Cloncurry Prize Poetry Competition

The Cloncurry Prize is one of Australia’s richest poetry competitions with a cash prize of $10,000. The competition aims to showcase the essence of outback Australia. The Cloncurry Prize has a $25 entry fee and is open to Australian Citizens, living in Australia with all entries to be assessed by a select panel of judges.

The theme of the 2023 Cloncurry Prize Poetry Competition is “Outback Heroes”.

The inaugural Cloncurry Prize launched in 2020 to commemorate the 155th Birthday of Dame Mary Gilmore DBE, who returned to Cloncurry to lay rest with her husband in December 1962. The national competition pays tribute to Dame Mary, an Australian writer and journalist who features on the $10 note, known for her prolific contributions to Australian literature and the broader national discourse.

The competition is now closed for judging. The winner will be announced at the Cloncurry Prize Poetry Competition Award Evening held in Cloncurry on 23 June 2023.

2023 WINNER - PENNY LANE

Remembering Mary

We think back to Mary Bassett, born in 1835,

another in a bother of sons and daughters

for a Cornish family—our ancestor, Mary,

who scoured, laundered, stitched her years to 20

when she wed a farmhand soon short of work,

bore a run of children, just two sons surviving,

before farewelling family into distant memory

and misery on an immigrant ship, the Golden City,

16 weeks in sea-surge, stifled in breathless gloom,

bedding wet from bursts of sea through shipside gaps

and, worse than that, an infiltration of typhoid

taking her infant son to an ocean burial,

Mary staring down from heaving deckside

into a blue expansive as the heavens.

Then, a different blue, the luminous southern sky,

under which, she sadly, gladly, disembarked

to strange new sounds—kookaburras, cockatoos—

and scrawny trees and tawny grass, and

wagon-travel to outback Queensland pastoral stations—

Cooyar, Daandine—named according to

First People’s words for land no longer theirs.

Did that discomfort Mary? The taken land?

Did she ponder this in isolated hours,

her wiry, bandy-legged, ready-for-horses husband

gone to the wide outdoors with cattle?

Mary, sweat-wet, swelled with pregnancies,

early-morning milking, butter-churning, baking,

hefting heavy washing, wielding flat irons,

thrusting broom and mop at there-again dust and grime,

knowing she’d be doing it the next day too,

and in the evenings tending sickly children,

scissoring, thimble-fingered pinning, sewing

by candle glow and moth flutter, darning, mending,

patching patches, her exploits stitched on calico

and linen, and writ in rust of washing tubs.

We think of Mary rearing poddy calves for petting

and for later butchering, and pigs,

dispatching deadly snakes too close to home,

sometimes seeking respite in a gum’s mean shade,

the sky white-hot through squinting eyes

clouded with fatality, two daughters born and toddling

until taken by diphtheria.

We remember Mary in the Christmas pudding story

passed down through the women of the family,

the laughing aunts recalling Mary’s pudding

bouncing best in a communal tub of boiling water

(that tub got somehow from the Golden City)

until the pudding, pierced by a jealous other, sank.

We see Mary in a cousin’s chin, in an uncle’s eyes,

and in just one photograph—Mary sitting stiffly,

jacketed in black with cameoed white lace collar,

her handsome face, her downturned smile, sad eyes,

gnarly, hard-boiled hands, her left arm gripping

an infant grandson, her right arm hanging,

its hand reaching awkwardly for empty air.

Yes, we remember Mary, our outback hero.

2023 RUNNER UP - TOM MCILVEEN

HEROES OF YESTERDAY

They came when the colours of season were turning
from green to magenta and burgundy red.
They came when the sun was a demon and burning
the souls of the living and bones of the dead.

On camels and horses, they rode in formation,
abreast of each other, together as one...
in silence they shuffled, without conversation,
immersed in the haze of a merciless sun.

T’was Robert O.Burke who elected to lead them
through desert and scrub where the skies never rained,
and William J.Wills who neglected to heed them,
when camels and horses and men had complained.

“If only we’d come when The Cooper was flowing,
we might have been able to follow its course,
instead of just wandering north without knowing
its true destination or primary source.”

If only they’d come at the start of September,
they may have been welcome and given respite
from summer’s inferno and hell of December,
that bleaches the Spinifex grasses to white.

Perhaps they were destined for fortune and glory,
these heroes who’d ventured to places unknown.
ut history tells of a different story
of men who had died in the outback alone.

Soon others were able to venture and follow
the tracks that were laid by these brave pioneers;
as one would appear like a mi ratin swallow
a hero, to conquer unchartered frontiers.

When Ernest J.Henry retired as a cropper,
his future and fortune were set to unfold.
Prospectin for metals he’d come upon copper,
as perfect as jade and as precious as gold.

The town of Cloncurry arose from the rubble
of diggings by miners and back-breaking toil;
as cattle and sheep came to graze on the stubble
of grasses that sprung from the newly tilled soil.

As stations were settled and numbers expanded,
the outback had seemed to be conquered at last.
For many had come with their swags empty-handed,
to bury the bones of an uninterred past.

The women and men who had come were rewarded
with treasures more precious than metals and ore.
For those who remained, would be duly afforded
a freedom they’d never ima ined before.

The outback is more than just wide open spaces;
it’s more than just copper and cattle and sheep;
there’s somethin still sacred in unchartered places,
where spirits and heroes of yesterday sleep.

Judges

Tania Kernaghan
Allan Cooney
Brenda-Joy Pritchard

Key Dates

Entries open: 21 March 2023 at 9:00am AEST
Entries close: 1 May 2023 at 11.45pm AEST
Longlisting (selection of the top 50 entries): between 8 May 2023 and 21 May 2023
Shortlisting (selection of each judge’s top three entries): between 22 May 2023 and 4 June 2023
Final judging: between 5 June 2023 and 9 June 2023
Prize announcement: 23 June 2023

Prizes

Cloncurry Prize

First prize - $10,000

Runner Up - $1,000

Junior Competition

First prize - $250

Second prize - $150

Third prize - $100

Shortlist

Shortlist 2023 (note: poems are in no particular order in relation to their score)

The Women Of The Outback
Outback Legend Of The Sky
Out The Back
Heroes Of Yesterday
Unsung Heroes
Remembering Mary

Longlist (Top 50 Entries 2023)

Top 50 Entries 2023 (note: poems are in no particular order in relation to their score)

Unlikely Hero John McDouall Stuart
Follow The Wind
The Enduring Legacy And Spirit Of The Outback Heroes
Oceania
A Life Of Service
Rain Dreaming
Devastation
Outback Legend Of The Sky
The Swagman Gone
Dad
Outback Heroes Coming Through
Desert Sestina
Unsung Heroes
Trials Of Outback Heroes
Remembering Mary
Unsung Heroes
A Braver Breed Than Me
Kidman Lingering
The Swagman
Jim
The Women Of The Outback
The Squeaky Gate
Hero Of The Highway
My Outback Hero
The Wonomo Yowie
The Kalkadoon Reistance War
It's A Boy
Outback Bushfire Heroes
Our Outback Heroes
Knowing
Old Granny Stubbings
Condamine Tree
The Outback Heroes
A Ballad For A Bushman
Heroes Of Yesterday
Where Heroes Prevail
Those Who Went Before
Out The Back
Outback Heroes - God's Gift
The Outback Child
Heroes Of The Sky
King Of Cooper Creek
The Ballad of Catherine Lucas
Sturt's Dream
Everyday Outback Heroes
Outback Heroes - Then And Now
The Unsung Heroes Of The Outback
Our Own Heroes
Salute To The Bullocky
The Heart

Formatting, style and contents of poetry entry

Entries must be submitted observing the following formatting and stylistic elements:

Each entry must be a Microsoft Word document (.doc or .docx) or PDF (.pdf);
The document file name should be the title of the poem only
Entries must be a single poem of no more than two pages written in English. Pages must be numbered.
Entries must be typed in Calibri or Times New Roman font, no smaller than size 11
All stanza breaks must be clearly spaced
The poet’s name should not appear anywhere in the document body unless it is relevant to the work (entries are judged anonymously)

Criteria

The theme of the Cloncurry Prize Poetry Competition in 2023 is “Outback Heroes”.

Longlisting Criteria (Top 50)

Theme Relevance – Spirit of the Outback = 60%
Form – word choice, commas, stanzas = 20%
Language – choice of words, and order is precise = 20%

Shortlisting criteria (Top 10)

Theme Relevance – Spirit of the Outback = 60%
Form – word choice, commas, stanzas = 15%
Language – choice of words, and order is precise = 15%
Legacy – timelessness of Poem = 10%

Terms & Conditions

The competition Terms & Conditions contain valuable information including key dates, eligibility and formatting. A copy of the Terms & Conditions can be found HERE.

Message from former Prime Minister Scott Morrison

I am delighted that Cloncurry Shire Council has initiated the ‘Cloncurry Prize ~ Spirit of Outback’ Poetry Competition.

Dame Mary Gilmore was my great-great aunt. She was a beloved family member, and a source of pride - for her poetry and her place as a voice of our people.

When I see her wise face looking out from our $10 notes, I imagine her surveying modern Australia with wonder, and I suspect with a few helpful suggestions.

Much of what she spoke for has come to pass, so much of what she valued remains, and so much of our nation's promise has been fulfilled. I can't think of a better place than Cloncurry, where Aunt Mary rests with her husband William, to uncover the next bard of Australia, whoever she or he may be.

Australia is an ancient land of stories that reach back for millennia. The rich oral and visual imaginings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, the poems of colonial Australia, and the verse that grew from our developing nation reflect the epic narrative of our history. In times of trouble and challenge, these are the stories we turn to for comfort and hope.

The stories of Australia come from the city and the bush. They are made in the past and the present. They are our beacon for the future. They are the words of our national spirit, which transcends politics, religion, ethnicity or capital. Aunt Mary wrote once 'I see the world as one'. It's my belief that true poetry comes from that vision and brings people together.

Our poets tell our stories and show us who we are. Sometimes, as the days race by, we forget to stop and listen to those voices. I'm grateful to the people of Cloncurry who have endured so much in recent years, for encouraging us to change that - to hear our stories anew and celebrate the spirit they represent.

The Hon Scott Morrison MP
Prime Minister of Australia

September 2020

Media

For media enquires, please contact Council's Media and Public Relations Officer, Ella Thompson on 07 4742 4100 or cloncurryprize@cloncurry.qld.gov.au

General Enquiries

For general enquires, please contact Council's Community Activities Officer, Celene Franklin on 07 4742 4100 or cloncurryprize@cloncurry.qld.gov.au

2023 Winners