Andrew Barton Paterson

Banjo Paterson was a famous Australian bush poet, journalist and author who wrote many ballads and poems about Australian life, especially the rural and outback areas. He was born on 17 February 1864 at Narrambla, near Orange, New South Wales, as Andrew Barton Paterson. He was the eldest son of Andrew Bogle Paterson, a Scottish immigrant from Lanarkshire, and Rose Isabella Barton, a native Australian related to the first Prime Minister of Australia Edmund Barton. He grew up on various stations in the Yass district and developed a love for horses and horsemanship. He attended Sydney Grammar School and later became a solicitor in Sydney. He also started writing poetry and submitting it to The Bulletin, a literary journal with a nationalist focus. He used the pseudonym "The Banjo", the name of his favourite horse. Some of his most notable poems include "Clancy of the Overflow" (1889), "The Man from Snowy River" (1890) and "Waltzing Matilda" (1895), which is widely regarded as Australia's unofficial national anthem. Paterson also had a successful career as a journalist, war correspondent and soldier. He covered the Boer War in South Africa and travelled to China and the Philippines for the Sydney Morning Herald. He also served in the Australian forces during World War I in France and Egypt. He became editor of the Sydney Evening News in 1904 but left this post two years later to edit the Sydney Town and Country Journal. He later took up farming and ranching in New South Wales. He married Alice Emily Walker in 1903 and had two children, Grace and Hugh. He also published several collections of his poems and songs, as well as novels and short stories. He died of a heart attack in Sydney on 5 February 1941 at the age of 76. He is widely regarded as one of Australia's greatest poets and a national icon.