St Joseph's Nudgee College

November 11, 2008

Nudgee College Year 11 student Dominic O'Donnell's short story titled "The Fair Go" has been awarded first place in a state wide literary competition.

Dominic wrote the story for his English course work during Semester One. The story received positive reviews from the competition's judges, who awarded him $300 for the competition's Section A (Years 11 and 12).

His teachers entered his story, along with other pieces of student work, into the competition in an effort to encourage students to test the waters of competition outside of Nudgee College.

"The idea for the story actually came to me in the middle of the night," Dominic said.

"We had been studying Representations of Nationhood and were given a number of texts we could use for inspiration. I chose a cartoon which showed a crowd on Australia Day with one person saying Aussie, Aussie, Aussie and someone else saying shut up."

"From that, I decided to write a story about a father and son who don't really get along, especially on Australia Day as that's when the boy's mum died," he said.

Dominic's touching story is set on Australia Day 2008. His main character, Nathaniel, and his dad spend the day together remembering Nathaniel's mum, who died in hospital on Australia Day when he was 12 years old, following years of treatment for her illness.

In the judge's report from the competition, which is sponsored by the Queensland Independent Education Union, the English Teachers' Association of Queensland and the Courier Mail, Dominic's work was described as "a poignant story of a young man who finally realises that, following his mother's death, he had never given his father a fair go".

Dominic's English teacher, Therese O'Connor, complimented Dominic on his ability to "weave significant themes from the national identity discourse into the story without allowing them to dominate what is an excellent exploration of the fragility of life and relationships".

Dominic was presented with his award and was invited to read an extract from his work at a recent presentation ceremony at the Bardon Centre. The Courier Mail might also publish his work in an upcoming edition.

Dominic's story, along with works from some of the College's other talented English students, will be published in this year's Diversions booklet, available from Nudgee's Head of Art Gregg Elliot, so that all members of the Nudgee community can read his work.