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Future Leaders is a national Initiative about leadership and the future of Australia. It seeks to involve, inform and inspire young people.
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Essays by young writers.
Showing essays sorted by TITLE
“The northerly gale shrieks past the high barbed-wire fences of Kolyma and collects dirt and snow, scattering loose earth into the sunken eyes of the slaving men …”
“His face was a maelstrom of angles. All sharp peaks and troughs. Even his name carried the metallic splice of a blade …”
“Civilisation erodes due to the reason that it is unable to comprehend itself. Wars break out, a Holocaust occurs …”
“For a job, Mr Anubis burnt art.
This is how he felt about it:
Days detached from wire hangers and wall hooks, they slid off
with his suit and bowler hat …”
“Today, we seem to be living in the age of the apocalypse. Shrugging away Climate Change, with its grim imagery of the bleached bones …”
“Rural highways tended to be quiet, especially around this time of afternoon, but they hadn’t seen anyone in ages. It was as if the nothing existed but the pair of them, making their way through the country, down the ocean path …”
“It had started to rain soft, gentle teardrops on the windshield. To him it felt appropriate, almost expected. A reflection of his own feelings …”
“Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. As much as they had all tried, there was no delaying the inevitable. The old world was gone …”
“ANZAC day is a day of reflection — of remembrance — and of respect, a day in which we and millions alike gather to commemorate …”
“We are told that Australia is the “lucky country”. A country where our most attractive asset is our multicultural community …”
“‘It’s the last day of our summer,’ she whispers, her feet gripping the branch. He squeezes his fingers into the bark of the bottlebrush until he can feel the blood draw out of them …”
“He turned the corner, away from the hustle of the main street into his quiet home strip. He exhaled and continued down the lane …”
“When Samira was asked what a rainbow looked like, the inquisitive six-year-old pointed to the vast array of garments fluttering …”
“When a disgusted John Howard called for the “stupid program” Big Brother to get “off the air”, he moved into philosophically …”
“I’ve been catching birds for nearly twenty years now. Twenty years of feathers in my face, of wriggling grey creatures frightened out of their simple minds. Some birds come easily, faithful like children, but others will fight like a cornered bear; all claws and flapping arms …”
“I should say in advance, that this is not a love story. It is not an adventure story, nor a mystery …”
“Each evening that autumn, she would drag out her rickety easel and sit cross-legged before it on the pier as she waited for the sun to disappear …”
“There was only one road out and back from the blowholes. High on the grey saltbush hills to your left were the glaring rows of designer housing surrounded by barbed fences. By the last uphill section, if you listened close enough, you could hear the groan of the holes as the ocean thundered beneath them …”
“‘What’s your favourite colour?’ I’ve always loved the colour blue. Not any old blue, mind you. But deep blue, dark blue …”
“Two boys walked in silence down the main road, the silent skeletons of discarded and broken streetlights casting shadows across …”
“Indian director Gurinder Chadha has a reputation for challenging conventions. Her latest film, Bride and Prejudice …”
“Your sister tried to call today. Twice. You didn’t notice, you were like that. Distracted. Your mind always wandering, refusing to come to rest, instead glossing over everything as a whole, equating commitment with missing out. A wine glass gripped in your right hand, fists clenched in the left, you stared out onto the street …”
“The people came early, just as they had done on that day in 1915. They were a mass of Sunday hats, rare silk stockings, best dresses …”
“When I first started to learn English, I didn’t understand capital letters. Someone said they were for words which were important …”
“Slap. I wipe the bloody remains down my leg and turn to grab the Aerogard, suddenly caught in the glow of the afternoon sun dressing the foreshore in a cloak of gold. Bewitching shafts of light stream down through the overhanging gum trees, dancing on my watch face before rushing into my eyes …”
“A morning chill whipped by, harshly slicing into the rider’s face. He inhaled the cool air mingled with salt from the sea …”
“I am in my last year of high school and for the past eighteen months I have been running the school Environment Club …”
“Sophie walked towards the science room, her stomach tingling with apprehension. She dreaded this class. The tables …”
“How many of you dream of having a perfect tan? What are you willing to risk in order to obtain this bronzed appearance? …”
“I don’t give two hoots about climate change. Well, I didn’t use to anyway. During a conversation with a friend last year …”
“I open the fridge and my drinks are gone and I think that it’s Sara or James, but they’re nowhere to be seen and I’m still sober …”
“There can now be no doubt that climate change is a real threat. For years the scientific community debated and researched the issue …”
“Wham! The car door slammed with such a tremor the entire body of the ’66 Chevrolet pickup truck shuddered …”
“And tongues of red flames leapt into the night sky, licking at the
stars and charring them black, such was the brilliance of the fire.
The words fell from my lips like a curtain, concealing me,
though they did little to drown out the voices echoing up from
the floor below. Now they inhabit this page …”
“Wheezing with exertion and gripping his son’s trembling hand Abdul collapsed to the ground. Letting out a wracking cough …”
“Mama woke me with a finger to her lips. I felt her breath on my ear as she whispered instructions. It was the middle of the night, but my eyes were accustomed to the darkness. Mama had brought her red handbag, my brothers had nothing, and I had stuffed my favourite book, Abdul and Goat, in my pocket …”
“Greenhouse or global warming refers to an average increase in the Earth’s temperature caused by certain gases in the atmosphere …”
“It’s the dry season; humid, but with a soft breeze rustling through the leaves in the trees. My eyes follow the green curves of the earth surrounding me: mass graves, a final resting place for many. My curiosity is awakened, my understanding minimal, as I attempt to comprehend the atrocities that have happened …”
“Exulted upon hollows of salted air
is a gull. It dips and plummets into …”
“She stares blankly at me, her frail hand grasping the rusty doorknob. ‘It’s me’, I utter, only to be greeted by my own voice …”
“Anneliese Saison was in stage four now. A relentless and inescapable mess of unresolved history, a downpour of emotional energy crippling the final walls that held his sanity together …”
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