Banjo Patterson

Andrew Barton "Banjo" Patterson (1864 - 1941) was a famous Australian bush poet[?]. He wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, focusing particularly on the rural and outback areas.

One of his most famous poems is Waltzing Matilda, which was set to music and became one of Australia's most famous songs. Others include The Man From Snowy River, which (loosely) inspired a movie in 1980 and (even more loosely) inspired a TV series in the 1990s, and Clancy of the Overflow[?], the tale of a Queensland "drover" (cattle handler responsible for herding large mobs of cattle long distances to market), amongst several others.

Patterson's poems mostly presented a highly romantic view of rural Australia. Patterson himself, like a majority of Australians even then and even more so since, was city-based and indeed was a practising lawyer. One may contrast his work with the (almost as famous) prose of Henry Lawson, a contemporary of Patterson's, including his work "The Drover's Wife", which presented a considerably less sugar-coated view of the harshness of rural existence of the late 19th century.

His image and a short section from one of his poems appears on the (AUD) $10 note.

External Links

e-texts of some of A. B. (Andrew Barton) Paterson's works:

• The Man From Snowy River (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=2583)
• An Outback Marriage (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=2584)
• Saltbush Bill, J. P. (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=2052)
• Three Elephant Power And Other Stories (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=2340)