Bruny Youth Stories Prize

Once, there was a flock of black currawongs. And in that flock was a young bird named Bobby who’d seen a human girl on one of his flights. He thought she was interesting and wanted to meet her, but his family was against it. “No son, we mustn’t get too close to humans. God knows what they’ll do to us.”, his father said to him one evening. At first, Bobby believed what his father told him. But, as the days went by, he became desperate to see her. His family kept telling him, “If you make friends with the humans, you’ll have to leave the flock.”. “Then I’d rather leave the flock then not make friends with a harmless human girl.”, Bobby replied. One day, he saw her playing in a meadow. Bobby settled himself on a tree and watched the young girl as she played with her mum. At one point, she cried out, “Mum, look, there’s a currawong watching us!”. The mum looked over. “He’s probably just interested in what we are doing, or who we are. There’s no need to worry, sweetie.”. When the girl went home, Bobby followed her to her house. He sat on a lamp pole not far from it and waited until the girl came up to her room. Then, he flew down onto her windowsill and tapped the window with his beak. The girl opened the window. “Hello there, my name is Charli.”, she told Bobby. “And I’m Bobby.”. Bobby continued to visit the girl’s house almost every day, or whenever he got a chance to slip away from his family. His mother had talked to his father about seeing Bobby fly away in the direction of the humans. “Then he must leave the flock.”, Bobby’s father said.

 A few weeks later, Bobby came home to his family waiting with anxious faces. “Son, did you see the humans, even though I told you not to?”, his father asked sternly. “Yes, father, I didn’t mean to, but the humans are actually kind of nice,”, Bobby said. “You know what that means, don’t you?”, his mother asked in a gentler tone. “You’ll have to leave the flock, and you are not allowed back, even if you unfriend the humans. You’ve betrayed our rules. I’m sorry, son, but you brought this on yourself.” “Fine,” Bobby shot back. “Have fun without me.”. Before anyone could say another word, he took off into the setting sun, toward the village, to a girl who loved his company and wanted to be with him.
 

Winners of the Bruny Youth Story Prize will be announced at The Bruny Island Bird Festival on Sunday, the 22nd of March at 12 pm in the Adventure Bay hall. This prize is proudly brought to you by The Bruny Kids and Nature Project, led by Claire Boost and the Tasmanian Community Fund.