Chloe Donnelly, Nate Dennis and George Wall tackled tricky vowel sounds, silent letters and words they hadn’t heard before in the challenging competition. George battled his way through 12 words to qualify for the state round, while Chloe and Nate were knocked out after spelling two words each.

Nate said the regional competition was more difficult than he had expected. 

“It’s harder than the school one because we’d made it up another level and that made it trickier,” he said.

He tripped up on the unusual word ‘ginseng’, a root in the ground. 

Chloe’s competition ended with the word ‘podiatry’.

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“I spelled it with an ‘e’ instead of an ‘o’”, she explained. She was disappointed not to hang on for a few more rounds, but said the regional level was a step up from the school competition.

For George, hours of practice paid off.

“Every night I’d do about 20 words,” he said.

He came across one word – ‘Dublin’ – which he’d never heard before, but his instincts paid off. He said ‘meteorite’ was the hardest word he had to spell. 

As he prepares for the State Spelling Bee Championships at the ABC studios in Sydney early November, George is intensifying his spelling study. 

“I just have to go and go again until I get the word right. Dad doesn’t tell me the correct spelling, I have to guess it,” he said.