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Youthful talents paint pictures from near and far

Headshot of Stephen Scourfield
Stephen ScourfieldThe West Australian
The Bungle Bungle Range.
Camera IconThe Bungle Bungle Range. Credit: Tyrhys Wilson/Supplied

While some of the entrants in our Young Travel Writer 2020 competition have been far and wide, many have been travelling in WA, and very close to home.

And that’s the way we like it.

We’ve run Young Travel Writer since 2009, and the objective has always been to find good writing, a sense of “voice” in that writing, other points of view and an appreciation and respect for places and the people who live there.

My sincere compliments and congratulations to all who entered. Your stories have lifted my heart.

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From the many entries, these are the 10 finalists, who all receive a certificate, $100 and a signed book, Don’t Forget to Write. Because of current restrictions we are, unfortunately, unable to hold the planned workshop session.

And of these, the two winners are Morgan Klug and Tyrhys Wilson, who we still hope will join staff Travel writer and lead photographer Mogens Johansen on assignment in Australia’s Coral Coast. Their work will appear across our many publishing platforms, including in these pages — but, because of the current travel situation, we have to delay their trip. We are grateful to Australia’s Coral Coast for its support of this assignment. Its enthusiasm and commitment to the development of these young writers is invaluable.

The school in Cambodia.
Camera IconThe school in Cambodia. Credit: Morgan Klug/Supplied

FINALISTS

Morgan Klug visited Cambodia and his entry brings to life a day visiting a rural, underprivileged school, in the “buzzing little rural village of Kampong Leav”, to teach and hand out shoes. He cleverly includes detail, from the temperature to the Khmer language, but also some travel philosophy: “Travel, while centred around a certain place, is all about the people you meet and the cultures that you are immersed in. These interactions with friendly, welcoming locals are what makes travel so rich and rewarding and why people from all over the globe travel to every nook and cranny in this vastly diverse world.”

Wave Rock.
Camera IconWave Rock. Credit: Holly Blackwell

The blending of experience, reaction, fact and detail was also achieved by Holly Blackwell, who wrote about a trip to Wave Rock, at Hyden in WA. She makes reference to visiting in Birak, one of the six seasons recognised by indigenous Australians. She cleverly works the geological timeline into her own experience “...the monstrous rock, beckoning the rain like it has done for the last 27 million years. I am distracted by the birds singing to each other. ‘The rain is coming,’ is what I think they are saying. Sure enough, that’s when I feel it. The first drop of the new front of rain touches my upper arm, as soft as a feather falling serenely to the Earth’s surface.”

The Bernina Express.
Camera IconThe Bernina Express. Credit: Pippa Dallas/Supplied

A strong “hook” at the start of a story catches the reader and entices them to read on. Pippa Dallas did that simply and well in seven words: “All of a sudden it goes black.” I, for one, want to know why, and where she is, for that matter. She keeps me reading the next sentence: “The train runs along, and before I can blink, we’re in the daylight again.” And the next sentence: “The train goes through yet another tunnel, one tunnel of 55 others.” She’s built a nice pace and texture to the story (shade and light) and already added detail to her very complete story about travelling on the Bernina Express, “the highest railway in all of the alps.”

It’s difficult to pull off a complete 180-degree turn in a story, but Teagan Sonego manages it in her story about driving across the Nullarbor with her dad. She starts with a sense of foreboding: “Day one, and already I wasn’t looking forward to it. I mean seriously, are you kidding me?! What kid looks forward to staring at red dusty empty roads for miles, anyway?” And she ends with a warm: “I began to realise that I loved the dirty, dusty open roads, the endless hot bitumen and the sound of silence of the Nullarbor Plain. I was even starting to like the memory-making, crusty, fly-blown yellowing toilets we encountered and the day-old sausage rolls in the dodgy roadhouses. But most of all, I realised I loved travelling with my dad!”

The Bungle Bungle Range.
Camera IconThe Bungle Bungle Range. Credit: Tyrhys Wilson/Supplied

First impressions can make a good travel story. But sometimes visiting many times and knowing it well brings a richness, as in the story by Tyrhys Wilson about the Bungle Bungle Range in Purnululu National Park in the Kimberley. He grew up in Kununurra but is at school in Perth, and ties together two visits in his one story. He writes: “On the outside it seems like an unusual hill range, but when you go inside it’s like a huge maze, formed by Mother Nature 350 million years ago.” Later he returns “not only to revisit the place but to reconnect with the area, to have a clear and better understanding of it. As a young Aboriginal man, I feel the burden within me to keep the knowledge and understanding within me of every area within the region I grew up in.”

The story on Jurien Bay by Charlotte Barker cleverly combines impressions and reactions with plenty of helpful information. On one hand, there are the experiences of “the sand squishy between my toes, as I stood in the ankle-deep water (watching) people jump off the jetty and into the (sea). The water reflected the sunlight making it sparkle and glisten. I leaped (in) and dove underneath the waves.” On the other hand: “From my experience, the best times to go are September, October and November, because it’s cooler and less windy.” And Charlotte gives a short review of Jurien Bay Tourist Park: “With free wi-fi, pet friendly and beach access, it has all you would need at a caravan park.”

Light and landscape in Finland.
Camera IconLight and landscape in Finland. Credit: Ella George/Supplied

In opening her story with her listening to her family eating breakfast downstairs, Ella George cleverly drops in “cutlery clinks and I hear a polite, ‘kiitos’, as something is passed”. And so, immediately, we know that we are “somewhere else”. In fact, she is in Finland, painting a delightful word picture of the morning: “I creak down the wooden steps and out the front door of the little red cottage, making my way down the hill towards the Sauna House. The lake that the Summer Cottage overlooks is still and glassy at this time, before the wind sets in.”

Arjun Williams boldly jumps into his story: “It wasn’t a luxurious five-star hotel. There were no fluffy white pillows or five-course meals. But Gun’s camp, located in the remote Fiordland of New Zealand’s South Island was pure adventure.” The scene is set, and the story then progresses through Arjun’s own reactions to a GoPod introduction to the area, which includes “a quaint museum which described the life of Davy Gun, a cattleman who ran the camp site in the 1940s, who established the whole idea of tourism in the South Island”.

There’s a comprehensive feel to the story by Eric Townsend on Japan, from Tokyo to Nagoya and Hokkaido. But he starts with a deluge of images... “vibrant warm colours, foliage scattered on the streets”... “citizens riding their bikes or walking to the shops”... “soft sprinkles of snowflakes reflected in the air off of the glittering snow floor”. It’s an intense and engaging start.

Harriet Keenan, who has been a finalist before, shows consistency and commitment with her story about Rome. It is as rich and complex as the city itself. There are tight sentences, each one leading smoothly to the next: “Centuries of changing cultures have fused the city into a bizarre mix of contemporary and ancient. In fact, it turns out to be less of a city and more of a maze; the streets twist and turn, each one intersecting with the next, while lanes and alleyways create a multitude of shortcuts in between”. And vivid observations, too: “Laughter floats through the street, mixing with the circus music from the buskers and the clatter of heels on the cobbles.”

Special commendations go to Trinity Paddick, Eve Gibbon, Gloria Limas, Alex Mackay, Amber Bayakly, Charlotte Cantley, Amy Price and Eliza Wood for very nice writing. And to Elivia Spencer and Emma Garland for some good photography.

TOP OF THE CLASS

While young writers entered as individuals, some were also encouraged by their teachers. I’m grateful to Media Education here at Seven West Media WA for connecting to schools and teachers and taking Young Travel Writer 2020 to them. We received many entries through the following 24 schools and I thank them for their support:

  • Australian Islamic College Kewdale
  • Bunbury Catholic College Marist Campus
  • Carine Senior High School
  • Christ Church Grammar School
  • Churchlands Senior High School
  • Governor Stirling Senior High School
  • Greenwood College
  • Guildford Grammar School
  • Helena College Senior School
  • Hale School
  • John Curtin College of the Arts
  • Joseph Banks Secondary College
  • Lake Joondalup Baptist College
  • Mercedes College
  • Nagle Catholic College
  • Mt Lawley Senior High School
  • North Lake Senior Campus
  • Perth Modern School
  • Presbyterian Ladies College
  • Quinns Baptist College
  • Rossmoyne Senior High School
  • Shenton College
  • Warnbro Community High School Education Support Centre
  • Willetton Senior High School

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