Andrew Barton Paterson’s poems, stories and songs live on today in our books, movies and memories
His words are woven into the fabric of Australia — from our unofficial national anthem to the bush ballads that remind us what it means to be Aussie. Andrew Barton “Banjo” Paterson immortalised the Australian spirit in the form of men and women of the bush.
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His words are woven into the fabric of Australia — from our unofficial national anthem to the bush ballads that remind us what it means to be Aussie.
Andrew Barton “Banjo” Paterson immortalised the Australian spirit in the form of men and women of the bush — the stockman, the drover, the Digger, and of course the larrikin — in poems, songs and stories that live on today in our books, our movies and in our minds.
You could hardly call yourself Aussie without knowing at least the chorus to Waltzing Matilda, which regularly rings out from the stands whenever the green and gold flies at sporting events at home or around the world.
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Paterson is so much a part of the currency of our nation that he is actually part of our currency, appearing on the $10 note since 1993.
The newest $10 note also includes an illustration of a stockman riding a horse and the microprint text of the entire Man from Snowy River poem.
Paterson was born in 1864 on a property called Narrambla, near Orange, to Scottish immigrant Andrew Bogle Paterson and Australian-born Rose Isabella Barton — who was related to our first prime minister Edmund Barton.
His early education came from a governess and the small bush school at Binalong, before attending Sydney Grammar School where he was both a good student and sportsman.
Having failed to secure a scholarship to Sydney University, he became a law clerk before practising as a solicitor.
But it was about this time that he adopted the pseudonym “The Banjo”, after a family racehorse, and began submitting poetry to The Bulletin, which published his now famed works Clancy of the Overflow in 1989 and The Man from Snowy River in 1890.
In 1895 he published a collection of verses and perhaps his most famous work, Waltzing Matilda.
More than 80 years later it would be one of four songs in the running to be our national anthem and, while it came second to Advance Australia Fair, has remained a symbol of our nation around the world, with the lyrics even hidden in some Australian passports.
Paterson’s works caught the eye of renowned British author Rudyard Kipling, who said: “Give my best salutations to Mr Paterson & tell him to do it again, there can’t be too many men in the world singing about what they know and live and want other people to know and love.” The two writers would meet when Paterson was a correspondent, covering the Second Boer War and Boxer Rebellion, and become friends.
After missing out on a job as a correspondent covering World War I, Paterson enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in 1915.
After the war he returned to Australia to his wife Alice and children Grace and Hugh, and continued writing and working as a journalist.
He died in 1941 at age 76 — but his legacy lives on. His works are still read, recited and recorded today and in 1982 made into the film The Man from Snowy River.
Originally published as Andrew Barton Paterson’s poems, stories and songs live on today in our books, movies and memories
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