‘Hidden Worlds’

‘Hidden Worlds’

Townsville City Council’s annual Short Story Competition provides a platform for the vibrant creative literary talent in our community, inviting writers of all ages. This year’s theme ‘My Fabulous Summer’ inspired Cathedral Year 8 student Alice Acton to pen ‘Hidden Worlds’ which earned her the Runner-Up prize in the Young Adult category (12-17).
Thank you Alice for allowing us to publish your story.

Pictured: Alice Acton receiving her prize at Townsville’s ‘Riverway Library’.

She silently padded up to her room, cautious not to step on the wrong floorboard and wake her sleeping dog. Julia settled down in a beanbag nestled in the corner of her pink, floral-patterned room. She reached over her heart-shaped cushion, lying abandoned on the cream carpet, picking up her most favourite book.

Julia slipped her bookmark out of the tattered book’s pages, placing it gently next to her. She began to read, her hazel eyes skimming over the tiny black font covering the torn, well-worn pages. As she read on, she was oblivious to the wind beginning to rush as if it was late for work and the room twisting and turning out of proportion. A sense of spinning snapped her subconscious reading and quickly brought her back to reality, just as she became engulfed in a washing machine sensation.

Dirt, ferns, moss, and the occasional lizard spun around her before she landed with a soft thud. Confused and lost, Julia sat almost frozen in time on the chocolate-brown, dampened earth. Slowly, she blinked and craned her neck to the left and right, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Perplexed, the girl delicately stood up and took in her lush, green surroundings. The call of exotic wildlife and the crunch of twigs and sticks were the only thing breaking the blissful quiet.

While the rainforest seemed quite familiar, it wasn’t anywhere in her hometown. An answer seemed to settle in the girl’s mind, just beyond her grasp. The sights, the sounds, the smells, it was too familiar for her to never have been here before. Julia began to scroll through her memory, trying to solve her confounding riddle. Suddenly it dawned on her. Months ago, she had ventured to this same rainforest. “The…the Daintree!”, she exclaimed as she remembered the tropical rainforest’s name.

As Julia‘s mind began to settle, she noticed something in her hand. A book. The book she had been reading. Her favourite. As she clutched the book tight and allowed its warmth to fill her up, she didn’t notice a cassowary sneaking up behind her, bobbing its head forward and backward. The black flightless feathered bird dashed past her, snatching her most treasured book from her reach.

Julia gave chase, the two of them dashing and dancing along the path, scattering rainforest debris as they flew. Despite the cassowary being much faster than the girl, she kept an eye on the bright blue neck of the endangered bird. As the bird rounded a bend, Julia took a shortcut through a small patch of King Ferns, Fan Palms, and a sharp Pandanus tree that tore Julia’s ankles like papercuts.

She arrived back on the path just in front of the runaway, sending the startled bird into the air. The bird landed ‘SMACK!’ on the rocky ground. She snatched the book out of the creature’s beak and the bird took off running down the path again, getting lost in the never-ending green maze. Julia continued to wander through the Daintree. 

Image digitally created by A.I.

As she pushed aside plants that covered the path, all she could see were more plants and more dirt. It was going to be impossible to find a way out of the biggest rainforest in Australia, and the oldest in the world. At least 135 million years of plants began to cover the path as she walked on, and Julia quickly lost sight of it. Thunder suddenly clapped, and grey clouds rolled in from all angles like police cars, swarming above the monstrous trees like bees.

Julia dashed through the slowly darkening forest, following a familiar path. Rain began to spit, and she raced through the undergrowth to a huge Curtain Figtree. She pressed her back up against the ancient wise giant and curled into a ball clutching the soggy book to her chest. Just as she reached cover, the thunder began a hearty applause, the lightning cracked, and the rain pelted down like hail, causing shallow craters in the dirt.

“Sunshine, sunshine, are you still there?”
“Of course, you are, you must be, you always are.”
The clouds were low and dark, but the sunshine was just above, ready to appear as it always does.
The girl slowly slid her fingers between the wet pages of her now ruined book and prised it open. Slowly she began to read.

The wind howled and the trees swirled around the girl. Julia was picked up by the cyclonic winds and whisked back through the flora and fauna. But this time there was no goanna in sight. Instead, as her room slowly came back into focus, she dodged a dog wandering across the carpet, scarcely missing the poor things tail.

‘PLONK!’ Julia landed on her beanbag bone dry just as her mum stuck her head through the girl’s timber doorframe to announce they were going on holidays to the Daintree. Half-conscious in a trance of confusion, Julia closed the book, stood up and reached into her cupboard to grab a bag. The first thing she packed was an umbrella.

Industry visit by SMEC

Industry visit by SMEC

The Cathedral School welcomed industry experts SMEC to speak to our Year 8 students last week – discussing the importance of rocks, mining, and future careers in Engineering, Geology.

Story by Miranda Mackee – Year 8

‘Today we learnt the importance of rocks and minerals. Cathedral had Terry McCauley and Chloe Madden come in from SMEC and teach us about rocks and the different ways they can be used throughout the industry.

Chloe taught us the importance of rocks and how they can be used for bases in structures like a house, bridge and a dam. Rocks can also help hold structures steady like at the strand they have rocks to stop the erosion of the shoreline. We learnt the importance of making sure the supporting rock of a tunnel must be strong to make sure that no rock and debris can fall on a person or trap a person in the tunnel.  Terry then took over and taught us about the biggest rock industry – mining. We learnt the two types of mining methods – mining underneath the ground and mining at the earth’s surface. Mining underneath the ground can be done by digging shafts and cutting paths for the machinery to be able to move up and down. Mining at the earth’s surface can be done by drilling away the waste rock to reach the ore body from the ground surface.

Terry taught us about how massive the machinery they use in mines are and what happens to the things they mine out of the earth, as they take the waste rock in one direction and the ore body in the other. The ore body rocks are than taken through this process of concentration, refining and smelting. Terry and Chloe were interesting speakers as they kept the grade interested through questions, which had prizes to be won! We were told about the different job opportunities in the industry like geologists who look for minerals in rocks, geotechnical, civil and mining engineers who look at the properties of rocks to use as a structure or support structure. After the lecture we got to look at some rock samples which are from the Hells Gate Dam project. The lecture has gotten me more interested as I have learnt the different ways rocks can be used in everyday life, and how important it is to be mining and looking at the rock samples that come from earth.’

– Miranda Mackee – Year 8

 

Motel Mystery

Motel Mystery

HYPOTHETICAL CRIME SCENE IN ST MARY’S MOTEL

By Milla Blanco and Grace Burrows

“Today in Year 8 STEM, we investigated in the fictional death of Barnaby Hill. A fake crime scene was set up in the St. Mary’s Motel.

It was just like a real crime scene, with caution tape and labelled evidence. We even had to go around taking pictures and collecting items. It was heaps of fun and helped improve our knowledge of forensic investigation. The best part was the hazmat suits that gave us a lot of laughs.

Overall, it was a great experience and we look forward to solving this ongoing investigation.”