Mandy Louise was awarded the Eumundi Writers Festival Short Story Award Laureate 2026 on 6th September.2026 for her piece 'Ngumundi: Voice of the Trees.'

Her story brings 1900s logging in the Eumundi area to life, told from the perspective of the residents who live among the towering trees.

Through their eyes, the reader enters a world in upheaval, shaken by human industry, where tension between the long-standing community and the interlopers has an amusing bent. Capitalisation of the land and the displaced and the changing landscape around them. Lively humour, rivalry, manipulation and camaraderie blend in a style that not only entertains but offers a new understanding of how progress reshapes both environment and identity.