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Poems of the Australian Bush

A selection of poems of the Australian Bush that helped define the 'Aussie myth'.

Yes ... the 'Aussie myth'. The myth that Aussies have this vital connection with 'the bush', 'the outback' 'the scrub', when in fact over 90% of us live in urban climes and have never lived in the bush. Still, the connection is real. Now whether it's a throw back to our nations founding years as we painstakingly extracted a life from this hostile dry land or the fact that for over a century Australia's fortunes 'rode on the sheep's back' ... or deeper yet, that somehow we have imbibed the spirit of the First Australians, whose connection with the land completely defines them. Whatever the reason, our connection with the bush is real ... and bush poets, like those listed below, have captured that sentiment with their sprinkling use of the Aussie vernacular, their flowing rhymes and their vivid imagery. As our Government's website says "The bush was a symbol for a national life and yet, by 1910, most Australians were urban. The bush myth has endured as novelists, poets, and artists continue to use it for inspiration. Elements of bush culture have been absorbed into mainstream Australian life through music, pop songs, clothing, slang, arts and architecture."I hope you enjoy ... these poems of the Australian bush.

Introduction - Poems of the Australian Bush

'The Man from Snowy River'

The Man from Snowy River is arguably Australias most famous poem. All Aussies can at least recite the firstsentenceif not the whole opening stanza. Still, it is less about the poetry than it is about the waymany urbanised Australians would like to see themselves: showing that grit and determination of the Man from Snowy River, with his willingness to have a go against the odds. It also captures a barracking for the underdog which is an enduring part of the Aussie make up. The poet, A.B. (Banjo) Paterson (18641941) spent much of his early years in the Yass district of New South Wales. From here he first witnessed the skills of the horsemen of the 'high country' in the Kosciuszko country and was able to capture their spirit in this epic story and to model it as an example for us all.

Banjo Paterson and 'The man from Snowy River' features on the Aussie $10 note Micro printed behind the horse and rider is the poem itself. One of my favorite poems and movies, reading it now, brought a tear to my eye with just the beauty of the write, sweeping us along with imagery as we seem to be with them for the ride. This is excellence! ----ooo0ooo---- This is one of my favourites. A real aussie true battler story both with the horses and men. ----ooo0ooo---- I have always enjoyed this one. It really gets inside of you. A part of all Aussies I think. One of the underdogs have made a mark in history. ----ooo0ooo---- A really good poem, its un Australian to not know the first paragraph!!! ----ooo0ooo---- I love this poem and I love the country in which it is set. I think it truly epitomises what makes this nation great. Poems of the Australian Bush

'I love a Sunburnt Country'

On 5 September 1908 a poem, 'Core of My Heart', which she had written about 1904, appeared in the London Spectator. It reappeared several times in Australia before being included as 'My Country' in her first book, The Closed Door, and Other Verses (Melbourne, 1911). During World War I and as a result of its frequent inclusion in anthologies, 'My Country' became one of the best-known Australian poems, appealing to the sense of patriotism fostered by the war and post-war nationalism. She was appointed O.B.E. just before she died on 14 January 1968 in the Scottish Hospital, Paddington, after a fall at home. She was cremated after a service at St Mark's Anglican Church, Darling Point, and her ashes laid in the family vault in Waverley cemetery.

Dorothea MacKellarwikipedia.org ISOBEL MARION DOROTHEA MACKELLAR, was born on 1 JulY 1885 at Dunara, Point Piper, Sydney, third child and only daughter of native-born parents (Sir) Charles Kinnaird Mackellar, physician, and his wife Marion, daughter of Thomas Buckland. She was educated at home and traveled extensively with her parents, becoming fluent in French, Spanish, German and Italian, and also attended some lectures at the University of Sydney. Her youth was protected and highly civilized. She moved easily between the society of Sydney's intellectual and administrative elite, life on her family's country properties, and among their friends in London. Dorothea MacKellaranu.edu.au

Core of my Heart -absoluteastronomy.com When I heard this poem I got goosepimples, I still do. In my opinion this really describes my adapted country, its beauty, the cruelty of the seasons, the silence, the smell of the eucalypts after the rain, the wild birds, the difference of all the other countries I have visited - and most of all the love and respect she feels for this incredible sunburnt country.....which is shared by me. ----ooo0ooo---- what a tear jerker! I miss my sunburnt country and this poem really rips at ones soul.. ----ooo0ooo---- This poem has twice the impact if you are living away from Australia, as I am. Australia is unique and Australians are very lucky to live there.Many may never realize it until they move or travel overseas.Often think of the first verse- says it all. ----ooo0ooo---- When I read the comments, the ache and the longing for Australia washed over me again - an Aussie on exile in Canada. It is the land, the bush that I miss the most......the sight and smell of the gum trees, the dirt, the "wide brown land" as Dorothea Mackellar writes. The land that my forbears farmed is in my blood forever. Poems of the Australian Bush

Australia - Asunburntcountry To celebrate one hundred years since the English magazine 'The Spectator' first published Dorothea Mackellars poem, accomplished photographer and television journalist Peter Luck has produced a spectacular collection of photographs to compliment the beauty of the poem itself.For a beautifulpictorialtribute dedicated toDorethea Mackellar's'My Country' Click Hereor the image below.Dorothea Mackellar's grave. Click Here Peter Luck's Tribute toDorethea Mackellar's'I love a sunburnt Country" Click Image to see all photos. Poems of the Australian Bush

'The Play'

"The Play" by C J Dennis wasinspired by an incident in 1913, when he saw a couple obviously out of their element seated in the stalls at a performance of "Romeo and Juliet." They were holding hands and appeared quite carried away by Shakespeare's immortal story, in which they, perhaps, saw something of their own romance. Always on the qui vive for material, Dennis chatted with the man during the interval, and as a result was inspired to write this incident in the love story of the Bloke and Doreen.

Clarence Michael James Dennis was bornof Irish descentin Auburn, on 7 September 1876. He produced several thousand poems and other works by the time he died at the age of 62in 1938. He is buried at Boxhill Cemetery (Melbourne). After his death, Prime Minister J. Lyons said; "He created characters which have become immortal and he captured the true Australian spirit".

Sentimental Blokemiddlemiss.org 'The Play' was one of the poems included in The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke.It was the first of CJ Dennis's "verse novels" and was illustrated by Hal Gye. First published in 1915 by Angus & Robertson of Sydney, and within eighteen months it had sold 66, 000 copies and Dennis had captured the imagination of a nation. This poem was originally published in The Bulletin, 16 July 1914. Poems of the Australian Bush

'Clancy of the Overflow'

The title comes from the address of a letter the city-dweller sends, "The Overflow" being the name of the sheep station where Clancy was working when they met. The poem is based on a true story that was experienced by Banjo Paterson. He was working as a lawyer when someone asked him to send a letter to a man named Thomas Gerald Clancy, asking for a payment that was never received. Banjo sent the letter to "The Overflow" Droving Cattle

'The Man from Ironbark'

Banjo Paterson first published 'The Man from Ironbark' poem in The Bulletin on 17 December 1892. duckscrossing.org harpercollins.com.au

'The Women of the West'

George Essex Evansusq.edu.au

'Nine miles from Gundagai'

Ive done my share of shearing sheep, Of droving and all that, And bogged a bullock-team as well, On a Murrumbidgee flat. Ive seen the bullock stretch and stain And blink his bleary eye, And the dog sat on the tucker box, Nine miles from Gundagai. Ive been jilted, jarred, and crossed in love, And sand-bagged in the dark, Till if a mountain fell on me Id treat it as a lark. Its when youve had your bullocks bogged Thats the time you flog and cry, And the dog sat on the tucker box, Nine miles from Gundagai. Weve all got our little troubles, In lifes hard, thorny way. Some strike them in a motor car And others in a dray. But when your dog and bullocks strike It aint no apple pie. And the dog sat on the tucker box, Nine miles from Gundagai. But thats all past and dead and gone, And Ive sold the team for meat. And perhaps some day where I was bogged, Therell be an asphalt street. The dog, ah! Well he got bait, And thought hed like to die, So I buried him in the tucker box, Nine miles from Gundagai.

Poet Jack Moses 1861 1945 Dog on Tucker Box booktopia.com.au Gundagai -news.com.au Prime Minister Lyonsmembers.tip.net.au

The origins of the 'Dog on the Tuckerbox' are clouded in mystery, uncertainty and controversy, likemuch of Australia's early folklore, yetits origins lie firmly in the Australian bush with the early pioneers. We do know that the main players in securing this poem's placeas quintessentially Australian are; Bill the Bullocky, whose Gundagai-dog epicprinted on a matchbox, gained currency in the bush in the late 1850s a character calling himself'Bowyang Yorke' who penned a rather crude version of"the dog that shat in the tuckerbox" in 1857 (Replace the "a" with and '"i" and you get the picture).Actually, according to the booklet published in 1932 for the commemorativeunveilingceremony, one dog, near Five Mile Creek, actually did "shat" in the tucker box while waiting for his masters return. a mate of Henry Lawson, Jack Moses acommercial traveller and bush troubadour, amended the verse to "sat on the tucker box" some time later in 1920s, althoughobviouslyinspired by 'Bowyang Yorke' tale. Jack O'Hagan who in 1937 recorded the verse in song and created a hit thatimmortalisedthe legend and put the outback town of Gundagai on the world map 'Nine miles from Gundagai'middlemiss.org In the period 1830-50, Gundagai became a holding place forexplorers from Sydney searching for the source of the Murrumbidgee River. Supplies had to be brought into the place overrough terrain and through muddy creeks by bullock teams.Often these bullock teams would get bogged and the bullocky's dog would sit guarding its master's tuckerbox and possessions while he wentoff to the nearest homestead or town to get assistance. ('Tucker' is an obsolescent Australianism for food) To give you an idea of thepopularity of the poem and the way it captured the imagination of Australians both in the bush and throughout the colony, none less than the Australian Prime Minister Joseph Lyons was given the honor of unveiling the statue of the Dog on the Tuckerbox, near Gundagai on 28 November1932. Jack Mosesjewishhistoryaustralia.net Jack Moses, although aprankster in the mold of Henry Lawson his mate, brought the poem to wider attention with the substitute 'sat' for 'shat'. A teetotaller, Jack Moses as a wine and whiskey salesman, recordedhis bush travels inBeyond the City Gates (Sydney, 1923), which was a volume of sketches and bush verse 'rich in quiet chuckles and friendly reminiscences'and included the poem 'Nine Miles from Gundagai'.A second collection titled "Nine Miles from Gundagai", came out in 1938; Moses gave the proceeds of both books to the Australian Red Cross Society during World War II.Moses died on 10 July 1945 in Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown, and was buried with Anglican rites in South Head cemetery. His son survived him. The monument of the Dog on the Tuckerbox liesat Snake Gullyabout five miles (eight kilometres) north of the New South Wales town of Gundagaiat the point where O'Brien's Creek crosses the main Gundagai Road, the site of an old time bullockies' camping-ground. Ithas become an icon of Australia's past. These days an annual 'Dog on the Tuckerbox' festival is held each year andin 2006afood court style development opened nearby with a KFC, Subway, McCafe, BP service station and Tuckerbox restaurant. Bowyang Yorke's original verse (I think 'shat' fits with theimagery of thepoor blighter's lot): 'Some blokes I know has all the luck no matter how they fall But there was I, Lord love a duck, no flamin' luck at all I couldn't make a pot of tea nor keep me trousers dry And the dog shat in the tucker-box nine miles from Gundagai' Poems of the Australian Bush

About the Author

My Australia Knols 1Australia 2Australia Collection3Timeline (Aust) History4Aust. Solution 17885AHS Centura6Australian Poems7Waltzing Matilda8The ANZAC legend9Sydney's Eternity Peter Baskervillewas born in Australia and has lived the vast majority of his life in the country of his birth apart from a few years in Fiji and New Zealand pursuing business interests. Despite imbibing theinherentnon-nationalistic attitude that naturally comes with being an Aussie, we just can't help loving this place called Australia - its vast open spaces, itspristinebeaches, its unspoiled outback landscapes, its melting pot of immigrants, itsancientheritageofthe First Australians, its Anzac spirit, it mateship creed, it hard working, positive yet carefree attitude to life ... yes, and even its perils, dangers and strife - we love it all. It is a long way to come, but I'm sure you will find it well worth the visit, even better, come join us ... the people of the land 'down-under'.