Gindie Silos

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.

Unlucky Day at Splash

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

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.

( © This story created by Daryll Bellingham and young participants at the Kerang Branch of the Gannawarra Shire Council Library Service vacation activities.)

View Larger Map

The Day the Painted Fish Came to Life

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.)

Kyabram Kangaroo Chaos

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

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.

View Larger Map

Aidan and the Murray Cod

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 -



View Larger Map

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

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

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

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 -
View Larger Map

(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)

The Sleeping Dragline

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.


View Larger Map

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.