Bruny Youth Stories Prize

Tula and the Big Bad Creature
Once upon a time there was a colony of fairy penguins who lived on Bruny Island. They liked to
dive and play in the water. One day when Tula (short for Eudyptula minor) and her friends were
coming up to their burrows from feeding all day they saw a huge animal running towards them.
They all waddled as fast as they could to the closest burrow and squished themselves to the
end, all 12 of them! They were all squashed so tightly together that the walls nearly collapsed.
They could hear the sound of squawking penguins from nearby. Tula poked her head out of the
burrow to see if the huge creature was still there. The creature noticed her and ran towards her
burrow. She saw it coming and popped her head back into the tunnel. She could hear the thing
getting closer and closer. Then she had an idea. She dug up some sand and covered the
entrance with it, just in time! When the creature got closer, it suddenly couldn't find the burrow.
The animal looked all around but still couldn't find the entrance. It walked away towards the
other penguin's burrows. Tula called to the rest of the penguin colony to tell them to cover up
their burrows with sand too. It worked, and eventually they heard the animal running away down
the beach. The penguins called a Fantastic Fairy Penguin meeting to think of a way to stop the
creature in case it came back. They came up with a plan to cover their burrows with smelly
seaweed to keep it away. The next day all the penguins in the colony dove for seaweed. They
cut bits off with their beaks, then swam back and dragged the seaweed up the beach. Then
they put the seaweed all around their burrows and hung some over the entrances so if the
creature came near their burrows and tried to get in, the seaweed would flop on its nose and
scare it away. They also tied strips of seaweed around their feet so that the creature would stay
away from them. That night the creature came back. They were still scared because they
weren't sure if their plan was going to work. They heard the creature coming closer. Tula felt
worried and started covering up her burrow, but then she heard the sound of paws getting
further away. 'It worked!' she squawked. That night they had a penguin party to celebrate.

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.