SPINIFEX State College student Elijah Douglas will be one of five Queensland high school students to travel to Gallipoli and the Western Front for Anzac Day this year, as a winner of the inaugural Premier's Anzac Prize.
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Elijah won the award with a multimedia presentation blending his research of Anzac Day with the sound of his didgeridoo.
"Last year in Doomadgee, two of my teachers helped me out with the entry forms and I had to research about the war and about Anzac Day," he said.
"Then I started recording myself speaking about it and playing the didgeridoo and we put it together on a video.
"We sent it off to the Premier and they selected five videos and I was one of them. I was excited."
Premier's Anzac Prize was a $1 million Newman Government election commitment that would see 50 high school students make the symbolic journey over the next three years.
The 16-year-old grew up in Doomadgee and moved to Mount Isa in 2010 to begin study at Spinifex College.
Elijah will fly to Brisbane this weekend where he will meet with four other award winners and Premier Newman.
"I will be giving him a sand painting I made, using sand from Anzac Cove," he said.
The group will travel to Gallipoli for the ceremony at Anzac Cove, before travelling to Greece, France and Belgium.
Elijah said he was the first person in his family to travel to Europe and was looking forward to visiting Paris and climbing the Eiffel Tower.
"My family are jealous and my friends want me to buy them things to bring back," he said.
He will travel with a didgeridoo he crafted himself and will play it at the ceremony at Anzac Cove on April 25.
Elijah said he was looking forward to visiting the places he had learned about during his studies of the war.
"We each chose three soldiers and we wrote a speech about them and we will have a memorial at their grave sights when we visit," he said.
"I am going to be speaking about Hill 60, where the Australian soldiers dug tunnels under the German lines and lay explosives and blew it all up."
His family and friends in Doomadgee and his teachers and friends in Mount Isa were extremely proud of his achievements.
Spinifex Head of Residential Campus Greg Hanrahan said Elijah had always shown potential to achieve great things.
"This is fantastic,"Mr Hanrahan said.
"We always knew he had it in him. We're really proud of him and we are really pleased he is reaching for his goals."
