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Zeelie's Fire Diary

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Zeelie's Fire Diary

Read the scenario and complete the writing tasks. Focus on first-person voice, sensory detail and how a writer can reveal emotion through specific choices. The diary entry should show the experience of a frightening event without suggesting that anyone should approach a fire.

Read the scenario

Zeelie is writing in a diary after evacuating with her family from a bushfire near their Australian town. They left when emergency services told people in the area to go. Now they are waiting at a community evacuation centre. Zeelie cannot see their house from here, and she does not know what they will find when they are allowed to return. She has a notebook, a bottle of water and the clothes she was wearing when they left.

Notice the writer's choices

A diary entry is private writing that often records a particular moment. It commonly uses first person (I, me, my), a date or time marker, and a voice that sounds personal. Sensory details can help a reader imagine an experience, while short sentences, repeated words or questions can suggest emotion. A diary writer can also look back on an event and reflect on what matters.

1.Which detail most clearly tells you that Zeelie is writing after reaching a safer place?

She is waiting at a community evacuation centre.
She does not know what they will find at home.
She has a notebook and a bottle of water.
The fire is near an Australian town.

2.Choose the sentence that uses sound imagery to make the fire feel close and unsettling.

The sky looked coppery behind the hills.
A dry crackle travelled across the paddock, then stopped.
Ash left grey specks on my sleeve.
My mouth tasted dusty.

3.In the sentence “I kept checking my phone, even though I knew there would be no new message”, what does the action suggest about Zeelie's feelings? Give one likely feeling and explain the clue.

4.Match each sensory detail to the sense it mainly describes: “orange light beyond the ridge”; “a siren fading”; “smoke in the air”; “heat against my cheeks”; “a dry, ashy taste”.

Sight
Sound
Smell
Touch
Taste

Smoke in the air
Heat against my cheeks
A dry, ashy taste
Orange light beyond the ridge
A siren fading

5.Improve this plain sentence by adding one precise sensory detail and one clue to Zeelie's emotion: “I waited at the centre.”

6.Plan Zeelie's diary entry. Write a date or time marker, one sensory detail, one action that reveals her feelings, and one question she might ask herself.

7.Write Zeelie's diary entry, dated 14/02/2025. Write 120–180 words in first person. Include what happened when she evacuated, at least three sensory details, an action that reveals emotion, and a reflective final thought. Keep the details consistent with the scenario.

8.Revise one sentence from your diary entry. Add a simile or metaphor that conveys Zeelie's emotion without exaggerating what she can see or know.

9.Edit this sentence for punctuation and clarity: “i wanted to ask mum if our house was safe but the words wouldnt come”

10.Reread your entry and name one sentence that shows emotion through an action or detail rather than directly naming a feeling. Explain what the reader can infer.