Heywire winner Anthony Nish from Elliot, NT, shares his story.

Listen to an audio recording of this story here.

I come from Elliott, which is about half way between Darwin and Alice Springs.

It’s small, but beautiful and I love it because it’s my home.

My closest friends call me ‘Nishy’; that’s what my best mate Javin calls me.

Growing up together in Elliot, I reckon Javin and me are like brothers.

Javin was always at me to do my best in school and make something outta my life.

I liked to take risks, surf the train, and ride a motorbike as fast as I can, but Jav was different.

He was all for education, all for making a difference to community.

“You can’t muck around all the time, what’re you going to do with your life?” he used to ask me.

“I think I wanna write songs bro’,” I told Jav once.

I thought that he would laugh at me.

Instead, he said, “Well that’s great man. Have a dream and make that dream real. A friend of mine in Alice is a music producer — how about we pay him a visit?”

I must admit for the first time in my life, I suddenly felt really keen on doing something, songs are a great way to connect, Jav always reminded me.

We headed off to Alice the very next day. The dusty road trip to Alice from Elliott was a sweaty one, but we made it there slowly in our old, rickety bomb!When we got there, it turned out that Jav’s friend had been in a very bad car accident.

His family were looking after him, but he didn’t want to speak to anyone, he kept himself locked away.

We visited his family most days in the hope that we could help in some small way, Jav and I felt so helpless.

We hoped that he might open up to his good friend Jav, but he didn’t but, in a weird way Jav and his mate helped me find my dream.

Jav, because he had faith in me that I could write songs, and his mate because he made me think about how important family is.

So, from that day on I knew what to do.

I started writing songs about Elliott and family and country and loss and even about Jav and his mate.

Maybe you’ve heard one or two of my songs? Or I hope you will one day soon.

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