Co-organized by Chinese Language Teachers Federation of Australia (CLTFA) and Chinese Language Teachers' Association of Victoria (CLTAV), the 3rd Nation-wide Chinese Speaking Competition for Australian High School Students was held on 6 July, 2007 in Melbourne, the capital city of Victoria, Australia. The successful event was an initiative co-sponsored by Australian-Chinese Council and the Office of Chinese Language Council International ("Hanban") with great support from the Embassy of the PRC in Australia and the Consulate General of the PRC in Melbourne. China's Hanban sponsored the competition last year when the event was authorised to use the logo of Hanban for the first time in Australia. This year, once again Hanban manifested their goodwill by donating some Chinese Language Learning Tools to the organizing committee via Education Division of the Embassy of the PRC in Australia (used as the awards for winners and souvenirs for contestants).

The venue for the competition is located inside the campus of University of Melbourne. 23 contestants from 5 States (WA, SA, NSW, QLD, VIC) and 2 territories (NT and ACT) throughout Australia took part in the intense competition. Finally, 3 contestants from New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT won the first, second and the third place for Native Speakers Category respectively and 3 contestants from Victoria won the first, second and the third place for Non-native Speakers Category.

About 130 Chinese teachers from primary and high schools and parents of the students from different States/Territories were present at the competition. The organizing committee specially invited the Melbourne Local Chinese Martial Arts Society for performance of Taichi, Chinese broadsword, sword and stick arts on the occasion. This Nation-wide Chinese Speaking Competition has further stimulated the interest and enhanced the influence of Chinese language among the Australian high school students and Chinese teachers.

Academic Director of Confucius Institute of Melbourne University Professor David Holm, Member of Australian-Chinese Council and Head of the School of Social Sciences of La Trobe University Professor John Fitzgerald, and Deputy Consul-General of the Consulate General of the PRC in Melbourne Ms Yang Yueming attended the competition and they took their turns to deliver some warm speeches. Zhu Xiaoyu, the Minister Counsellor of Education Office of the Embassy of PRC in Australia presented the awards to the winners and contestants, Mr. Wang Wenxuan, the Head of Education Office of Consulate General of the PRC in Melbourne and other consuls were invited to attend the competition.

Photo 1: Group Photo of Ms Zhu Xiaoyu (2nd from left), the Minister Counsellor of Education Office of the Embassy of PRC, Ms Yang Yueming (1st from left), the Deputy Consul-General of the Consulate General of the PRC in Melbourne and Dr. Ha Wei (1st from right), the Vice-President of CLTAV with First Prize Winner Tomas Monntti (from Victoria, 3rd from right), Second Prize Winner Tabrez Shoriff (from Victoria, 3rd from left) and the Third Prize Winner Maximilian Lee (from Victoria, 2nd from right) of Non-native Speakers Category.

Photo 2: Group Photo of Ms Zhu Xiaoyu (1st from right), the Minister Counsellor of Education Office of the Embassy of PRC, Ms Yang Yueming (1st from left), the Deputy Consul-General of the Consulate General of the PRC in Melbourne with First Prize Winner Benjamin Hardy (from New South Wales, High), Second Prize Winner Peixuan Liu (from Victoria, 3rd from right) and Third Prize Winner Amanda Mclean (from capital area, 2nd from left) of Native Speakers Category

Photo 3: Mr. Wu Jianli, the President of CTLFA is Hosting the Competition