Lincoln Alderman's poem 'Sunrise On a Hill' described his first-hand experience of the Black Summer bushfires that devastated the village on New Year's Eve 2019.

His work placed first in the junior category of the Kids News Bushfire Poetry competition and will now be published in a book called The Day She Stole The Sun, a joint project run by HarperCollins, News Corp Australia and the National Bushfire Recovery Agency.

The book will be distributed to schools and libraries in bushfire-affected regions, as well as sold in bookstores throughout Australia.

The poem was inspired by Lincoln's experience of seeing the fire advance towards their farm Carinya in Coolagolite, five minutes away from central Cobargo.

"It looked alive, like an enormous herd of red orange-coloured cattle on the move coming over the hillside," Lincoln said.

READ ALSO: Cobargo schoolkids publish book, album on memories of summer bushfires

Lincoln was given the opportunity to put the experience into words when his teachers Ms Lowe and Mr Kerr from Cobargo Public School started a project for the pupils to write down their thoughts about their recent experiences with the bushfires.

"I remember the oval being black and I was in my classroom looking out at the oval and I wanted to express my feelings through a poem or song just to let everything out," Lincoln said.

Writing the poem took him back to when he was on the property camping in the backyard while embers were falling from the sky.

"It was after my dad's 50th birthday, I saw these ashes, everyone thought it was raining outside because you could hear it banging on our shed."

Lincoln said he remembered waking up and seeing holes in the tents from the falling embers and his sister Astrid and cousin Tahlia pointing to the hill at what they thought was a sunrise.

"My sister Astrid was like 'oh wow look at the sunrise', I was like 'Astrid the sun is on the other side that's not a sunrise that's a fire'.

"I will never forget that image of the fire coming over the hill towards our property."

READ ALSO: Seeds of native plants ravaged in the devastating Black Summer bushfires will be stored in the safety of a new seed bank

It was Lincoln's father who inspired the references to sticking together that echo throughout the poem.

"When we evacuated, I looked out the back window of the car and saw a huge fire and I felt worried. Then my dad said 'don't worry, if we stick together, we will be okay'."

Lincoln's mother Amanda Alderman said the poem is simple and heartfelt but had a bigger meaning about sticking together as a community.