Winners are grinners

Like these Aus­tralian sea lions on the beach at KI, we think the win­ners will be impressed. About 600 entries were received for the ​‘Win a trip to Kan­ga­roo Island’ com­pe­ti­tion announced last month. It was obvi­ous­ly some­thing that cap­tured read­ers’ imaginations.

Explor­er, author and Nature Play patron Tim Jarvis, media per­son­al­i­ty, char­i­ty cham­pi­on and Nature Play board mem­ber Aman­da Blair, and Depart­ment of Envi­ron­ment, Water and Nat­ur­al Resources chief exec­u­tive Sandy Pitch­er were the judges giv­en the weighty task of decid­ing a winner.

‘We were over­whelmed by the thought that went into this com­pe­ti­tion,’ Sandy Pitch­er said. ​‘It just goes to show how much peo­ple val­ue our envi­ron­ment and under­stand how our deci­sions affect our sense of Good Living.’

‘The Good Liv­ing blog aims to con­nect South Aus­tralians with our nat­ur­al won­ders, high­light fun and fam­i­ly activ­i­ties and unlock some of the state’s envi­ron­men­tal and her­itage trea­sures. And I think already we can say that peo­ple in SA​“get it”.

‘The respons­es showed that we real­ly do see that con­nect­ed­ness of the envi­ron­ment to our health and our abil­i­ty to enjoy life to the full.’

To cel­e­brate the launch of Good Liv­ing we offered one lucky read­er the chance to stay in a for­mer light­house keep­ers’ cot­tage on Kan­ga­roo Island includ­ing return car fer­ry trans­fers for one car and a pass to vis­it major KI attrac­tions includ­ing Seal Bay, Kel­ly Hill Caves and Flinders Chase Nation­al Park.

We were look­ing for entries of 25 words or less that answered the ques­tion: ​‘How does the South Aus­tralian envi­ron­ment con­tribute to good liv­ing for you and your family?’

Here is our win­ner of the trip to KI:

“Lured from screens
By beach­es pris­tine,
Fam­i­ly talks on
Sun­day bush walks.
Get­ting out­side, not for­get­ting to play,
Liv­ing the Good Life here in SA!” – Jayne

‘They had me at ​“lured from screens” and I also liked ​“fam­i­ly talks on Sun­day bush­walks”,’ said Aman­da Blair of the win­ning entry.

Tim Jarvis was also impressed. ​‘Great to cap­ture the feel of the state via a rhyme,’ he commented.

But there’s more…

We were so impressed with the num­ber and qual­i­ty of entries from so many read­ers we are giv­ing free Parks Pass­es to the oth­er sev­en short-list­ed entries.

Here are the run­ners-up who will receive Parks Passes:

“Active: end­less fun climb­ing trees, bike-rid­ing, hik­ing, beach­comb­ing and more.
Cre­ative: sticks, leaves, nuts, rocks, shells, mud, bugs spark our imag­i­na­tion.
Togeth­er: hap­pi­ness, slow-down, free­dom!” – Miriam

“Each autumn school hol­i­days
We pack the trail­er
To camp on coast
Cac­tus, Innes, antecham­ber, d’estrees…
Bare­foot kids, salt-encrust­ed
Oys­ter­catch­ers over­head
Free­dom, joy
Fam­i­ly, love.” – Rebecca

“Wild places feed the soul, ground­ing and con­nect us to the here and now and evoke a sense of won­der and curios­i­ty that brings joy.” – Elizabeth

“Noise of waves crash­ing
Away from the hus­tle
Touch­ing sand with your toes
Under­stat­ed beau­ty
Real con­nec­tions
Excit­ing every sense
Nature the SA way” – Katrina

“Free­dom and afford­abil­i­ty in an uncon­gest­ed com­mu­ni­ty; great cli­mate with vast spaces offer­ing flex­i­bil­i­ty for fam­i­ly liv­ing, relax­ation and phys­i­cal activ­i­ty. We SAvour it!” – Heather

​“There is ALWAYS some­thing to see and do, even when there is ​‘noth­ing’ to see as far as the eye can see.” – Donna

“From the south­ern tip to the far north, our fam­i­ly love the puri­ty and diver­si­ty of South Aus­trali­a’s nat­ur­al places. Good Liv­ing – bring it on!” – David

Con­grat­u­la­tions all for a fine effort.

We will be in con­tact with the win­ners shortly.

Stay tuned for our next com­pe­ti­tion – details to be announced in next month’s e‑news (if you are not a sub­scriber to our e‑news make sure you sub­scribe so you don’t miss out).

The Good Liv­ing Team

More about the Judg­ing Panel:

Tim Jarvis AM

Tim Jarvis is a renowned explor­er, 2013 Adven­tur­er of the Year and mem­ber of the Order of Aus­tralia 2010 for his ser­vice to the Aus­tralian com­mu­ni­ty. Tim is also an envi­ron­men­tal sci­en­tist, author, pub­lic speak­er, sus­tain­abil­i­ty advo­cate and a Dad. This makes him a per­fect role mod­el to encour­age chil­dren to explore, to learn by doing and to appre­ci­ate nature in his role as Patron of Nature Play SA.

Aman­da Blair

Aman­da Blair is a mul­ti-tal­ent­ed mag­a­zine colum­nist, TV and radio per­son­al­i­ty, pas­sion­ate char­i­ty work­er and sup­port­er of var­i­ous social ser­vices and organ­i­sa­tions. She is a board mem­ber of The Inde­pen­dent Gam­bling Author­i­ty, the South Aus­tralian Hous­ing Trust and Nature Play SA and is co-chair of the Premier’s Coun­cil For Women. She is ambas­sador for the Hutt Street Cen­tre, Time For Kids, the Bed­ford Group and Foun­da­tion Shine.

Sandy Pitch­er

Sandy Pitch­er is Chief Exec­u­tive of the Depart­ment of Envi­ron­ment, Water and Nat­ur­al Resources. With more than a decade of expe­ri­ence in the senior ranks of the pub­lic ser­vice, she has worked for gov­ern­ment in South Aus­tralia, Can­ber­ra and the Unit­ed King­dom. As pre­vi­ous deputy chief exec­u­tive of the Depart­ment of the Pre­mier and Cab­i­net, she won 2012 Tel­stra Busi­ness­woman of the Year in the com­mu­ni­ty and gov­ern­ment category.