ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

I feel honoured and excited to have been asked to judge the Secondary School entries in the Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Competition next year.

I believe this is the largest written poetry competition for children in Australia. Last year they received almost 10,000 entries from over 600 schools. Most of these were from primary students, however, and as I am only judging the secondary school entries, it might only be 1 - 2,000. That's still a lot of poems, though!

It is not a rhyming/bush verse competition, and I imagine that most of the entries will be free verse. It will be very interesting to see what come in!

Congratulations Stephen and it's wonderful to see competitions like this fostering the passion for poetry in our young people. I'm sure you'll do them proud with your judging

Cheers, Shelley

Thanks, Shelley. I'll do my best!

Great news Stephen and congratulations. 2000+ is not a trivial exercise.
Doubtless you'll give each piece due appraisal, so I don't envy your workload.

Goodonya ...

Thanks, Manfred. Yes, it will certainly be a big job. I do feel a bit daunted, but others have successfully gone before me, so I imagine I will be able to manage.