Banjo Paterson

Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson (17 February 1864 – 5 February 1941) is remembered as a bush poet, journalist, and author, and is often ranked among the finest writers from Australia's colonial era.

Paterson was born at a property called "Narrambla," near Orange, New South Wales. He was the oldest child of Andrew Bogle Paterson, a Scottish immigrant from Lanarkshire, and Rose Isabella Barton, an Australian whose relative Edmund Barton became Australia's first prime minister. The family lived on the isolated Buckinbah Station near Yeoval until Paterson was five, when his father lost his wool clip in a flood and had to sell up. After an uncle died, the family took over his farm in Illalong, near Yass, close to the main route between Melbourne and Sydney. Growing up, Paterson regularly saw bullock teams, Cobb and Co coaches, and drovers. He also watched horsemen from the Murrumbidgee River area and Snowy Mountains country take part in picnic races and polo matches, which sparked his love of horses and later inspired his writing.

Paterson's early lessons came from a governess, and once he could ride a pony, he attended the bush school at Binalong. In 1874, he was sent to Sydney Grammar School, where he did well as both a student and a sportsman. While there, he lived in a cottage called Rockend in the suburb of Gladesville—now listed on the Register of the National Estate and the New South Wales State Heritage Register. He left the school at 16 after failing a scholarship exam for the University of Sydney.

After school, Paterson worked as a law clerk for a Sydney firm headed by Herbert Salwey, and he was admitted as a solicitor in 1886. During his years practising law, he also began writing. From 1885, he started submitting poetry to *The Bulletin*, a nationalist literary journal. His first published work was a poem criticising the British war in the Sudan, which also involved Australian troops. Over the next decade, *The Bulletin* became a key platform for his work, which he published under the pseudonym "The Banjo"—the name of his favourite horse. As one of the journal's most popular writers in the 1890s, he formed friendships with other notable Australian literary figures, including E.J. Brady, Harry "Breaker" Morant, Will H. Ogilvie, and Henry Lawson. He and Lawson engaged in a friendly verse rivalry about the appeal of bush life.

Paterson worked as a war correspondent for *The Sydney Morning Herald* and *The Age* during the Second Boer War, sailing for South Africa in October 1899. There he met fellow war correspondents Winston Churchill and Rudyard Kipling, as well as British army leaders Kitchener, Roberts, and Haig. His vivid reports on the relief of Kimberley, the surrender of Bloemfontein (he was the first correspondent to ride in), and the capture of Pretoria caught the attention of the British press. In 2020, an untouched box of chocolates—made by Cadburys for Queen Victoria as a 1900 New Year's gift for troops in South Africa—was found among Paterson's papers at the National Library of Australia.

He also served as a correspondent during the Boxer Rebellion from 1901 to 1902, meeting George "Chinese" Morrison and later writing about their encounter. In 1902, he accompanied a group of Australian settlers to Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides, where they were establishing an agricultural settlement at Annandale. He wrote nine articles about the scheme for the *Herald*. Paterson later edited Samuel Bennett's *Evening News* from 1903 to 1908, and *Town and Country Journal* from 1907 to 1908.

In 1908, after a trip to the United Kingdom, Paterson decided to give up journalism and writing. He moved with his family to a 40,000-acre property near Yass. During World War I, he failed to become a correspondent covering the fighting in Flanders but did work as an ambulance driver with the Australian Voluntary Hospital in Wimereux, France. He returned to Australia early in 1915 and, as an honorary vet, made three voyages with horses to Africa, China, and Egypt. He was commissioned in the 2nd Remount Unit, Australian Imperial Force on 18 October 1915, serving first in France—where he was wounded and reported missing in July 1916—and later as commanding officer of the unit based in Cairo, Egypt. He was repatriated to Australia and discharged from the army in April 1919, having reached the rank of major. His wife joined the Red Cross and worked in an ambulance unit near him.

Just as he returned to Australia, his third poetry collection, *Saltbush Bill JP*, was published. He continued to write verse, short stories, and essays, and also wrote for the weekly *Truth*. Paterson also wrote about rugby league football.