After months of reading short stories for the Banjo Paterson Writing Awards, the judges have settled on a story about a young policeman taking up his first posting in a frontier settlement in South Australia as their favourite.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
John Scholz from Willunga, South Australia won $1000 for the short story, Movement at the Station.
The story covers the police constable having to make critical decisions immediately upon his arrival at the settlement following a bloody crime.
It also covers how he deals with the animosity of the whalers and white inhabitants towards the Indigenous people of the area.
The judges found Scholz’s narration of the outcome as nuanced and subtle, a direct contradiction to his treatment of landscape and setting.
“The reader is left in no doubt about either with some beautiful and stark descriptions of the policeman’s travel to his new posting,” the judges said.
“The use of fresh and interesting metaphor and simile to convey a feeling of isolation and unfamiliarity was very powerful.
“A winner, not just for an aspect of colonial history well told, but for the manner of it’s telling – interesting, fresh and gracefully written.”
Mr Scholz was “stoked” to have won.
“I’ve been writing short stories and poetry and having a go at writing a novel for 25 to 30 years,” Mr Scholz said.
The high school English teacher said his students are inspired when wins writing awards and one his colleagues included another of his award-winning short stories in the texts studied by their year 12 class.
Mr Scholz was inspired to write Movement at the Station after reading Dances with Wolves but also grew up at the Eyre Peninsula where his story was set.
“I knew that area extremely well and I also new the history of South Australia,” Mr Scholz said.
“The event of the murder he encounters was a murder that I’ve been told about, I don’t know if it’s true but I heard about it when I was living on the Eyre Peninsula.”
Short story topics included family relationships, stockmen, life in the country, immigration, storms, bull riding, crime, dogs, journeys and mates.
Second place went to Quiet Child by Carmel Lillis of Yarraville, Victoria, and Ruth McConnell of Chapman, ACT, came third with Discriminating Judgement.