Welcome!
The Friends of the Benalla Library:

Assist Library events - raise funds to help acquire books, and other materials.
We promote the library's services and facilities, raising the profile of the library in the community.

Next Meeting:

Tuesday November 17th 2026
Annual General Meeting
11am
at the Benalla Golf Club

Faces were glowing with excitement, anticipation, delight and pride as 96 people, including entrants and supporters gathered at Benalla Library for the 2026 Writing Competition Awards Ceremony.  The competition was proudly sponsored by The Friends of the Benalla Library, to encourage and promote budding writers in our community.  Criteria for entry was to use one of nine “Story Starters”, to comply with the allocated word limit and for the piece of writing to be the original work of the entrant.

The teams of judges spent a great deal of time reading and re-reading the entries before making their final decision for each category.  The judges were impressed with the creative and original responses to the story starters.

FOBL Secretary, Deb Saunders conducted the ceremony and President Geraldine McCorkell presented the prizes.

The winning entries were as follows:-

YEAR 3/4 - Evie Hawthorne 1st, Kauta Schwartz 2nd, Ellie McTaggart 3rd, Commendations - Charlotte Gee, Amber Foletta.

YEAR 5/6 - Chloe Edney 1st, Kaldon Brown 2nd, Mia Pollard 3rd, Commendation - Isabelle Maher.

YEAR 7/8  - Marcus Freeman 1st, Elizabeth (Toph) Nelson – Charles 2nd, Chelsea Sinclair 3rd.

YEAR  9 - 11 - Felicity Richards 1st, Charlotte Beal 2nd, Ella Jenkins 3rd

OPEN - Matthew King 1st, Tim Arendt 2nd, Carla Gardner 3rd, Commendations - Alex McDonald, Tip Turnbull.

The Friends of the Benalla Library expressed great pleasure at the number and quality of entries.  We anticipate that the success of this competition will encourage potential writers to further their interest and develop their writing skills.

- Robyn MacLean