The end of year S4P competition in Parramatta included just one category – speaking.  The topic was the same as the national one:  Trees, the Guardians of Life. This special high school competition was organised with the support of the City of Parramatta Council. It included junior and senior categories.

Here are our winners:

Senior group: 

• Winner:  Mia
• Runner-up:  Annoushka Maikap

Junior group

• Winner:  Sophie
• Runner-up:  Sameera Rajendram

Please listen to this wonderful winning speech by Mia from Our Lady of Mercy College Parramatta:

“Mother Nature urges humanity to safeguard Earth’s guardians—trees—warning of a bleak future without them, while challenging humans to protect and restore our planet”.

Please see winners from the national, online 2024 Speaking 4 the Planet competition.

Congratulations to all entrants and to the winners in each category.

Apologies for the delayed results. We had technical challenges with many of the entries.

There were 90 entries in total. The bulk of those fell in the Writing category. Surprising to see that there were no entries in the Speaking category, and for the Performance Poetry section we received only written poems.  We are able to offer a third prize in the Art category.

To the winners, please respond to me directly so we can sort out details for distributing the prizes.

Phil Smith

phil@speaking4theplanet.org.au

WRITING

First place

Deanna Tsotras

Sutherland Shire, enormous jacaranda trees stand tall.

They are the defenders of life, and they will never fall.

Branches stretch out; arms embrace.

drawing us within for comfort and grace.

Deanna wrote about her writing: “In my work, I created a poem that uses words to ignite imagination and evoke emotions, enabling readers to explore other regions.”

Deanna is from Our Lady of Mercy Catholic College, Burraneer, Sutherland Shire

Second place

Ella Abbey

The birds, the butterflies, the beasts are no more. The river, the mountain, the valley, silent. Their mossy guardian is toppled, the forest’s lifeblood crushed. The grand trees no more.

Ella’ piece is about a natural world without trees.

Ella is from Lindisfarne Anglican Grammar School, Terranora, Tweed Shire

ART

First place

Alexandra Taggart

from Engadine High School, Sutherland Shire

Second place

Angela Harris & Crew

from Murwillumbah Learning Community High School, Tweed Shire.

Third place

Isabella Wu

from Abbotsleigh, Ku-ring-gai Council.

Photo: TheFifthEstate.com

Australia has some of the worst rates of deforestation in the world – comparable to Indonesia and Brazil.

Here’s what we’ve uncovered so far about this crisis:

• Over 73% of deforestation is for beef production. Trees are bulldozed, invasive grasses are planted and cattle are brought in. 
  
• From 2016-2021, over 2.2 million hectares of forest and bushland was bulldozed in Queensland alone.
  
• The majority of beef sold in Australia ends up sold at Woolworths, Coles, McDonalds and Hungry Jacks. 
  
• Today, just 50% of Australia’s original forests and bushland remain intact.

Together, let’s end the deforestation crisis and protect our backyard.

From GreenPeace.org.au