20895 ACE Language (Yr 6) Structures and Language Features

Gaya-dari the platypus – 1
1. Long ago in the Dreamtime, a young duck had developed
the habit of swimming by herself in the creek. The elders of
her tribe warned her repeatedly that Mulloka the water devil
would capture her if she continued to swim alone. Of course,
being headstrong and immature, she paid no attention to
their persistent warnings.
2. One day, having swum a long way down the creek, she
stopped on the bank to rest and feed. While she was
consuming some tender green grass, an enormous water rat
emerged from hiding and seized her. Biggoon was urgently
seeking a wife because he was extremely lonely.
3. In a soothing voice, he explained that if she agreed to stay with him, he would not
harm her. However, he threatened that if she struggled or tried to escape, he would
strike her on the head with the spear he carried.
4. The duck was utterly terrified so she obeyed her captor’s commands. From that day
onwards, to lure him into complacency, she pretended to enjoy her new life and
that she would remain forever. Eventually, Biggoon began to believe the duck was
contented with her new life, and ceased guarding her day and night. He returned to
his former practice of sleeping for long periods during the daytime.
5. One day, while Biggoon slept soundly, the duck slipped stealthily into the river and
swam away as swiftly as she could towards her old camp. When she finally reached
camp, she told her tribe how Biggoon had captured her and forced her to remain with
him as his wife, and about her eventual escape. So the young duck was able to resume
her old life.
6. When the time came, the young duck established a nest and covered her eggs with
mirria bushes beside the creek. She had quickly forgotten her ordeal with the water
rat. When her two babies hatched, their appearance was immensely different from
that of the other tribal members. Their bodies were covered with soft fur instead of
downy feathers; they had duck bills and four webbed feet instead of two. On the back
of the feet were spear points like the one Biggoon perpetually carried.
7. Much to her dismay, the tribe banished the young duck and her scorned children
because they were so dissimilar to the other members. So the small family retreated
upstream to hide from the tribe and Biggoon. Finally, she found a narrow, scrubby
creek in the mountains where she could live unseen on the banks with her children.
Soon her children began to see how different her appearance was from theirs and
they too avoided her. Too lonely and miserable to even search for food, the desolate
little duck began to waste away. In the mountains far from her old hunting ground,
she died, forgotten, in grief.
8. Her children, however, flourished and produced more babies like themselves. The
mountain creeks became the habitat of the Gaya-dari, the platypus. And a new tribe
was created from the mournful experiences of a young duck.
Australian Curriculum English – Language: Text structure and organisation (Year 6) www.ricpublications.com.au R.I.C. Publications ®
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Understand how authors often innovate on text structures and play with language features to achieve particular aesthetic, humorous and persuasive purposes and effects (ACELA1518)
© Australian Curriculum: Assessment and Reporting Authority 2012