St Joseph’s Grenfell Primary School student Yetu Akhiwu has won Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack’s 2018 Anzac Day writing competition for her high calibre entry ‘The Brave Anzac’. 

The year 6 student was delighted to discover that her short story about the heartache encountered by a nurse serving in the war was the overall winner in the Primary North Riverina section.

St Jospeh’s Grenfell Principal Therese Clancy said that Yetu’s story was of a very high standard and thanks year 6 teacher Mrs Heath for providing students with the opportunity to enter in the competition.

Mr McCormack said that the competition is a great way for students to further learn about Australia’s military history and to remember the men and women who fought so bravely for our freedom.

Read Yetu's winning entry:

THE BRAVE ANZAC

The sun is barely up. Mercifully, the rain is quiet outside the almost bare room. At night, sleep was chased away by nightmares, and never came back.

Everybody is thankful to be alive. But how can you celebrate a new day of living if every day is death?

Cold. Raining. Miserable.

The walk to the hospital seems dull and difficult. Now, I can’t remember a time without bombs and blood and death and tears and guns and goodbyes.

The hospital is full of patients. Bedridden volunteers crying, tears streaming down faces like rivers, clearing dirt from mud-stained cheeks. Whether they are crying from sorrow or pain, no one knows.

Others who aren’t hurt physically are ill in a different way.  Headaches, coughing, moaning, dying. Silent and weak. Just as many people die both ways.

Another soldier is brought in. His eyes are closed. Legs, ripped and torn, shirt dyed red and wet from the deep wounds, hidden underneath. Arms covered in mud. But breathing.

I almost cry. But nobody here cries every time someone dies. If we did, we would have cried all our tears and blood away long ago.

He stops breathing. He won’t survive.

Quickly, his wounds are cleaned and bandaged. He is put in new clothes, given medicine.

Many seconds pass. Nothing. The doctor examines him. Reluctantly, the final word is given.

Another soldier dead. 

He is lifted up to be buried. Suddenly…. a soft noise. Breathing. Quietly. Everyone smiles as his eyes open. Another soldier lives.

Written by Yetu Akhiwu
Year 6, St Joseph’s Primary School Grenfell