The David Maher Award Winner Liam Dau, Year 5 student from Urbenville Public School has won the award for Best individual entry from a small school with 25 students or less for his poem called "The Brumbies".

The Brumbies

The brumbies are majestic, they are wild and untamed

Intelligent, brave of Snowy River fame

Watching them as they gallop through the mountain snow

The stallion moves them to the water hole he knows

Always alert, he protects his herd, his foals and all his mares

Never stopping, ears are pricked, constantly aware

They amble from the water hole with matted manes and tangled tails Through the eucalypts, the wattle and up the rocky trails

The stallion whinnies loudly and the herd it starts to move

This seems to signal danger or just a kangaroo

The herd moves in unison like a choreographed dance

Down the hill, across the river, they gallop the expanse

Of grassy plains and craggy knolls, they negotiate the land

These nimble beasts are mesmerising as they canter through the sand And into the horizon I stand and watch them disappear

Their hoofprints all that is left behind of the beauty that was here

My heart it starts to wonder, where they all have gone

And how is it that we cannot give the brumbies a safe home?