Banjo Paterson - Bard of the Australian Bush

When Andrew Barton Paterson was born in 1864, Australia was not a country, but a group of colonies that had their own governments but were partly ruled from Britain thousands of miles away. In 1901, Australia became a nation with its own Prime Minister.

'Banjo' Paterson - he chose the nickname that he always used for his early poems from the name of his favourite racehorse on his father's farm - was one of those people who helped to build up a strong national identity for the new country, based on characters in his poems, songs, short stories and novels from Australia's empty rural areas, called the 'bush' or the 'outback'. This national stereotype still holds the country's imagination today, like the cowboy does in the United States.

Andrew was born on a lonely sheep farm in New South Wales. His father was Scottish and his mother a native Australian. He was educated at home until he was old enough to ride a horse the long distance to the 'bush' school every day. When he was ten, he went to live in a suburb of Sydney with his widowed grandmother, who first taught him to love reading and books, so that he could study at Sydney Grammar School.

Although he was good at sports and a capable student, he did not get a scholarship to the University of Sydney and so worked in a lawyer's office. Finally, in 1888, he became one himself.

When Andrew was twenty-one, he published his first poem in 'The Bulletin', a republican newspaper. In 1889, he wrote an article for the same newspaper, called 'Australia for the Australians', which argued that immigrants were not what the country needed, but a fine nationalist spirit. These days, his views on a white-skinned Australia are not often mentioned though.

In 1890, he sold seven thousand copies of 'The Man from the Snowy River and Other Poems'. Very soon, everyone knew that 'The Banjo' who signed the poems was, in fact, the lawyer and sportsman, Andrew Paterson. The title poem in the book describes a young man who follows an expensive race horse which had escaped from a farm to join the wild horses in the bush. Although all his friends give up, the lad continues and eventually brings back not just the one horse but many wild ones, after a dangerous and exciting ride. It was this kind of bravery and energy that Paterson thought made the Australian what he was.

Another poet of the time, Henry Lawson, who was both a friend of Paterson's and a famous poet, argued that Banjo made life in the bush seem very romantic. In reality, Lawson said, it was hard and unforgiving and that he always felt much better as soon as he got back to the city. He and Paterson wrote poems answering each other's views on life in the bush which were read by thousands in 'The Bulletin'.

In fact, though, both authors led city lives. Paterson had his own law firm from 1886 and so was no longer really a farmer in the bush, although his main love was still horses.

When the Second Boer War started, Paterson got a job as a war correspondent with The Sydney Herald and sailed to South Africa. He very quickly became known for his fine writing and also for his courage. To celebrate a British victory, he was invited to dinner and sat beside the world-famous Rudyard Kipling, who was the most widely read author in the English-speaking world in those days and a supporter of the British Empire. Kipling had heard of Paterson too - after all, he was the best-selling author after Kipling - and the two became friends.

After South Africa, Paterson headed to China to report on the Boxer Rebellion for the same newspaper. In 1901, he visited Britain, where he went motoring with Kipling, and on his return to Australia gave up journalism. By 1904, he was once again involved with The Sydney Herald, although this time as its editor and his days as a reporter and a lawyer were long-forgotten.

When World War I began in 1914, Paterson wanted once again to become a war correspondent for a newspaper, but was refused. Instead, he worked as an ambulance driver. He was fifty years old. The following year, he accompanied horses on voyages to Egypt and France and served as an officer in both countries. In fact, he was badly wounded. He ended the war as a major in a horse regiment.

Paterson continued to write but gave up journalism in the 1930s and settled on his large farm near to where he had grown up in the bush. He died of a heart attack in 1941 at the age of seventy-six.

You can find some short stories by Paterson in this collection. They are down-to-earth and often funny.