Small, bright and shiny.

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

© 2010

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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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.

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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 -



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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

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.)