Equal first, South Australian Writers Fellowship Literary Competition, 20 March, 1974.

I won $75 in this competition, which was hugely significant in my life.
It was the first time I realised I could make money out of what I liked to do, which was write.
I remain grateful to the competition organisers.
It was a story about a handsome, much sought after, extremely gifted often wasted friend called John Bygate, who was everything I wanted to be, well connected, gorgeous house in Paddington, fabulous book and record collection, very charismatic, at what we thought was the frontier of everything.
His decline was dramatic and he would die a few short years later.
I still deliberately walk past his old house in Elizabeth Street, Paddington in Sydney when I am in the area, as if it is a totemic site.
PS For some reason I always thought the date was 1972, and will need to correct the record.