Upcoming Events
Literary Evening
ESU Awards Ceremony
ESU members and friends were again honoured to be guests of Her Excellency the Governor,
the Honourable Dr Jeanette Young AC PSM, and Professor Graeme Nimmo RFD, at
Government House for our prestigious awards ceremony on 1 April. The occasion honoured
the 2024 winners of the ESU Roly Sussex Short Story Competition and Secondary School
Public Speaking Competition.
ESU members and friends were again honoured to be guests of Her Excellency the Governor, the Honourable Dr Jeanette Young AC PSM, and Professor Graeme Nimmo RFD, at Government House for our prestigious awards ceremony on 1 April. The occasion honoured the 2024 winners of the ESU Roly Sussex Short Story Competition and Secondary School Public Speaking Competition.
Roly Sussex Short Story Competition
Open Division
Roxeena Bidgood, Paulette Gittens, Equal First Prize
Daniel Fallon, Rachel Bowman, Highly Commended
Secondary School Division
Isaac Round, First Prize; Lori Adam, Second Prize
Jiayang Luo, Isabella van Heerden, Highly Commended
Secondary School Public Speaking Competition
Senior Division
Eli Gearing, First Prize; Lucas Lu, Second Prize
Intermediate Division
Sophie Blundell, First Prize; Ting Lui, Second Prize
Junior Division
Millicent Tilson, First Prize; Madison Newland, Second Prize
Congratulations, once again, to all.
As noted by one of our awardees:
“The kindness and inclusivity of all those involved– the Governor, Professor Nimmo,
Professor Sussex, Professor Hatcher, Despina Cook, Kerry Davies and Ray Heffernan – made
this a memorable and enjoyable evening. The ambience of the beautiful residence and
gardens, the Governor’s witty and engaging speech – all made the event the pleasure it was.
What is also most heartening to me as a writer is to see the breadth of engagement across age
groups in both short story writing and public speaking, and to see our multicultural Australia
in full view as the winners accepted their awards. The love of the written and spoken word
still flourishes in Australia, nurtured by awards like these.”
—Paulette Gittins
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Roly Sussex Short Story Competition Open Division
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Roly Sussex Short Story Competition Secondary School Division
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Secondary School Public Speaking Competition
Senior Division
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Intermediate Division
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Junior Division
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Annual Twilight Event
On Friday 21 February, members and friends gathered for our annual Twilight Event for 2025.
Guest speaker Catherine Smith shared the extraordinary life experiences and challenges faced by her Maltese grandparents, Paul and Pauline Zammit, as they made their home in northern Australia in the early-twentieth century. Catherine’s engaging style had the audience enthralled with their rags-to-riches story.
This delightful evening of storytelling opened with readings from the joint winning stories in the Open Division of the Roly Sussex Short Story Competition for 2024, introduced by Rolys coordinator Despina Cook. They were Music Played in a Cafe by Roxeena Bidgood, read by Kathleen Wilson, and Blue Is the Limit by Paulette Gittins, read by Jan Mackay. You can read the winning and highly commended entries for the Open and Secondary School divisions here.
