Gang – Gang Cockatoo

• Blayde Latimer, Grade 3
• Short Story
• 2018

I can see the cockatoo harvesting berries for its young. It has a salmon pink under belly and a grey head and crest. “Squawk!” The gang-gang cockatoo looked at me and squawked again.
From my research at the University of Western Sydney, I know that gang-gang cockatoos love eating seeds from Wattle and Eucalyptus trees. They also love insects, berries and nuts. I love these cockatoos so much, that I have invented a machine to turn me into one! Okay, now let’s be a bird with my contraption.
Wow it sure is rigid being a bird. I can’t make babies because humans are destroying my mating station. Ahh! Look at those weeds. They’re all taking over my habitat. I have to do something.
What’s that sound? Oh, it’s those stinking miners. They have come up to my tall mountain to mine the coal. But, they’re going to fall off the mountain soon. Well, I hope so, anyway. Wait! Look at me! I’m thirty-seven centimetres long and I have a grey head that looks like a storm cloud. My crest is edged and I have salmon pink feathers on my under belly. I’m beautiful! I’m glorious!

Brr. I’m frosting. It’s so cold up here in the mountains. Can someone put the heater on? I’ve got to get down from this mountain, but I have to get my contraption. Should I stay up here and perish with my contraption? Or should I jump and give it a chance at soaring lower? Ahh! This is so alarming. Obviously I am soaring wrong.
Ahh! A cob web … wait … Why is a spider web right in the middle of the sky? Oh it’s connected to the mountains, that’s the reason. Alright now, let’s find my co-worker Jeff. He could help me. I have got this invention that makes animals talk English like us. “Jeff, turn me back”.

Now we have got to help these cockatoos a.s.a.p. We have to get to those miners before they blow this place up… ting ting ting ting oh no boom pap pow. “Okay Jeff, you can stop now with the sound effects now. Oh thank you, so you had this the whole time - a gun that turns me back into a human again. Okay, let’s tell them about this Gang Gang Cockatoo”.
“Sir, do not blow this place up, there a Cockatoo that is endangered.”
“Thank you, sir”.
“This is how you can make a difference - to help animals. So start doing it!”