Belmont Stories - 'The Park'

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

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

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


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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.)

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Kerang Morning

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

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

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.


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The day I warped in Kyabram

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

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.


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(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

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.

(© This story was created by Daryll Bellingham with assistance from Erin and Bonnie at the Campaspe Region Library, Rushworth Branch Vacation Program, 13th January, 2009.)