Short stories, big prizes Letters to the Editor

Writing letters to the Editor

Each letter must be accompanied with the writer’s full name, address and phone number (name and suburb for publication only) and limited to 300 words. Letters to be received via post or email (preferred option). The Editor has the right to limit the amount of words and published letters are at the discretion of the Editor.

Send your letters to news@themooraboolnews.com.au

Dear Editor,

At the Victorian Government Public Accounts Estimates Committee hearings on 8 June 23, Lily D’Ambrosio, our Energy Minister, said that there had been 1,524,000 applications for Round 4 of the $250 Power Saving Bonus.

She was giving an account of the $400M allocated for this in the State Budget.

While she did not say how many applications had been approved, if all of them were, then this would tally to $381M already spent, with $19M left in the budget.

By my maths, $19M, divided by $250 bonuses, would seem to still leave funding for 76,000 residential Victorian electricity customers waiting to claim the bonus.

If any Moorabool News readers are amongst those 76,000, and are yet to claim their bonus, please can I ask you to do so?

By Lachlan Ellis

Some of Moorabool’s aspiring writers, both young and old, have been awarded for their craft this month, as part of an annual competition.

On Saturday 3 June, the 2023 Moorabool Young Writers Awards and the 2023 Peter Carey Short Story Awards Ceremony were held at Lerderderg Library in Bacchus Marsh. The event bought together writers of all ages from our local community and from across Australia to celebrate creativity and imagination in the short story form.

A record-breaking 438 short stories were submitted to the 2023 Peter Carey Short Story Awards, which was reduced to a longlist of 15 stories by the three-member longlisting panel.

Head judge, Bacchus Marsh’s Anne Casey-Hardy, had the difficult task of reducing the longlist even further to the seven most extraordinary stories, and picking out a winner from that shortlist.

The outright winner was Greg Foyster with his piece ‘Iso’, while Jumaana Abdu was named runner-up with ‘A Woman of Nineveh’, and Nathaniel Winfield won the Best Local Entry with ‘Doe Eyes’.

Mr Foyster won $2,000, while Ms Abdu won $1,000, with both writers’ work to be featured in literary magazine Meanjin as well. Mr Winfield’s story won him a $500 prize.

In the Moorabool Young Writers Awards competition, 688 students submitted their stories, with 27 of those young writers taking out prizes across four categories.

Local authors Jem Tyley-Miller and Wayne Marshall present the awards, and Ms Tyley-Miller congratulated all the winners.

“It was wonderful to celebrate another successful year of both the Carey and the Moorabool Young Writers’ Awards.

What makes the event so special is that we have writers from five to ninety years old celebrating with friends and family on the day, and we certainly wouldn’t discriminate against you if you were older. All stories are judged blind, meaning no names are attached, so the quality of the work speaks for itself,” she told the Moorabool News.

“It is always such a wonderful pleasure to share the winning stories with Peter Carey himself each year and to watch what started out as relatively small competitions go from strength to strength, particularly on the national stage.”

Young Writers Awards winners:

Early Years Primary

• Lola Hendrix, Harper Harris, Jake (Bungaree PS), Freddie O’Donnell, Meeka Booth

• Middle Primary Category

• Evie Rose Jarrad (winner), Scarlett Taylor Anderson (R/up), Grace Bonnici (3rd)

• (Honourable Mentions) - Chloe Beardsley, Chloe (Bungaree PS)

• (Encouragement Awards) - Areen Kaur, Kendall Matautia, Jessica (Bungaree PS)

Upper Primary Category

• Elizabeth Marshall (winner), Ivy Elizabeth Tyley-Miller (R/up), Harrison Malcolm Dean (3rd)

• (Honourable Mentions) - Amelie John, Makanaka Mukundi

• (Encouragement Awards) - Elise Victoria Holland, Lexie (Darley PS), Blake Griffiths, Mason Kick, Liam Garth, Jye Altay

Youth Category

• Isaac Tyley-Miller (winner), Katelynne Nicholson (R/up), Freya Fox (3rd)

If your needs are all met, then can I ask you to please donate the $250 to the STOPAUSNET Towers Supreme Court legal action to force AEMO to redesign and reroute the Western Renewables Link.

The application process is simple and can be done by visiting the website https://compare.energy.vic.gov.au.

For those that may struggle with the application process, Michaela Settle MP has been offering to help, or alternatively, readers are most welcome to contact me on 0417 401 458.

Donations to help fund the Supreme Court legal action can be made through the STOP AUSNET’S TOWERS website: https://www.stopausnetstowers.com.au, via bank transfer or GoFundme options.

Jim Phasey, Myrniong

Dear Editor,

I write regarding the article on page 9 (M/News 30 May), "Heating your home safely this winter."

While very topical at this time of the year, my question is how does one get anyone to service their gas heaters?

We had no problems getting someone out from Ballarat for the last service some years ago, but now due to the strict Regulations requiring a Permit to be issued by an official Inspector, to this point in time we have been unable to get anyone prepared to do the job; any suggestions?

Gary Shaw, Ballan