Carlotta The Cat Travels Around Australia

• Kai Allen, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2021

One sunny day in Sydney, Carlotta the cat decided she wanted to travel around Australia. Lockdown had just ended, so she needed to quench her thirst for travel!

Before she went, she packed her essentials and went inside the zero emissions hypersonic nuclear-powered camper van and drove off.

Her first stop was Wollongong, where she was lucky enough to be there at the same time as the air show! At the air show, she saw many fascinating planes like the SBD – 3 from WW2! A quick history lesson – the SBD – 3 was a US Dive bomber that usually operated from aircraft carriers. She also picked up her first souvenir which was a mini SR71 Blackbird spy plane.

Next stop was Canberra where she interrupted a diplomacy meeting between the premiers. Just south of Canberra was the Snowy Mountains, where she beat the world record of the fastest speed when skiing!

After sipping 100 mugs of hot chocolate because she was VERY cold, she went to Melbourne. There, she was able to get on national television and became national news!

After that she travelled to Tasmania and visited the national parks and saw so much wildlife, after making friends with a koala she went to Adelaide to go on the Ghan!

Sadly, Mark McGowan had built a wall separating western Australia from the other states.

Needless to say, she had an amazing time on the Ghan and had many great tours!

Next, she went to Kakadu National Park and found a crocodile who had lost its babies! Carlotta ran all around Kakadu and finally found them!

As a big thank you, the crocodile gave them a ride on its back all the way down the river back to the boats.

Then, she went to Cairns. At Cairns she tried out scuba diving and found a Box Jellyfish who told her the inevitable truth. “Humans are scary”. This may surprise the people who know lots about Box Jellyfish – it is the most dangerous animal in the seas! But box jellyfish are scared of big, dark objects. What is a human? A big dark object? You must get it now, right?

After that shocking news, she went back to shore to dry off and found herself with a choice: Go to Townsville or go all the way to Brisbane. She spun a wheel and…. …Brisbane it is! In Brisbane, she decided she needed a little rest and decided to chill out a bit.

She decided to skip the Gold Coast because she was scared of the terrifying mascots at the theme parks, so she decided to go to the Big Banana in Coffs Harbor. After spending a day there, she finally, after a long trip returned home to Sydney.