, he hit his head on a branch of a tree.

Lucy said, "Are you all right Jimmy?"

"Yes," said Jimmy, "My head hurts though."

When Jimmy took his hand down from his head, his hand was covered in blood.

"Mum, mum. Jimmy has been hurt."

"Oh my goodness," said Lucy's mum, "We'd better call the ambulance."

It wasn't long before they heard the ambulance come driving down the street with its siren wailing.

The ambulance officers were just putting a bandage on Jimmy's head when they saw something orange and green with purple spots in the cut on his head. With forceps they pulled out an orange and green bug with purple spots on it.

"Wow. That bug looks serious. We'd better take him in a specimen jar to the hospital."

"Lucy can you run next door and tell Jimmy's mum that he has to go to hospital?"

Lucy ran up to the door and knocked but no one came to the door. All she could hear was someone snoring. "Wake up Jimmy's mum. He has to go to hospital."

Lucy came and told the ambulance officers and they said, "You'd better come in the ambulance with Jimmy then."

When Jimmy was wheeled into the hospital, the doctor said, "My goodness Jimmy, your cut has healed already. How did that happen?"

Lucy said, "Maybe it was the orange and green bug with purple spots."

"You could be right," said the doctor, "We'd better do some research."

They put the bug in it's own insect home in the hospital so it could help heal other cuts on patients.

When Jimmy's mum arrived at the hospital she took both Jimmy and Lucy home.

The next day they moved the trampoline so that no one would hit their head on the tree when they were jumping high.

(This story was created by Daryll Bellingham with Prep C and Prep D at Belmont State School as part of the Book Week Literature Festival.)

Terracotta Magic

2011-08-29T15:04:00.006+10:00

One day an iron ore ship was being loaded at a wharf in Western Australia.

A workman stood watching the red iron ore travel along a conveyor belt into the hold of the ship.

He saw something glinting like gold and said, "Stop the conveyor belt. A gold ring just fell into the ship!"

But the foreman said, "No! There are too many ships to load. They are waiting for iron in China."

The ship was filled and set sail for China. No knew that the gold ring was an ancient magic ring and when the ship got to China and was being unloaded the ring grew wings and flew away across seas and rivers.

It flew across a wide plain and across Shaanxi provence where it flew around the terracotta soldiers being dug out of the sand. There were terracotta warriors, terracotta horses and a terracotta general who stood with one hand extended.

The ring flew down and landed on the finger of the terracotta general.

"At last," said the general, "We have been waiting for thousands of years to come to life and fight for the emperor. Army of the Emperor Qin Shi Huang, come to life and march across the land!"

The whole terracotta army marched out of the pits and across the plain with spears and swords. Soldiers on terracotta horses rode with their terracotta bows and arrows.

People ran for their lives as the terracotta army followed the general with the magic gold ring.

But the general made a mistake. He marched into a wide valley just as a wild storm broke and as the rain fell and the valley filled with water the terracotta army got soggy and melted in the waters. The ring fell off the soggy generals finger and floated and swam down the river.

Eventually it was swallowed by a fish that swam all the way across the ocean to Australia.

So be careful, if you are ever fishing and find a gold ring in a fish's mouth.

Don't ever put it on your finger. It is a magic ring.

(Created by Daryll Bellingham and years 4B and 4C
as part of the Belmont State School Book Week Literature Festival.)

Vampire Snail for PM

2011-08-29T13:57:00.014+10:00

Evening was slowly descending around the French snail farm.

The sprinklers had turned off and most of the snails had stopped eating lettuce and had pulled up inside their shells to go to sleep.

The farmer had gone inside for a well earned rest and to watch TV.

The guard dog had settled down outside his kennel.

All that could be heard was a distant owl.'Tawoot Tawooh, Tawoot Tawooh.'

One snail had not gone to sleep however. It was hungry and it crawled over the edge of the tray, down the leg of the bench and onto the concrete.

As it slid slimely towards the sleeping guard dog, it left a shiny red trail behind it.

The snail was a vampire snail looking for its next meal of blood.

It slithered up to the dog and carefully sank its fangs into the dogs neck.

The snail was not careful enough supping on dog blood however. The dog barked and howled until its owner came outside with his torch and looked all around. All he found was a snail crawling back towards the snail farm. He picked it up and placed in the cage ready for the next day's consignment of snails to restaurants all over France.

Now it just so happened that in Paris that day there was an important meeting of heads of state from all around the world. At lunch they went to a famous French restaurant beside the Eifel Tower.

The Honorable Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia, was absent mindedly eating snails fried snails from her plate. She didn't notice the snail that left a red trail behind it slide across the plate towards her hand.

She popped it into her mouth and ate the vampire snail. It wasn't long after that that she grew pale, swayed in her seat and fell to the floor. An ambulance was called and, with a police escort, she was hurried to hospital.

She wasn't long in hospital. Everything seemed fine with her state of health and she was released the next day. Her private secretary was briefed by the doctor. They assumed it was her busy pace of life or something she had eaten but they had taken blood samples just in case.

"Look after her well," said the doctor, "We don't want any unpleasant surprises."

Julia Gillard flew back to Australia the next day and was met by the media at the airport but she would not talk about her hospital visit. "I am extremely well. Tomorrow night I will be debating with the Leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbot, about climate change on Q&A. I'm looking forward to it."

When Julia Gillard arrived at the television studios, Tony Abbot was already in makeup.

Her Press Secretary said, "Are you alright? You're looking a little pale."

The Prime Minister said, "I'm feeling a little hungry. I wish I had had something more to eat before I came."

The production manager came in and said, "Five minutes to start please." There wasn't any time for her to get anything to eat.

Tony Abbot was the first of course. He bounded into the studio and sat down but as Julia Gillard followed him in she seemed to be looking at Tony Abbot quite strangely.

It wasn't long before the Q&A music was playing and the compere of Q&A was introducing, "Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia and Tony Abbot, the Leader of the opposition,"

And as the television camera panned over Julia Gillard the light seemed to gleam off her front teeth.

The first question asked by the Q&A presenter was, "Prime Minister Julia Gillard can you tell our studio audience why your government has cut funding to community organisations services such as the Red Cross and blood banks across Australia?"

At the mention of blood Julia Gillard turned pale, stood up, swayed and fell towards Tony Abbot. Tony Abbot attempted to stop her from falling. He grabbed and held her up and in the confusion of cameras pointing everywhere and people in the audience screaming, nobody really saw that Julia Gillard had sunk her fangs into Tony Abbots neck and had taken a sip of blood.

By the time the confusion had ended she was back sitting in her seat and saying, "Now what was that question? I'm sorry. I missed out on tea tonight."

But do you know what? Tony Abbot was scratching his neck and when he lifted up his hand he saw blood on it. He was looking at the Prime Minister strangely. He looked again at the blood on his hand. He turned pale and fainted falling to the floor with a bang.

The Q&A presenter said, "We regret this interruption to our program but we will just switch to a prerecorded interview with the Leader of the Greens, Bob Brown. We will be returning to our debate between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition very soon."

The TV screen switched to an old interview. Tony Abbot was taken in an ambulance to the hospital and kept overnight. He released the next day but his Private Secretary was told by the doctors, "We think he is OK but we are a little concerned. When we analysed his blood there was something strange in it. Just be careful."

That night, the Prime Ministers Office got a phone call from Paris, France. It was a haematologist from the hospital where she was treated after eating snails in the restaurant beside the Eiffel Tower.

The Prime Minister's Secretary was told, "We have analysed what was in her blood and we've tracked it down to a snail farm where all the snails have turned into vampire snails."

"A dog that was on that farm was found at the foot of a tree that was a roosting tree for bats. We suggest you take emergency precautions."

The next night on the ABC there was an announcement. "We are just crossing to a news flash. Both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition have been taken away by ambulance to a secure hospital."

When reporters tried to interview either Julia Gillard or Tony Abbot they were told that interviews were no longer possible. Later that night a camera crew waiting on the lawn outside the hospital saw two strange forms flying away from the hospital. One of the bats had large ears and the other had red hair.

(This story was created by Daryll Bellingham and years 6/7 and 7 at Belmont State School as part of the Book Week Literature Festival.)

David and the Lollipop Snake

2011-08-29T10:57:00.006+10:00

Once upon a time some students were walking along a bike path on their way to Belmont School.

They heard a kookaburra calling from a gum tree and stopped to look.

'Hello Kookaburra!'

'Kook, kook, kook, kook, kook, kook, kook, ka, ka, kaaaaaaaaaa.'

"Watch out. Here comes David on his scooter!"

"Get out of the way slow coaches!"

"Look at the kookaburras in the gum tree!"

" I don't care about silly old kookaburras!"

David was just about to scoot off when they heard, 'Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss'.

A snake slithered out of the grass and across the bike path.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaah, a snake," yelled David.

"It's all right. It's probably looking for breakfast. Mum said to stay still and the snake will leave us alone."

The snake slithered into the grass and came back with a frog in its mouth.

As the children watched the snake swallowed the snake and kept on slithering into the grass.

"Cool!"

"Gross!"

"Let's tell the lollipop lady at the school crossing."

When they told the lollipop lady she screamed and dropped her lollipop sign.

Mary picked it up for her and the children walked into Belmont School prep.

(Created by Daryll Bellingham and the students of Prep A and B
at Belmont State School as part of the
Book Week Belmont Literature Festival, August 2011)

Belmont Literature Festival - One World Many Stories

2011-08-28T15:44:00.001+10:00

Wow, the Belmont Literature Festival is upon us again. Lots of stories to tell. Many stories to create and publish in our world of Book Week stories. The Children's Book Council did a good job of theme and images this year. Gregory Rogers designed their poster art below.

I wonder what will be the first story from the Festival to find its way to Austoryplace?

Fried Chicken Robber

2010-11-25T11:23:00.020+10:00

Belmont State School is on the corner of Old Cleveland Road and Scrub Road and after school the Lollipop Ladies and Men have a busy time of it helping children to safely cross the roads on their way home.

One afternoon a group of children were waiting for the lollipop lady to blow her whistle to let them know it was safe to cross Old Cleveland Road. The kids didn't mind waiting for a while because something always happened at that intersection.

Some times they might see an ambulance come speeding along Old Cleveland Road with its siren screaming and lights flashing. Some times there might even be a screech of tires and the bang of two cars colliding. This time however they heard three loud bangs and when they looked across the intersection they saw a strange guy come running out of the KFC shop with a gun in one hand and two buckets of KFC in the other.

"Watch out! Get down you kids!" yelled the lollipop lady but the children were too excited not to watch what happened.

The manager of the KFC ran out of the shop after the robber but when the robber fired another shot in the air, the manager looked terribly worried and ran back into the KFC.

"Bet he's going to ring the police," said one of the boys.

"They'll have to be fast he's jumping over that fence."

"Maybe we could catch him and then we could eat the KFC."

"Yey! Let's go!"

"Oh no you don't," said the lollipop lady, "You're coming right back to the school with me until the police have caught that robber."

"Oh!"

"No Oh's you lot. Come with me." The lollipop lady blew her whistle and used her lollipop stick to push the children back inside the school grounds and into the car park near the Administration building.

"Right, stay here while I tell the principal what's happening," she said.

As the lollipop lady hurried into the Admin Building the children started arguing about where the robber would hide and eat his KFC.

"I bet he'll run into the bush and climb a tree."

"Nah. How's he going to climb a tree when he's holding a gun and two buckets of KFC?"

"I bet he'll run home and turn on the TV and watch the cricket."

"Nah. He jumped over that fence and you know what's on the other side of that fence don't you?"

"The storm water drain. Hey, that storm water drain goes under the road and up under this school."

"He could be eating his KFC right under our feet, right now."

"Hey, we should tell the police."

Just then the lollipop lady and the school principal came out of the Admin Building and the principal said, "Quite please. Mrs Jolly has told me about the robbery and we've organised a special school bus to drive everyone who's still here at school right to their homes but, while we're waiting for it, you had better wait in the library. You can read a book or play a game until it gets here."

"Is some student snoring while I'm speaking? Who's being so rude?"

But no one put their hand up and slowly everyone realised that the snoring was coming from right under their feet.

"That will be the robber. He jumped over the fence into the storm water drain. I bet he ran up the pipe and stopped for a rest under the school."

"Right, I'll ring the police," said the principal pulling out his mobile phone.

The children watched as three of the police cars that had been over at the KFC put on their lights and sirens and came speeding through the intersection and turned into the school car park.

"Down hear. Shhhhh. You can hear him snoring."

"Have you got a crowbar or something to lift up that inspection hatch."

"I want to volunteers to run to the school gardeners shed and ask him to bring a crowbar."

As quick as a flash to of the older boy scurried off. It wasn't long before they came back with the school gardener and a crowbar.

The gardener drove the end of the bar under the metal hatch and the hatch came spinning off the hole.

Two police jumped down with their guns drawn. "Stay where you are you're under arrest for robbery of the Belmont KFC!"

They pulled the robber up through the hole and bundled him into the police car. The students watched as the police put his gun and the two buckets of KFC into plastic evidence bags.

"Hey could we have some KFC please?"

"No way kids. We'll need them for the court case."

The 'Fried Chicken Robber' story
was created by
Daryll Bellingham and
students from 1KE and 1GR
at Belmont State School
as part of the
2010 Belmont Literature Festival.

Fly like an eagle

2010-11-24T12:34:00.035+10:00

It was just five o'clock and the children's father poked his head into their tent and said, "Wake up sleepy heads. Today we go on our bushwalk."

A kookaburra was calling from a nearbye gum tree and Sam said, "Why are kookaburra's so noisy in the outback?"

But his sister Lucy didn't reply. She was already out of her sleeping bag and changing out of her pyjamas.

When they crawled out of the tent their parents were already sitting on their camp chairs and a billy was on the fire. The lid was rattling as puffs of steam came hissing out.

The kids grabbed their bowls of muesli and asked where they were going on their bush walk.

"Right up to the top of that mountain kids," said their dad.

"Right up to the top?" said Sam.

"Yep. There's a cave up there and I was told there's a special painting in the cave."

"Heh look at that bird flying around up there. Wish we could fly. It would be a lot quicker."

"I think it's a wedge tailed eagle. Come on if we hurry up it might still be flying around near the top of the mountain when we get up there," said their dad.

"Make sure you wash your plates and put them away," said their mum. "Dingos might come around the camp while we're away."

"Cool," said Sam.

"You wouldn't like it if a dingo licked your plate," said Lucy and she pointed her tongue at her brother.

"You wouldn't like it if a dingo bit your tongue off, ha!" said Sam.

"Mum, Sam said a dingo was going to bite my tongue off."

"Well what were you doing with your tongue at the time miss?"

"Nothing mum."

"She was. She was pointing her tongue at me."

"Come on you kids. Let's get up that mountain. Have you got your water bottles?"

They zipped up the tents, tipped some water on the fire and set off on their walk with Sam and Lucy in the lead as they jumped from rock to rock along the dry creek bed and then up the track towards the top of the mountain.

As they walked past a clump of spinifex they heard a hissing sound but it was only a blue tailed lizard.

"The track goes past those Ghost Gums kids," said their Dad.

"Ghost Gums, oooooooh, ooooooooh. I can see a ghoooooooost!" said Sam.

"No you can't," said Lucy, "but I can see something on the ground."

When they got up to it Lucy bent over and picked up a baby bird.

"Wow. What sort of bird is that Dad?"

"Mmmmm. Not sure kids. Look at it's beak though, it's bent. It could be a baby eagle."

They looked up and sure enough half way up the cliff above them was a nest of sticks.

"Oh, poor little eagle. Fell out of the nest did you? How are we going to get you back up there?" said Lucy.

"I could throw it up there," said Sam.

He took the little eagle in his two hands and threw it upwards as hard as he could. The little eagle sailed up towards the nest but only got half way there and started falling back down again.

"Catch it," called Lucy.

Their mum caught it in her hat.

"Oh, I wish we could fly we could fly up to that nest," said Lucy.

She had hardly got the words out and a wind began to blow around the mountain side, stronger and stronger it blew.

"Hold on," called their dad but before anyone could grab anything a sudden gust of wind blew them up into the air up towards the nest, so close they could drop the baby eagle into the nest as they flew past.

Higher and higher they went until as the wind slowed down they landed right on top of the mountain, right outside a cave.

"Wow! That was fun!" said Sam. "Hey, look inside this cave."

On the cave wall was a painting of a large bird, an eagle, and as they stared at it, do you know what, the eagle in the painting winked at them.

"It knew. It knew we were trying to help the baby eagle," said Lucy.

"Come on you kids, we had better walk down this mountain," said their dad.

It took them a bit longer than it did to fly up the mountain but, as they walked past the eagle's nest, the mother eagle was perched on the edge with a dead rat in its beak. They watched as the eagle tore off bits of dead rat and fed it to the little one.

"Oh that's gross."

"No that's cool."

"Come on let's get back to the tent, I'm hungry," said their mum.

That night they had a great story to tell their grand parents when they rang them on the satellite phone.

Created by Daryll Bellingham with Years PVP / PJE as part of the 2011 Belmont State School Literary Festival.

© 24th November, 2011.

Small, bright and shiny.

2010-05-07T07:30:00.004+10:00

It wasn't long before the Pumpkin Festival in Goomeri and one of the organisers had rung up the school and asked if some of the students could help clean up any litter that might be on Policeman's Hill. Hodge Street

So, with the permission of the school principal, all of the students in prep to year three set off with their teachers.

As they walked over the railway line and into town one of the teachers said,

"Now, because you're helping the festival organisers they said you can all have some free lollies from the Lolly Shop but you'll have to take turns."

Five at a time they walked into Mrs Toffee's Lolly Shop and made their selection. Some got jelly beans. Some asked for lollipops and some wanted Chicken Feed.

Mrs Toffee stood there with her glasses, brown hair and big, black apron and made sure they all said 'please' and 'thank you'.

"Now," said their teachers, "Let's walk up to Policeman's Hill and make sure it's really, really clean and tidy. We'll go the long way round pass the Hall of Memory and the Motel because it's not so steep."

When they got there they made a game out of who could pick up the smallest piece of litter. The teacher called it an Emu Parade.

"Hey, here's a shiny little bit on the grass," said Timothy.

He bent over to pick it up but his sticky lolly fell out of his pocket and landed on the shiny little thing.

"Oh! It's disappeared," said Timothy as he picked up his lolly and popped it into his mouth.

"Timothy, you shouldn't eat things that have fallen on the ground. There could be anything on that lolly."

And, do you know what? There was something stuck to that lolly it was the shiny little thing and it got stuck in Timothy's throat.

"Arrrrrh! Arrrrrrh! Arrrrrrh! I'm chocking!" called Timothy.

"Look he's turning blue!"

The teacher found her mobile phone and called an ambulance.

They told her to whack Timothy on the back to see if he could cough up the thing in his throat.

As the ambulance came speeding up the road with its siren wailing, Timothy gave a mighty cough and something small, round and shiny went flying out.

It bounced off the windscreen of the ambulance and went whizzing up into the sky towards the swimming pool.

Timothy was taken off to Murgon Hospital in the ambulance and the children and the teachers hurried down the hill towards the swimming pool.

When they got there, the pool was closed but they tied three long sticks together and tied a net to the end and poked it over the fence into the pool.

The teachers said, "Three tries only and then back to school."

The first time they only scooped up a dead grasshopper. "Ohhh!"

The second time they scooped up a plastic toy shark. "Ohhh!"

But the third time they scooped up something small and round and shiny.

It was a gold ring with a shiny pumpkin jewel on the top. "Ahhhh!"

"That must belong to the Pumpkin Fairy Princess," said one girl.

"I bet it's magic," said a boy.

"All right make a wish," said a teacher.

"We wish that Timothy is well again."

And do you know what? He was.

Created by Daryll Bellingham and the students from years Prep, 1 and 2 at Goomeri State School.

Want to listen to our recording of the story by teachers and students? Here it is -

Austoryplace - Goomeri - 'Small, bright and shiny'

Daryll's podcast

Old Henry and the Pumpkin Festival

2010-05-07T07:23:00.004+10:00

In Goomeri, we all love the Pumpkin Festival and everyone helps make sure there's something different each year.

One morning not long before the festival, three people were collecting their mail at the post office at the same time.

Mrs Toffee, the owner of the lolly shop, was picking up another parcel of new lollies and she saw the manager of the Pumpkin Festival with a big smile on his face.

'What are you so happy about Blue?' she asked him.

'This letter here is the insurance for the festival. Now the festival can go ahead. Nothing can stop it now.'

'Look. Here's old Henry. He's ridden his bicycle all the way in from Tansey to pick up his mail. I don't know how he does it.'

'What have you got there Henry,' asked Blue as Henry carried his heavy little parcel out of the Post Office.

'None of your business. It's mine,' said Old Henry as he walked back to his bicycle and started to ride back to his farm.

No one knew what Old Henry took back to his farm that day but another day he was seen to park his bicycle in front of Mrs Toffee's Lolly Shop. He came out with a parcel and a smile and he rode back to his farm.

Well on the day of the Festival everyone in town was there. There were lots of tourists buying pumpkin scones and getting ready for the pumpkin roll down Policeman's Hill.

'Hey look who's coming. It's Old Henry.' shouted some kids.

Everyone looked and, sure enough, there he was puffing up the hill on his bicycle and on the back there was a big pumpkin.

He waited till everyone had had a go rolling and then stepped forward. 'Ladies and Gentlemen. I have the best pumpkin of all. All children must hold out their hands and open their mouths.'

He put his pumpkin down on the start line, lit the fuse sticking out of the pumpkin and gave it a shove and it went rolling down the hill.

'Ahh! It's a bomb. Duck for cover!' But before anyone could move, the pumpkin went off like a giant firework.

Bang! Ziiiiii. Ziiiii. Ziiii. Zup-zup-zup-zup-zup.

Fireworks went zipping everywhere over Policeman's Hill and out of them flew lots and lots of bright colourful pumpkin shaped lollies.

'Hooray!' Kids ran here and there scooping them up and when they tasted them they fizzed and zipped in their mouths like yummy, sweet fireworks.

'That's what was in that parcel at the post office,' said Blue. 'The Pumpkin Festival will get another tourism award for sure this year. Thanks old Henry. That was the best.'

Old Henry had his photo taken with the festival committee and Mrs Toffee from the Lolly Shop and all the happy smiling children before he hopped on his bike and rode back to his farm.

Created by Daryll Bellingham and the students from years 3, 4 & 5 at Goomeri State School.

No pumpkins were hurt in the production of this story.

© 2010

Old Henry and the Pumpkin Festival

Daryll's podcast

It Never Rains but it Pours

2010-05-07T07:10:00.002+10:00

It had been raining for weeks and all the creeks and gullies were full of swirling, muddy water. Some of the bridges and roads had been cut off and the electricity had gone out.

Still that didn't stop most kids in Goomeri from having fun. Some boys were playing in the park on the edge of the gully, throwing things in the water and pulling out the long grass and the water weed to make the water go faster.

One of their sisters was watching from the verandah and called out, 'Be careful Timmy. Don't go near that drain. Drains are dangerous.'

'Oh, I'm all right Alice. The water's not deep.'

'Don't be stupid. Get out of there!'

But it was too late. Timmy slipped and splashed into the deeper water and before any of his friends could help the current was dragging him down the drain towards the culvert.

Timmy was swimming as hard as he could but it was as if some terrible cold force was dragging him under. The last they saw of him was his bright yellow board shorts as he was sucked down the drain.

'Hold your breath Timmy!' yelled Alice as she ran across the park.

'Where is he?'

'He must be trapped.'

But Timmy wasn't trapped. Somehow he had held his breath and came up coughing and spluttering in the drain on the other side.

He managed to grab some grass on the side and pull himself out before anyone got to help him.

'Why are you so pale Timmy?'

'I saw something under the water. It looked like an old grandma ghost.'

'Was she trying to drag you under?'

'No. She looked really worried and said something to me. She was holding out something in her hand. I think her hair was on fire.'

'In all that water. You're crazy.'

'No, no. Look. There it is that's what she was holding.'

Timmy pointed at a glass jug that was been carried along on the flood water in the drain.

'I'll grab it.' and one of the boys picked up a fallen tree branch, poked it through the handle of the jug and lifted it out.

'That looks like a beer jug from the pub. How did your old grandma ghost get that?'

'What's written on the side?' said Alice.

'Goomeri Hotel,1939. Pour it on.'

'Heh, that's what she was saying to me, Pour it on! Pour it on!'

'Did you say her hair was on fire? Wasn't there a fire in the old hotel and people died.'

'Yes. There's a plaque on the wall of the hotel. People died.'

'I think she was trying to pour water on the fire with this jug.'

'What are we going to do with it?'

'Let's give it back to her.'

They walked back up the side of the drain, up above the culvert and carefully put the jug back in the water. Timmy shoved it out into the deep with the long branch and they watched it being sucked back under the swirling water.

'Now don't go swimming in that drain again. It's too dangerous.'

'No way,' said Timmy.

View austoryplace Goomeri Stories in a larger map

Created by Daryll Bellingham and the students from years 6 and 7 at Goomeri State School.

© 2010

It Never Rains but it Pours

Daryll's Austories Podcast

Belmont Stories - 'The Park'

2009-09-14T12:01:00.007+10:00

Bedevire Park is on Bedervire Road and you can get to it on a bike path from Belmont State School. When you get there you will find an orange spide web, a rocket ship, swings and the eating area.

One day, Jack, who lives quite close to the park, was climbing the spider web.

He said, "Wow! Look at that."

There was a turtle on his back on the side of the creek and it was waving his legs frantically in the air.

Jack saw his best friend riding his BMX along the bike path. He said, "Look out for the turtle!"

But it was too late. There was a bang, a crash and a splash.

Jack said, "Lachlan. I'll help you!"

As Jack ran down to the creek, he tripped on the turtle. Jack crashed to the ground. The turtle flipped the right way up and waddled down to the creek and saved Lachlan.

Every afternoon from then on, when Jack and Lachlan come down to the park they always go to the creek look out for their friend the turtle.

Created and recorded by Years 4MC / 4RG as part of the Belmont State School Literary Festival.

Thomas Jack Park Magic Goldfish

2009-08-11T15:51:00.003+10:00

Everyone in Dalby knows Thomas Jack Park on the main road through the town with its green grass, picnic tables and shady trees. When the Cotton Festival is held every year, great use is made of the park for events and performances.

Some families have their birthday parties there and one day Ben, a student from Our Lady of the Southern Cross College, told his family that he wanted his eighth birthday party beside the water fun feature.

The water feature has a water fall and a small stream that runs between the large rocks and under the ornamental bridge made of concrete and wood.

Ben had invited all of his friends from Our Lady of the Southern Cross College to his birthday party and that afternoon he stood beside the marquee with the food and birthday cake waiting for them to arrive. Everyone thought that Ben looked like the young Harry Potter. He had glasses, was smart, had the same smile but didn't have the lightning scar on his forehead.

'Wonder if Ben's going to do any magic at his Birthday Party,' said Rebecca.

'Yeh! He might disappear just when his mum's trying to take his photograph,' said Tom.

'No. Don't be silly he's not Harry Potter.'

Parents dropped their children off, told them to be good and to listen to Mrs Affleck and told them not to eat too much as they drove off.

The kids gave their presents to Ben wished him a happy birthday and ran over to the water feature to have a look at the gold fish.

"What will we do till everyone gets here?" asked Rebecca.

"Let's see who can count the most gold fish," said Tom as he leaned over the rail of the ornamental bridge.

Something made them look up into one of the trees instead of counting gold fish however. It was the raucous sound of one of the family of kookaburras that lived in the gum trees of Thomas Jack Park. It was laughing loudly from a branch just above the creek. The children laughed back at it but stopped and ducked for cover as the kookaburra swooped past them, splashed into the creek and then flew back up to the tree branch.

Wriggling in its beak was a gold fish. The kookaburra whacked it a couple of times on the branch, flipped it around in its beak and started to swallow it.

"Oh Yuck. Poor little gold fish," said Ben. "How would you feel like it if you turned into a goldfish, you mean kookaburra?"

The gold fish gave one last wriggle as it the Kookaburra swallowed and one of the golden scales was knocked off by the sharp end of the beak.

It floated down towards the childen. "Catch it!" said Rebecca. "I want it," said Ben but, just as he reached up to catch it, a gust of wind blew the golden scale over towards the marquee and the children couldn't find it no matter how hard they looked.

Well the usual party things happened. Games, fruit juice, more games, more fruit juice, sausages and tomato sauce, more fruit juice and then it was time to sing happy birthday to Ben and for Ben to cut the cake.

Then his mother took the electric carving knife and cut the cake up for everyone to have a slice. Ben got the slice with the number eight on it. No one noticed, not even Ben, that the gold fish scale was lying on the icing right in the middle of the number eight.

He opened his mouth wide and popped the whole piece of cake into his mouth chewed and swallowed the cake, the icing and the scale.

"I wish that Kookaburra hadn't eaten that gold fish," said Ben, "I like them."

"I reckon it would be fun being a goldfish."

Just then, every Kookaburra in Thomas Jack Park began laughing. The gold fish in the water feature started splashing and jumping out of the water.

"Hey look at that!"

All of the children ran over to the water feature staring at the gold fish, jumping and turning somersaults in the air.

"Wow!"

As they watched the jumping goldfish, no one noticed that one of them was changing colour. He was growing more and more golden. It was Ben.

Some of the kids from the party said that they think he would have turned into a gold fish and splashed into the water feature with the gold fish if his grandmother hadn't grabbed him and whacked him on his back just in time. As he coughed the gold fish scale flew out of his mouth and landed in the water. The gold fish stopped jumping, the kookaburra's stopped laughing and Ben turned and gave his grandmother a hug.

"Thanks Grandma. I didn't really want to be a goldfish."

Created by Daryll Bellingham and the students from year 3A and 3D,
Our Lady of the Southern Cross College,
Dalby, Queensland - 11th August, 2009.

Unlucky Day at Splash

2009-03-21T14:56:00.020+10:00

It was Friday the 13th and a group of students were going for a swim at Splash in Acacia Ridge.

View Larger Map

They were lining up at the ticket window when Michaela slipped on a slurpy and crashed in Jaydens back.

Michaela slips on a slurpy
(drawn by Tarley at Sunnybank Library)

"Ow! What did you do that for?" said Jayden

"Don't talk to my friend like that. She slipped on a slurpy. It wasn't her fault," replied Tarley.

So the girls walked into the indoor pool followed by Jayden.

"Let's swim outside it's more fun."

So they all went outside and crashed into the lifeguard. He said, "No running!"

"Oh yeh. We've already had one slip on a slurpy. Some one should clean that up."

"OK. We'll see what we can do about that."

"Last one in the pool's a dead duck!" said Michaela.

So the girls put their stuff down on the grass and ran over to the pool.

"Heh. Stop. There's something down there really shiny."

The three girls all dived in together and swam down towards the bottom.

Tarley was just about to grab it when along the bottom of the pool came swimming Jayden.

The race for the ring. (drawn by Michaela at Sunnybank Library)

He grabbed the ring, swam up to the surface and as he broke the surface the ring slipped over his finger and he said, "Ha ha! Finders keepers, loosers weepers!"

And do you know what happened? Those three girls immediately began to cry. They were weeping and wailing. Their tears were streaming down their faces so much they were filling up the pool!

The lifeguard said, "Hey! What's going on here?"

Jayden said, "Oh, I wish you would be quiet."

And straight away, even though their lips were moving, no sound was coming out. They were as quiet as church mice.

"This is cool. This must be magic."

He tried something else.

"I wish they would just run under the sprinklers."

The three girls ran straight over to the sprinklers and stood there as if they were in a shower.

One of them looked really scared. She said, "Help!"

The other one was angry, "Hey! What did you just make us do?"

The third just stood there going, "Spash, splash, splash."

The lifeguard came running and Jayden turned and smashed into the lifeguard. The ring flew through the air and this time Michaela jumped up and caught it, slipped it over her finger and said, "Now we turn you into something. I wish that you would turn into a dolpin."

Jayden Dophin having fun in the pool

(drawn by Jayden at Sunnybank Library)

Immediately Jayden jumped into the pool and went swimming down, splasing up into the air, doing sommersaults. He was having a ball as a dolpin.

Tarley said, "Hey! He's not meant to be having fun. Let's turn him into something gross."

"Like a toad."

"I wish you would turn into a toad."

Needeep, needeep, needeep, needeep.

There he was, a toad, sitting on the edge of the pool with his white L.A. hat on, shaking his head and wondering what had happened.

The lifeguard discovers the toad.
(drawn by Priscella at Sunnybank Library)
Just then, the lifeguard came up with a rubbish bin, popped it over the top of the toad and said, "We can't have toads in the Splash pool. I'm going to throw this toad in the rubbish compactor."

"You can't throw him in the rubbish! He's Jayden."

'Bring him back!"

"I wish that he turns back into Jayden"

And straight away, that's just what he did. The rubbish bin was so heavy, the lifeguard dropped ito on the concrete. Jayden stood up with the rubbish lid on his head, saying, "What am I doing in here?"

"Yeh!"

They helped him out of the bin, cleaned off some of the rubbish and they even gave him some money to by a slurpie at the shop.

And do you know what? From that day on, they were best of friends and they always met up at the Splash centre at Acacia Ridge.

© Daryll Bellingham and the participants of the Qld Book Council Harmony Week Digital Story Publishing workshop at the Brisbane City Council Sunnybank Hills Branch Library, 22nd March, 2009.

Special thanks to Tarlia, Mischaela, Jayden & Priscilla.

Kerang Restores the Heart

2009-01-19T10:03:00.010+10:00

One day Maddison who regularly visited the Kerang Library was in the Library near the bay windows.

As she was sitting there she heard a very strong whistling sound. Maddison said: "That's strange it's not windy, what's that sound?"

Maddison's friends said: "Are you crazy? I can't hear anything." Maddison said: "Move closer." When they moved closer to the old brick water tower right next to the Library suddenly they could hear it too. When they all looked up they saw the tower bricks were shifting and vibrating in and out of place.

The librarians came and looked too but it was all quiet. "False alarm," they said. "Maddison you've just got too good an imagination".

Maddison and her friends started looking for stuff on the Net again but after only a moment Maddison heard the sound again. "Come on!" she whispered and Maddison and her friends hurried out of the library.

They looked up at the Tower - yes - the bricks really were shifting. The old ladder was glowing and shaking too. Even the roof was jumping up and down! "Aaah!" They all screamed.

Just then the door seemed to open on its own and they heard a voice saying: "Come on up! Come on up! Come on Up!"

They couldn't help it - they were irresistibly drawn up the tower steps. Once more there was a weird whistling sound and the tower door slammed shut. They were trapped!

As they started climbing the tower Matthew said: "The stairs are disappearing behind us! How will we get down now?"

Holly said: " Don't worry about that - look down at the town! It's like somebody has put a dark torch all over Kerang. Hey, that's weird! There's a horse and sulky!"

Kayla said: "Hey, it looks really old, maybe it's like the old days, 1914 or something!"

A band came marching down the Murray Valley Highway. As they came closer into view the children could see that they were soldiers heading off to war.

Suddenly it was like the war was happening right up there in the tower: there were sounds of battle, gunfire and the weird whistling sound they'd first heard in the Library. The sounds built to a crescendo and the tower shook and shook while everybody hung on to each other.

A kookaburra laughed and gradually everything became still. Kayla turned to the others: "Look Kerang is coming back to colour."

But as Kayla said this she looked up and saw a man with bandaged eyes standing right in front of them.

The man unbuttoned a pocket in his shirt and said: "I'm looking for my family." Quietly he held up a small and worn photo. Maddison looked at it and said: " That looks like me!"

The soldier said: "Yes child, tell me your name?"

As soon as Maddison said her family's name he said: "At last, at last! It's your great grandma, I have carried her photo next to my heart all through this terrible war." Then he sighed and his whole body started shimmering and shining and growing brighter and brighter till it was finally so luminous that he disappeared.

Where the soldier had been standing there was just a bandage with a red cross and some dark marks left behind. When they looked closely they saw that the dark marks were a message written in blood: 'Thank you Maddison - I now rest in peace."

Maddison and the children started descending the tower using the old way. When they got near the bottom the Librarians called the SES and they helped put the ladders down.

So what should you do if you visit Kerang?

Well one of the things you must do is to visit the Library and take time to look at the bandages which are kept in a beautiful old box near the window by the water tower. And if you listen quietly you might suddenly be back in the small town by the Loddon River many years ago.

View Larger Map

Kerang Morning

2009-01-19T09:09:00.002+10:00

It's a bright beautiful day and we are at the Kerang Library running a workshop with 15 young people from Kerang, Cohuna and Leitchville. We played a wonderful storytelling game 'All the people who' and now Daryll is telling a story created in Rochester 'Aiden and the Murray Cod.'

The Day the Painted Fish Came to Life

2009-01-14T14:28:00.014+10:00

It's a 43c day here in Rochester and we're talking about our favourite places.

James - fish and chip shop
Helen - the library
Naomi - her friend's place where they play on the computer
William - the pool
Samuel - his backyard where he plays footy
Aiden - the skatepark

After a bit more discussion I told everyone the story we had created five years ago with the Rochy Readers who were in the library that school holidays. It was called, 'Aidan and the Murray Cod' and, guess what, Aiden was back. Well somehow the new story we created this time had fish in it as well. Here it is.

'The Day the Painted Fish Came Alive'
One morning the Rochy Readers had gathered for a meeting at the Rochester Library in Mackay Street. They walked in the front door past Genevieve and said 'Hi.' The Librarian said: "Paul is waiting for you outside."

They were all glad to see Paul because they knew he would help with the little bird they had with them. It was such a hot day that the bird had fainted in the heat. Paul said: "Gently pour your water bottle over it and let it rest on my palette there in the shade."

Picture by Naomi

Then Paul set to work on the painting: it was one of the paintings going to Japan. Aiden said: "Is this painting really going to Japan?" Paul said: "Yes, they're going over to Japan, to our sister city."

Aiden said: "Oh, cool!" And as they sat down they heard the cicadas buzzing and buzzing and then over the top of them came the sound of the fire brigade siren and William said: "They normally practise on a Sunday. Samuel said: "It can't be a practice - it's the real thing!"

Naomi said: "I wonder where it's happening?"

James said: "Something smells like burnt chips!"

Picture by James

They ran down Mackay Street and there was the fire brigade. Just then a ute pulled up and the driver said: "Want a lift?" They all jumped on and arrived just in time to see the firemen blasting a great jet of water through the window of the fish and chip shop.

One of the fire officers said: "Can you help save the pictures?" The heat seemed to bring the window of the shop alive. It was melting and moving and it was just like the fish were swimming along the glass.

Naomi jumped up and said: "Let's run back and get some of Paul's canvases!"

Paul picked up an armful and gave them to them and they ran back to the fish and chip shop. It was really funny, the painted fish almost seemed to know. Through the heat and smoke they seemed to wriggle across the glass towards the canvasses. Then, one by one, they jumped off the window and onto the canvasses.

"Yes! Let's take them down to the Campaspe!"

The Rochy Readers walked back past the skate park near the river each carrying a canvas.

When they reached the river they held the canvases in the water and the fish drifted off and then, with a little flip or two, they swam off.

Naomi said: "Good luck fish! Oh well, we'd better take the canvasses back to Paul."

But you'd never guess what - the outlines of the fish, their tails, their fins, their scales and their lips were still on those canvasses. When Paul saw them he said: "Wow, that's wonderful, we'll send those off to Japan for sure!"

Three months after they sent the canvasses an envelope arrived at the Library. It had lots of Japanese stamps on it. The Librarian and the Rochy Readers opened the envelope and inside was a cheque for 30,000 yen, enough to buy a whole new collection of books for the Library and a good feed of fish and chips!

(© This story was created by Daryll Bellingham with assistance from the Rochy Readers
as part of the Campaspie Regional Library Service Rochester Branch vacation program on 14th January, 2009.)

Echuca is A-Mazing

2009-01-14T09:37:00.015+10:00

One day in Echuca a group of young people were exploring the Oz Maze. The wind was blowing through the gum trees and the kookaburras were laughing wildly.

Picture by Austen

As they were lining up to pay for the tickets the attendant said: "All the maze is open but that area over there, you musn't go there. Whatever you do don't pass through it." The young people said: "Oooh."

No sooner were they in the maze when one of the boys said: "I wonder where that place is he's talking about?"

Suddenly he saw an orange construction fence. Beyond the orange construction fence there was something bright and shiny. It was a time portal. Matthew took off, jumping into the time portal. Grace and Gabi were a bit scared and wondered where he'd gone to.

In the ticket office the security guard glimpsed the video and saw what was happening. He leapt up and started running through the maze. "What's going on here?" he shouted.

The young people saw him coming. Janelle called out: "Oh no, he's after us, let's go!"

In an instant the young people were in the portal. They fell and landed on something really hard. "Where are we?" they cried out.

Matthew, the eldest of the group, rubbed his head and said: "It's a paddlesteamer."

And sure enough it was. It was an 1800's paddlesteamer.

Matthew looked at everyone. "Hey! we've slipped back in time. That portal worked!"

As the paddlesteamer came into the port of Echuca they heard a scream. It was the security guard. He'd come through the portal too but he didn't land on the paddlesteamer, he fell with a huge splash right in the middle of the Murray!

The young people said: "Hey, let's go! Let's get away."

Drawing by Gabi

They jumped onto a Cobb and Co coach. "He'll never get us now!" But that security guard was quick. He jumped on the back of the coach as they sped through the main street of Echuca.

One of the girls, Chelsea saw a strange door. "Come on everybody!" she yelled out. "Jump!" And they all jumped and followed Chelsea through that strange old door.

Chelsea must have guessed that it was another portal. But she could never have guessed where they'd end up.

"Wow!" said Austen. "This is sick! I love bowling!" And sure enough they were at the bowling alley.

He looked at the other kids and smiled. He was just thinking about a game when he saw that the security guard was in the bowling alley too! "Oh, no!" they all called out. All the young people started to run across the alleys.

Just at that moment a really heavy and very fast ball came down the lane and hit the security guard. The guard was knocked down, disappeared behind the bowling lanes and was swept down the portal.

Luke and Gabi reached for their mobile phones. "Let's ring our Mums!"

When the young people's parents arrived they all had a bit of explaining to do about how come they were at the bowling alley and not at the maze but they sure had a good story to share with their friends when they headed back to school. All their friends said: "That's amazing!" even though they didn't believe them.

© This was created by Daryll Bellingham and young library users at the Echuca Branch Library of the Campaspe Regional Library Service, 14th January, 2009.

The following map includes the locations of the story settings.

View Larger Map

The day I warped in Kyabram

2009-01-13T17:31:00.012+10:00

One day I was going shopping for a new computer game in Kyabram. First of all I tried the video shop but they didn't have the latest version of Sonic Halo Dogs. I was desperate. Luckily for me there's a computer shop right next door to the video store.

I burst in the door to have a look. I searched the aisles up and down, "Oh no! Doesn't anyone have 'Sonic Halo Dogs?" I screamed.

It must have been a loud scream because a DVD container fell off a shelf, bounced off my head and into the hands of my mean cousin - Eldred.

She said, "Ha, ha. It's all mine. You'll never play Sonic Halo Dogs now."

She ran out of the shop without paying.

The shopkeeper said, "Well, Justin. Looks like you will have to pay for the game."

By the time Justin had paid and run outside, his cousin Eldred had disappeared.

"I bet she's gone home to play the game before me."

Justin jumped on his bike and rode furiously home.

"Eldred. Don't start without me you crazy cousin."

But when Justin ran into the rumpus room, there was the computer already on. It looked like Eldred had already started the game but where was she?

"Ha. This is my chance."

He ran across the room towards the computer but tripped on one of Eldred's shoes lying on the floor.

"Aaaaaaah!"

Justin plunged through the computer screen and landed with a bump on top of Eldred.

"Justin! Justin! They're coming for us! Run!"

Justin looked up and thousands of ghoulish sonic echidnas were morphing into life in front of them! There was a whole army of sonic echidnas shooting blue and green spikes at them.

"Run for the Halo Eldred!"

And run they did past levels of halo, past the biggest island, shooting monsters as they ran. The army started shooting green and blue spike mortars back.

It looked like they were going to be caught but just then a robot dog came and started licking the echidnas until they melted into green and blue puddles of slime.

"Thanks Robot Dog but how are we going to get back to Kyabram now?"

"Woof, woof. Climb onto my back and I'll take you to the giant rocket shoe."

Well, that's what happened. The rocket shoe blasted off and they morphed back through the computer screen and on to the rumpus room floor.

Eldred said, "You can have the game Justin."

"No. No. Eldred. It's too real," said Justin hiding in the leggo cupboard.

Small but mighty animals - a 'Tonny' story

2009-01-13T13:28:00.015+10:00

Tongala or 'Tonny' if you live there, is a pretty special place in Victoria. It has a great swimming pool, a bakery where you can buy yummy pizza and the friendliest people you'll find anywhere.

Now in Tongala there lives a young lad called Isaac. Isaac really likes animals and especially birds. Isaac likes to find and look after injured birds.

View Larger Map

(This map shows the three locations in Tongala where the action of the story occurred.)
One day Isaac was with his Dad when he saw a nest of three magpies which was blown out of a tree by a big strong wind. The poor magpies! One of them was tangled in barbed wire, one was right on the edge and one had its wing tucked underneath - it looked twisted and hurt. Isaac said: "Oh you poor little magpies!" Isaac wanted to pick them up straightaway but he knew he had to be careful. So Isaac asked his Dad if he could pick them up and bring them home.

Isaac's Dad said: "I saw them yesterday and I knew you would want to rescue them, yes of course you can."

Just then Isaac's friend Elijah came along on his bike. Elijah was singing - "Give me a home among the gum trees, with lots of magpies, a cow or two and a kangaroo!"

At that very moment a giant kangaroo came bounding along so fast that it ran right into Elijah, toppled him over and landed right on top of him. Whooo!

The kangaroo was probably confused. It was the hottest day, 40c in the shade. That kangaroo thought that Elijah was her joey and started to pick up and put him in her pouch!

Isaac couldn't believe it! What will I do? he thought. Then he remembered his small but mighty friends: the magpies, his posse of 15 rabbits, his dog Sooty and even the yabbies. Isaac called in his loudest voice and pretty soon the air was full of the sounds of all those creatures rushing to him.

The kangaroo was now by the side of the channel. Elijah said: 'If that roo jumps into the channel I'll be able to swim and get away." Hearing this Elijah's pet fish jumped out of the fish bowl and joined Isaac's animals speeding to rescue him.

Sooty was the first to leap into the channel quickly followed by all the others. Sooty grabbed Elijah in his mouth and pulled him from the kangaroo.

Brittney, Elijah's sister, came along with the tractor and said: "Hop on you guys!" Elijah, Isaac, the magpies, the rabbits, yabbies and pet fish trundled along on the tractor through the sunset and back home to a delicious pizza for tea. And the kangaroo? Well the kangaroo was last seen jumping a golden cow somewhere in 'Tonny'.

The Gold Nugget

2009-01-13T10:20:00.008+10:00

Rushworth is the sort of town where people buy holiday houses in. One day Erin's family arrived at their new holiday house in Rushworth. Her two big brothers jumped out of the car first and said, "Wow! That's cool!"

Erin's mum said, "Come on everyone. We've got to help unpack the car."

Everyone grabbed something and started to walk into the house. The whole family helped change the rooms around so that everyone had a place to sleep.

As Erin lifted up a box she noticed an old piece of paper.

"Jayden. Look at this. It was under the box."

"That's awesome. It's an old map."

Erin said, "Mum we've found an old map. Can we follow it?"

So Jayden and Erin put on their bicycle helmets and rode down the road following the map. The path led into the forest and they found an old mine.

"Oh I wish we could go down there," said Jayden.

"No, Jayden, remember what Dad said about the old mines were dangerous."

Just then they heard a sound. The earth was rumbling and crashing.

A huge nugget of gold came rolling out of the mine and crashed to a stop at their feet. It was so big that Jayden had to use his mobile phone to call Dad and pick it up.

That night they had a big party and invited everybody in town. Erin's family gave the nugget to the museum and you can see it there even today.

Bonnie and the Cockatoo

2009-01-13T08:58:00.008+10:00

Once upon a time in Rushworth there was a very beautiful young girl called Bonnie.

Bonnie really liked living in Rushworth because there are lots of nice people who live there. Bonnie also enjoyed the bush down the road near the swimming pool.

(Sulphur Crested Cockatoo photo with thanks from
Flickr Creative Commons download by -aussiegall)

Bonnie's family had a pet, a sulphur crested cockatoo. The cockatoo was called - you guessed it, 'Cocky'.

Now one day when Bonnie was about five years old she decided to put her little finger, her pinky, in Cocky's cage and do you know what? The Cocky bit Bonnie's pinkie!

The cockatoo bit Bonnie so hard the blood dripped down her finger and onto her hand. The cut was so deep Bonnie could even see the bone! Bonnie yelled out: "Hamish! Hamish! Cocky's bitten me."

Hamish, Bonnie's older brother, took Bonnie up into the house. As soon as Bonnie's mum, Debbie, saw Bonnie's finger she knew exactly what to do because she was an ambulance officer at Murchison.

First of all Debbie washed Bonnie's finger to clean all the germs off and then she put on a bandaid and a bandage. Debbie held Bonnie's hand and said: "All better now."

Bonnie learnt a really important thing that day: never, ever put your little finger in a cockatoo's cage.

as part of the Campaspie Regional Library Service Rushworth Branch vacation program on 13th January, 2009.)

Kyabram Kangaroo Chaos

2009-01-11T19:59:00.005+10:00

Kyabram is a small country town in northern Victoria not far from the Murray River. It’s surrounded by wide flat plains filled with herds of black and white dairy cows to supply the milk factory at Tongala with rich creamy milk.

The town has all the usual things a country town in Australia has - show grounds, park, a swimming pool, tennis courts, primary and secondary schools, lots of houses, some shops and a library.

Now, one morning, not so long ago, an old lady called Mrs Smith was walking slowly along the footpath in Allan Street towards the Municipal Library which is housed in the old Town Hall. She waved with her favourite duck-headed walking stick to the owner of the coffee shop as she walked by and muttered to herself, ‘How he can charge so much for a cup of tea I just don’t know. Just as well he has good cakes.’

As she turned into the Library someone came out, or maybe we should say something, because it was covered in fur, had two ears that stood up on the top of its head, a long tail and a joey hanging out of its pouch. It was of course a kangaroo.
“Goodness gracious,” said the old lady, “a kangaroo in the library. What next?”

The kangaroo hopped over to a seat on the footpath and sat down. It reached into its pouch, pulled out a book, opened it up and held it out in front of its joey to read.

“Oh dear,” said the old lady, “I wonder if the librarian knows that kangaroo has borrowed a book. I’d better go and tell her.”

She walked into the library and up to the counter but instead of finding Allison the librarian standing there, guess what? Standing there, wearing Allison’s dress and top and librarian’s badge, was a kangaroo. It said, “Tttt, ttt, ttt, ttt, ttt?”

The old lady screamed, “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!” and fell to the floor in a faint.

“Oh possum,” said the kangaroo librarian. It reached for the telephone and dialled 000. “Ambulance please. An old lady has fainted in the library.”

It wasn’t long before a siren could be heard coming down Allan Street and an ambulance with its lights still flashing pulled up in front of the library. Out hopped two kangaroos in paramedic uniforms. They opened up the back of the ambulance, pulled out a stretcher and began to push it into the library.

Now all of this was seen by a young girl called Maddie. She had just ridden her bike along the lane from the carpark at the back of the library and pulled up to watch the ambulance. When she saw the kangaroo paramedics push the stretcher into the library she left her bike and crept along the front of the library and peered into one of the front windows. There was the kangaroo librarian telling the kangaroo paramedics to take the old lady to the hospital and, when she woke up, to change her into a kangaroo as well.

“What on earth is happening,” thought Ashley, “they’re going to turn poor old Mrs Smith into a kangaroo. Maybe the kangaroos are taking over Kyabram? No they couldn’t be. Kangaroos are nice animals.”

She snuck back to her bike and rode it as fast as she could back along the path, across the car park and through the back streets towards the hospital. She got there just in time to see the kangaroo paramedics pushing the stretcher with poor, old Mrs Smith on it into the emergency section.

“Hullo Maddie. What are you doing hiding behind that tree?” It was her best friend, Tamara, who was trying out her new rollerblades.

“Tamara, shhhhhhhhh! Come over and look.”

Inside the hospital, the two kangaroo paramedics were standing over Mrs Smith and saying out loud, “Kangardoo, kangardoo, kangardoo!”

Mrs Smith’s ears grew long and furry. Her little pink nose grew large and grey with a black end. Her fingernails turned into black claws and from beneath her dress they could see her legs had turned skinny and furry. Mrs Smith had been turned into a kangaroo right in front of their eyes.

“Nttt, nttt, nttt,” said one of the kangaroo medics, “That will teach her. These humans have been too cruel to us poor kangaroos.”

“Yes,” said the other, “they’re always running us over in cars and trucks and shooting us if we try and eat some farmer’s grass. All they are interested in are those silly cows and whether they get enough milk from them.”

“If we turn all the humans into kangaroos then they won’t be able to run us over or shoot us because they’ll be kangaroos as well.”

“But what if the humans that are left work out the magic word to turn kangaroos back into humans before we get all of them?”

“No way. They think they are so smart but they’ll never think of ‘kangardon’t”

Maddie and Tamara looked at each other and then crept away from the window and over behind a big tree.

“What are we going to do Maddie?”

“I know. Mrs Smith’s son is the police sergeant. Let’s tell him. He’ll know what to do.”

Maddie jumped on her bike and began to pedal furiously while Tamara rollarbladed along the footpath towards the police station as fast as she could. She arrived just as Maddie was leaning her bike against the fence. Tamara started to unclip her rollerblades and pull them off her feet. As she walked through the door of the police station office she could hear Maddie saying, “Sergeant Smith, Sergeant Smith, you’re mother is in hospital. She’s been turned into a kangaroo!”

They both got a shock however when a kangaroo wearing a police cap, blue shirt and trowsers and a police revolver hopped behind the counter and said, “Nttt, nttt, nttt, come with me young children.”

Maddie and Tamara looked at each other and ran. They ran out of the police station with the kangaroo in hot bouncing pursuit.

Kyabram Memorial Park photo Flickr download courtesy of Dey

Across the road, down the footpath, into the park the kangaroo policeman was getting closer. They both ran towards the slippery slide and ran up to the top. The kangaroo hopped on as well but slipped all the way back down.

“Ha, ha, ha, ha, you’ll never be able to catch us up here!”

“Ntt, ntt. That won’t matter I’ll just turn you into young kangaroos from here.”

“Ahhhhhh. Nooooooo. Don’t do that, please!”

“Ntt. Ntt. Now let me see what was that magic word?”

Maddie and Tamara looked at each other and they said, “How about, Kangardon’t, Kangardon’t, Kangardon’t”

As they watched Sergeant Smith started to reappear. There was little pink nose, broad shoulders and fat tummy. He looked a bit funny standing at the bottom of the slippery slide in bare feet and looking puzzled but they were so pleased to see him. They both slid down the slippery slide and gave him a big hug.

“What happened?” he said.

“Sit down Sergeant Smith. This might be a shock.”

"The kangaroos of Kyabrum are turning all the people into kangaroos because they are sick of being run over by cars and trucks and being shot at for eating grass. We just saw you’re mother beeing turned into a kangaroo in the hospital and we learn’t the magic word to turn kangaroos back into people. It’s ‘Kangardon’t’”

“Good. Well done girls. Now I want you both to go running through town singing out ‘Kangardon’t’ and I’ll go back to the police station and get the police car with the loud hailer. I’ll drive through the streets around the outskirts. Don’t forget if you see any kangaroos at all shout out the magic word.”

Well you can guess what happened can’t you. Soon everyone in Kyabram, Mrs Smith, Alison the librarian, the two paramedics, everyone was back to their normal human selves.

There was one difference however, now the people of Kyabrum do their best to look after kangaroos. They try really hard not to run them over and Kyabrum has a Fauna Sanctuary and Education Centre where all the animals are looked after very well.

Kangaroo at Kyabram Fauna Sanctuary
photo Flickr download courtesy of Cdr Aitch

Created by Daryll Bellingham
with the assistance of the audience at
the Kyabram Library Vacation Activities Storytelling Show,

Wednesday 7th January, 2004.
© Daryll Bellingham

(Thanks to the Echuca Friends of the Library for helping to make the storytelling sessions possible.)

The original publication can be found on the Plains Talking website at
http://plainstalking.deni.net.au/storiescampaskyab.html

The Tongala Tortoise Trials

2009-01-11T14:38:00.009+10:00

Peter was throwing lumps of mud into Coomes’s Channel. He had ridden his red mountain bike down the flat road from the small township of Tongala in northern Victoria to the channel hoping to find some of his friends there.

“Where are you going?” said his mum.

“Off riding on my bike,” said Peter.

“Don’t go near that channel,” said his mum, “and make sure you wear your helmet.”

(Not really Coomes Channel but it would look something like this.) (Flickr download with thanks by - yewenyi)

Peter didn’t say anything as he rode away and his helmet dangled from his handlebars all the way to the channel. When he got there he was alone. None of his friends were there.

“They must be still at Vacation Activities.

The lumps flew through the air and into the irrigation water like army mortar rounds.

Eeeeeeeeeeeehhh! Splash! “That’s one.”

Eeeeeeeeeeeehhh! Splash! “That’s two.”

Eeeeeeeeeeeehhh! Splot! “Hey what did that hit?”

Now there’s not a lot of life in an irrigation channel. You do get some fish and some shrimps and insects like Water Boatmen. You do see cormorants and the big black and white pelicans chasing fish, even the odd snake.

But that wasn’t what Peter hit. What Peter hit was a tortoise and, boy, was that tortoise angry. That tortoise started swimming towards the bank of the channel. It climbed up the bank and waddled over towards Peter’s mountain bike. It opened it’s mouth and, chomp, it bit right through one of the tires.Pssssssssssssss.

“Hey, you stupid tortoise, leave my bike alone!”

Peter picked up a big rock above his head to drop on the tortoise but the tortoise waddled off into the long grass and reeds on the bank of the channel. Peter followed holding up the rock ready to drop it on the tortoise. The tortoise walked into a hollow log and disappeared.

Peter stood there with the rock still above his head looking for the tortoise.

(Flickr download with thanks by - poppalina )

The tortoise wandered out the other end, around behind Peter and bit him on the toe.

“Owwwwwww!”

Peter tripped over the log. The rock went flying through the air and landed on his head. Whack!

He was knocked out. The tortoise waddled off back into the channel. Splash.

Peter’s girlfriend, Corrie, arrived at the other side of Coomes Channel. “Peter, are you here?”

As she walked past the irrigation wheel she saw Peter’s red mountain bike lying beside the channel.

“Come on Peter I know you’re here somewhere.”

Then she saw him lying on the ground by the log and the rock beside his head. She jumped into the channel, swam across and started to give him the ‘kiss of life’.

“Wake up Peter, wake up.”

She could see his chest moving and felt his heart beating.

“Come on Peter, wake up.”

She grabbed Peter’s bike helmet off his handle bars, dipped it in the channel and manage to carry enough water back to splash on Peter’s face.

That did it. Peter woke up and when he saw Corrie’s worried face he said, “What happened?”

Corrie said, “I dunno. Maybe you fell off your bike and hit your head on this rock.”

“Oh yeah, that right. There was a tortoise in the way.”

“Lucky it wasn’t a Red Belly Black Snake. My dad said you have to watch out for snakes and fallling branches from Gum Trees.”

“Oh what would he know?”

“He’d know enough to wear his bicyle helmet.”

And do you know what? From that day on, Peter did too.

Created by Daryll Bellingham
with the assistance of the audience at
the Tongala Library Vacation Activities Storytelling Show,

Wednesday 7th January, 2004.
© Daryll Bellingham

Original story was published here : http://plainstalking.deni.net.au/storiescampTongala.html

Podcast recording of this story can be found in the menu bar or here.

I'd like to put a map with Coomes's Channel marked for you but unfortunately I can't because I don't know where it is so, if any reader can pinpoint Coomes's Channel on a Google Map for me, can you please send me an email with the map. Here's some possibilities.

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Aidan and the Murray Cod

2009-01-11T13:47:00.005+10:00

Sometimes a story that is created with an audience works really well. 'Aidan and the Murray Cod' is one such story. I've been telling it regularly since 2004 for audiences from about 5 years and up. Young children like it, primary school children like it and adults like it. Probably more importantly I like it so I go on telling it.

Where can you read it? Well you better go to the first place we published it at http://plainstalking.deni.net.au/storiescampasrochie.html

The story is lots of fun especially if you give in to the energy of it. I like finding different ways for the audience to join in.

Where did the story happen? Right here -

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Now I happen to know that there are plenty of fishing tall stories out there and if you reckon you've got one to beat 'Aidan and the Murray Cod' then I would like to hear it. Maybe we could publish it in 'austoryplace'.

Daryll Bellingham.

Rushworth Tiger

2009-01-11T12:13:00.011+10:00

In Rushworth, people don’t grow rice or fruit or milk cows. In Rushworth, they know about forests and timber. They know about the Ironbark Forest where there are lots of tall, straight ironbark trees, yellow gums, kookaburras, grass trees, kangaroos and the dreaded tiger snakes.

If you go walking or riding your bike in Ironbark Forest there are two things you have to look out for. One is Tiger Snakes and the other is abandoned gold mine pits. You don’t go too close to them because they can be quite deep and down the bottom there might be sharp rocks, rusty old mining tools and the bones of anything that might have fallen in. Rushworth kids don’t go anywhere near them because they think that if you fall in you might die and be turned into a skeleton and then you wouldn’t be able to watch television or go riding on your BMX or have Christmas and that would be really sad.

View austoryplace - Rushworth Stories in a larger map

Now one day, Hamish, who lives in Rushworth and usually wears a cool Mongoose shirt that he got for Christmas and a blue watch, was riding his Dino BMX along Phillip Street heading for Ironbark Forest. He didn’t have a care in the world. The wind was blowing through his hair. He was thinking, “This time I’m going to have a really good ride. I’ll find a new track to ride on and do some jumps and go up to the lookout tower, huh!”

Half way up the hill something slithered across the track in front of him.

Hamish went, “Ahhhhhh!” He hit the brakes. Stood on the back pegs. Flipped up the front wheel and stepped off the back of the BMX. He dropped the bike and went running back down the track shouting, “Ahhhhhh! Snake!”

The bike dropped on top of the snake and the snake stayed there curled up around the pedals and the bars as if it was part of the bike.

By this time Hamish stopped and he thought, “Oh, fancy being scared of a snake. I’m going back.” He walked back up the hill towards his BMX lying half on the track and half in the grass.

“It’s almost time to get back home and watch South Park anyway.”

He walked up, picked up his BMX, sat down on the seat and felt something soft and squishy on the seat. It was the snake. The snake didn’t like being squashed so it bit Hamish on his backside. Hamish rode his bike as fast as he could, zooming down the track, along the road, across the bridge and down into Phillip Street. He shouted out, “A snake has bitten me, a snake has bitten me!”

Manisha, his sister, said, “What’s wrong Hamish?”

“A snake has bitten me on the back side!”

“Mum, mum, mum, a Tiger Snake has bitten Hamish.”

Hamish skidded to a stop in the front yard. He went running in with the tiger snake still hanging from his back side.

When his mum saw it she said, “Aaaaaaaah, I don’t like snakes. I’m out or here.!”

She jumped into the 4WD and drove down to the police station. The police officer came speeding back in the police car, the siren screaming, the lights flashing and with his gun went bang, bang and shot the snake.

Hamish said, “Who’s going to suck the poison out?”

Hamish’s Mum said, “No way. It’s the hospital for you. Somebody grab that snake so that they will know what sort bit Hamish.”

The ambulance drove him to the hospital where they gave him a big anti-venom injection, put him into bed just in time to watch the last five minutes of South Park.

When he woke up in the morning in his hospital bed he saw a bottle sitting on the table. In the bottle was the tiger snake and when he went home he put the bottle with the snake beside the television set. Every time Hamish watches South Park he remembs the time he went riding in Ironbark Forest at Rushworth and met a tiger (snake).

('Rushworth Tiger' was created on the 7th January, 2004 with young library patrons at Rochester Branch of the Campaspe Region Library Service. The original publication can be found on the 'Plains Talking' site at http://plainstalking.deni.net.au/storiescampastiger.html and a companion story written and illustrated by Hamish called 'Another Quiet Sunday in Rushworth' at http://plainstalking.deni.net.au/storiescampasquiet.html .)

Rushworth Tiger by Daryll Bellingham is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.
Based on a work at plainstalking.deni.net.au.

Raisin Toast, Brianna from Bribie and the Fish

2009-01-06T17:07:00.006+10:00

Here's a story about a young girl called Brianna who lives on Bribie Island with her grandfather. Brianna helped me create the story when she was a patient in the Mater Children's Hospital in Brisbane in 2001. You can find the original story at http://www.storytell.com.au/lpstories5.html.



		Once morning Brianna was having raisin toast for breakfast with her Grandma and her Grandpa on the front verandah of their house at Bribie Island. Brianna really liked staying with her grandparents. One day her Grandpa took her fishing. Brianna caught a fish and Grandpa, who said that he was the boss of the world, put the fish into a bucket full of water so that Brianna could take it home and show her mum. When everybody had a look, Brianna brought the fish back to the water and let it go. As they were sitting there eating their toast, they heard a strange noise. It sounded like - 'rrrrrrrrrr, clunk, eeeeeeeeh, bump, sssssssssh, urrrrrrrrrrh, eeep.' "What's that?" said Brianna. "Oh, that'll be Garry the Garbo," said Grandpa. " I told him that it was our turn to have our rubbish picked up today, so here he is picking up the wheelie bins." "Can I go and have a look?"said Brianna. "Sure. Don't fall in." Brianna ran down the steps and onto the footpath and watched as Garry the Garbo pulled the levers on the truck that sent the pickup arm out to grab Grandpa's wheelie bin, flip it upside down above the garbage truck, give it a good shake for the rubbish to fall out and then put it carefully down on the footpath again. Garry gave Brianna a wave as he drove on to the next house where he did it all over again but it wasn't just rubbish that fell out of the truck this time - a big, silvery fish flipped through the air and landed with a bump on top of the truck cabin. "Hey. What's on top of my truck," called out Garry the Garbo. "It's a big fish Garry," said Brianna. "It so looks funny!" Garry the Garbo got out of his truck and had a look. "Oh what a little beauty. Now will I take him home to cook or put him back in the sea?" "Put him back, oh please put him back," said Brianna. "I'll get a bucket off my Grandpa." Well that's what they did. Garry put the fish into the bucket of water and together they took it across the road, under the paperbark trees and over the sand to the waters edge. They carefully tipped the fish into the water and watched it as it flipped a little and started to swim away. "Goodbye fish," said Garry the Garbo. "Oh, I forgot to give you a kiss." The fish swam in a circle and came right back to Garry the Garbo's feet. Garry bent down and gave the fish a kiss on its lips. "Oh yuck," said Brianna. "Well better get back to work," said Garry as the fish swam away and Brianna went back to finish her raisin toast with her Grandma and her Grandpa. A 'Sweet Stories in the Pop' Story created by Daryll Bellingham, storyteller and Brianna, a patient in the children's ward at the South Brisbane Mater Hospital during a storytelling session in the Radio Lollipop studio with the Thrilling Thursday Team. 29/11/2001 © Daryll Bellingham. ('Sweet Stories in the Pop' is a Queensland Storytelling Guild project funded by a Year of the Volunteers grant.)

Emerald Dragons

2009-01-06T15:10:00.006+10:00

Emerald in Queensland is a nice place to live. There's plenty of work for parents and the children can play lots of sport. One day, some children were kicking a football around at Emerald North School and one of the boys said, "Hey! Want to play a game that my Dad used to play when he went to school?"

"What's it called?"

"Force-Em-Back. You see there are two teams. One team kicks the ball to the other and, if they catch it on the full, they can advance 5 steps and kick it back but, if they don't, they have to kick it from where they stop it. Eventually one of the teams is forced right back to the fence and they lose."

Well that's what they did. The game was going fine until one of the kicks went so high it went right over the school fence. No one knows whether there was a sudden gust of wind or what but that ball flew over the neighbouring houses and towards the river with the team in hot pursuit.

They saw it flying over the trees on the river bank and thought, "Oh no, someone is going to have to swim for it."

When they got to the river bank however, the ball wasn't floating on the water or anything. They couldn't see it anywhere. All there was in sight was a bearded dragon sitting on the grass.

One of the girls said, "That bearded dragon looks a bit strange. Its got marks on its back."

"Maybe the ball landed on top of its back and left those marks. They look like the marks of a football."

"No," said the girl, "The marks are on the inside. Hey, guess what, I think the football has turned into a bearded dragon."

"Ha, ha! Don't be silly. How can a football be turned into a bearded dragon?"

"Yeah. I know but let's pretend. We'll take it back to the school and pretend it's the football. Should be a laugh."

Well, that's what they did. They picked up the bearded dragon and took it back to the school fence and said to the other team, "Sorry it took so long but the ball turned into a bearded dragon and we'll have to kick it instead."

They held it up and pretended to kick it but the bearded dragon flew from their grasp went sailing up into the air and down towards the other team.

'Catch it! Catch it!"

As the bearded dragon bounced the whole team dived on it and grabbed hold but they could not stop the dragon. It flew up into the air with the students holding on. Higher and higher it went and they all went flying up through the air and back over towards the river.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Call the Principal! Call the teachers! Help!"

The other students ran into the office and called out "Emergency! Emergency! The kids have disappeared! "

Admin dialed 000 and it wasn't long before there was police, ambulance and fire brigade in attendance. Every one headed down towards the river and started searching for the missing students. They couldn't find them any where.

Once the police and fire brigade had gone home however, the students saw 10 little bearded dragons sitting on a log. They took them carefully back to the school and fed them all their favourite foods - pies, sausage rolls, chocolate and ice cream - and eventually they started to grow slowly back into children again.

Do you know what though, every single one of them had long skinny finger nails and marks on their backs like football laces.

It's not surprising, I suppose, that no one plays 'Force-em-back' at Emerald North School these days. They do take special care of bearded dragons though.

Here's where it all happened -
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(Story created by Daryll Bellingham, Storyteller and students from year 1b/2a at Emerald North School, following a Chinese folktale about a magic tortoise with a special mark on its head.)

Emerald Dragons by Daryll Bellingham and students of Emerald North School is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.
Based on a work at austoryplace.blogspot.com.

(Bearded Dragon image, a Flickr Creative Commons download by Arthur Chapman)

Sam and the Shipping Container

2009-01-05T15:52:00.004+10:00

Sam lives in Emerald, a growing town in the middle of Queensland. One of his favourite places is the top of the old reddish-brown shipping or cargo container which sits in his backyard.

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Sam likes climbing up there, sitting quietly and watching the clouds float across the sky or hearing the cockatoos fly screeching home to their nearby roosting tree.

One afternoon after school, Sam had climbed up on top of the cargo container again and was listening to two girls talking in one of his neighbouring yards.

"Hey yah, what're ya doing on the weekend?"

"Dad said we can take the jet skis out to Fairburn Dam. Want to come?"

"Oh cool, I'll come," said Sam.

"Go away Sam. Stop listening to us. Anyway you can't come because you haven't got a jet ski - ha!"

"I don't care," said Sam but he did. He jumped off the shipping container and kicked his football as hard as he could. It slammed into the rubbish bin near the fence and knocked it over.

Sam stomped into the house slamming the screen door as he went. He sprawled onto the lounge chair and turned on the TV.

"What's wrong Sam?" said his Mum.

"Nothing."

Sam's Mum came into the lounge room and gave him a hug.

"You know Sam, sometimes you have to wait a little bit to get what you want."

"What do you mean Mum?"

"Well inside that shipping container you like to climb on is ...."

"What Mum?"

"... a jet ski."

"Ohh. Sick! Can we go out to Fairburn Dam on the weekend?"

"Nope. Sorry. You'll have to wait a bit longer because we're still saving up for the trailer."

"Ohhh, Mum."

"Don't worry Sam, we'll soon have enough money to buy the trailer and we'll be able to go jet skiing out at the dam."

But Sam couldn't wait and as he watched TV he hatched a plan. That night when everyone was asleep, he snuck down the hall, carefully lifted the keys off the hook in the hall and silently walked outside to the shipping container. He tried the keys in the padlock until one turned and the hasp clicked open. Sam carefully swung the container door open, hoping it wouldn't squeak too much.

He flashed his torch inside and there amongst the cardboard removalist boxes was a large wooden crate and on the side was the stencilled outline of a jet ski - "Yes!"

Sam stayed up the whole night dismantling the crate. The jet ski looked wonderful but Sam had a problem. How was he going to get it to the dam? It took Sam quite a while to think of a solution. He had to climb up on the roof of the cargo container and jump off three times before he remembered that his friend Joel liked go-carting. He ran as fast as he could over to Joel's place and knocked on his window, "Joel. Joel. I want to borrow your go-kart."

"Huhhhhh, what?" yawned Joel?

"Wake up Joel. I want to borrow your go-kart."

"What will you give me to play with. Have you got an x-box?"

"What about my new laptop. It's got some great games and I've got three DVDs you can watch."

"Cool. Here's my helmet. Be careful."

"Don't worry. I will. Thanks."

Sam pushed Joel's go-kart at least two blocks away before he started it. 'Raaaa, raaaa, raaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.' Off he went driving down the back streets towards his house. He turned the ignition off before he got near the house and coasted in silence down the driveway and stopped near the shipping container.

"Sick. All I need now is a trailer. What can I use?"

Sam used the side of the wooden crate and to the bottom he screwed his skateboard on one end and two of his sister's roller blades on the other end. Then he tied the jet ski to his trailer with five ockey straps and tied the trailer to the go-kart. He put on the helmet, started up the go-kart and roared down the driveway and out of the street before his parents woke up.

"Yahoooooo! We're off to ski at Fairburn. Yes!"

Soon Sam ran out of back streets and had to drive on the main road towards the Dam, going as fast as he could. He felt great as the farms sped by and he got closer and closer. Well he felt great until he heard the sound of a police siren behind him. Sure enough there was a police car driving along beside him. The red and blue lights were flashing and an angry looking police man was telling him to stop and pull over.

Sam knew he had to pull over. The police man hopped out of his car and "Right young Sam. You're in trouble."

"Trouble? Why? I was just going jet skiing out to Fairburn Dam. Everyone goes out there."

"Yes Sam but not everyone tries to do it with an unregistered go-kart and an illegal trailer. You'll have to leave it here and come back to your parents with me."

"Ohhhh!"

"Don't Ohhhh me Sam. Get into the police car you little squirt!"

Before Sam could unbuckle his seat belt he heard, "Base to highway patrol one, Base to highway patrol one, there's an emergency at Fairburn Dam. Two jet skis have collided in the middle of dam. Attend immediately to help in rescue!"

"Rescue!" said the policeman, "I can't swim!"

"I can," said Sam, "I got my bronze certificate in lifesaving last year. I'll help."

He started up the go-kart, "Ra, ra, raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" and went speeding as fast as he could along the road to Fairburn Dam.

When he got there, sure enough, he could see the two jet skis out in the middle of the dam and holding on for dear life were the two girls.

Sam went speeding through the car park and down the boat ramp. He hit the brakes and spun the steering wheel as fast as he could. The trailer spun around and the jet ski slipped off from under the ockie straps and into the water with a splash. Sam jumped off the go-kart and onto the seat of the jet ski. "Reeeeeeee, reeeeee, reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh!" He was off speeding across the dam towards the crash scene.

"This is fun. Yehhhh!"

Sam steered the jet ski around the two girls and helped them both onto the back of the ski. Slowly this time, he headed towards the shore.

As he got back, people were cheering, "Yey Sam. Good one!"

Waiting for him beside the police car were his parents. "Good one Sam. We're proud of you. Your our hero but .........

............ you're grounded for 3 months."

Sam spent a lot of time on top of that shipping container for the next 3 months but at least the girls he rescued spoke to him sometimes.

('Sam and the Shipping Container' was created by Daryll Bellingham and the Year 4 and 5 students at Emerald State School on 13th August, 2008 ©)

Sam and the Shipping Container by Daryll Bellingham and students of Emerald State School is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.
Based on a work at austoryplace.blogspot.com.

(Photos with thanks from www.ausiecampovenforum.com and flickr download photographer - QbiT)

The Sleeping Dragline

2008-10-25T23:05:00.010+10:00

Now every knows that around the town of Emerald in Central Queensland there are lots of coal mines. Underneath the earth there is so much black coal that the miners dig it up with huge machines called draglines and load the coal onto trains to take to the ships waiting to take it to China and Japan.

One morning three children were sitting at home in Anakie on the Gemfields near Emerald eating their breakfast and watching their Dad pack some lunch to take to work at the coal mine.

"Are you going to dig up lots of coal today Dad?" asked one.

"No. I don't think so. We've got to repair the dragline. It's not working. I think it's gone to sleep."

"Maybe if you say the right magic words it'll wake up," said the girl.

"Maybe it's like Sleeping Beauty and you have to give it a kiss on it's mouth and then it'll wake up," said one of the boys.

"Well maybe I'll have to do one of those if we can't get it started," said their father, "Now don't forget to clean your teeth before you go to school. I'll see you after work."

"Bye Dad."

Their father jumped into his four wheel drive ute and drove off to work at the mine as the children got ready for school. He drove out of town, through the bush and into the coal mine. He parked his ute in the carpark, put on his safety helmet, picked up his tool kit and joined the work crew in front of the huge dragline down in the open cut mine.

"Look at it," said one of the miners, "You great, ugly, expensive bit of machinery get to work, you lazy machine!"

He turned the key in the switch to start up the dragline but it just lay there like it was sleeping.

"My boy said I should try giving it a kiss and then it might wake up like sleeping beauty."

"Oh yuck, I'd rather try magic words. Abracadbra, Abracadabra, Abracadabra. Wake up, Wake up, Wake up - aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!"

No knew whether it was the magic words or the scream but the dragline woke up and began to move. The huge scoop opened and closed and began to swoop down towards the men.

"Watch out. That scoop is coming for us!"

The men started to run but they weren't quick enough, the scoop had turned into a giant claw and had grabbed them. The big treads had turned into legs and out of the body of the drag line had sprouted wings. The drag line had turned into a dragon.

It leapt out of the coal mine and flew off with the men, roaring as it went.

Back in Anakie, the children were lined up at the school parade listening to the Principal telling them all about the GemFest that was happening that week.

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They heard a roar and looked up into the sky and saw the dragon flying towards the school.

Bigger and bigger it got as it flew closer. "Look at that!" Every student and every teacher looked up into the sky. They saw the huge wings beating the sky with sound of drums, the long tail swishing from side to side, the enormous mouth with its cruel curved teeth and its sharp claws holding ....... holding ............ five struggling coal miners. "Help! Help!"

"Hey! That's Dad! That dragons got our Dad!"

"What are we going to do?"

"It's probably flying towards the old volcano. If it gets up there we'll never find them."

"We'll have to lassoo it as it goes past. Anyone got a rope."

"What about the tug-of-war rope? It's with the phys-ed gear."

Five students ran and got the rope. One climbed up the gum tree with the rope and dropped the end down by the tuck shop. They tied a big knot and then stood in the front yard of the school near the gate.

They started to sing out - "Ha, ha Dragon. Ha, ha Dragon. You can't catch us. You can't catch us!"

The dragon looked down and saw the children. He roared a roar so loud the children's teeth shook and their hats blew off in the blast of the dragons foul breath.

"He's coming! Get ready to duck!"

The dragon flew down towards them with his spare claws stretched out to grab them, his eyes glowing red like burning rubies. His head and neck flew through the loop of the rope but his wings and body were too big.

The rope snapped tight around the dragon's wings and he crashed to the ground. The coal miners rolled out of the dragon's huge bucket claw and ran under the school with the children.

The dragon opened his mouth and the flames burnt the rope. He beat his wings and leapt into the sky again. The children watched him flying towards the old volcano.

"Hey Dad. You woke up the Dragon .... I mean the Drag-line."

'Yeh, kids. Thanks for that. We owe you one."

No one really knows what the dragon did at the old volcano although there have been reports about it terrorising students and tourists who visit there. Just ask ask the Year 6/7 students at Anakie about their excursion. Some people say though that the dragon flies back to the mine every morning to dig in the coal. We found this photo of a dragline blowing smoke at Ensham mine

(Photo courtesy of Ensham mines and www.gtp.com.au)

The Sleeping Dragline was created by Daryll Bellingham, Storyteller with the Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 students at Anakie State School - 12th August 2008.

The Sleeping Dragline by Daryll Bellingham and students of Anakie School is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.
Based on a work at austoryplace.blogspot.com.