A.B. ‘Banjo’ Paterson

A.B. ‘Banjo’ Paterson (1864–1941)

Andrew Barton “Banjo” Paterson was born in rural New South Wales on 17 February 1864, later moving to Sydney to work as a law clerk and solicitor. During his law career, he wrote and submitted his bush poetry to The Bulletin under the title “The Banjo”. His pen name was inspired by his favourite horse of his childhood and youth. Throughout the 1890s he grew to be a popular writer, his pseudonym becoming a household name. There was a friendly rivalry between himself and fellow bush poet, Henry Lawson; Banjo often wrote of an embellished or romanticised Australian outback, while Lawson tended to be more pragmatic and realistic of the gruelling work of Australian agriculturalists. 

Initially engaged to Sarah Riley for eight years, Banjo first journeyed to Winton 1895 to visit his fiancé and to see the massive sheep stations of central-western Queensland for himself. It was then that he met a school friend of Sarah’s, Christina MacPherson, with whom he came to write his best known piece, “Waltzing Matilda”. Something happened during his visit, however, as the engagement between himself and Sarah Riley was absolved shortly after his visit to Dagworth Station.

In 1903 he married Alice Walker, with whom he had two children, Grace and Hugh. During the Second Boer War, Banjo became a journalist working as a war correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He continued to work as a journalist until 1908, after which he moved himself and his family to a 16,000 acre property near Yass, New South Wales. During the Second World War he was an ambulance driver with the Australian Voluntary Hospital in Wimereux, France; Alice had joined the Red Cross and worked in a nearby ambulance unit. After returning to Australia, he conducted a series of Lecture Tours across the country.

He is best known for works such as “Waltzing Matilda”, “The Man from Snowy River”, and “Clancy of the Overflow”, “The Man from Ironbark”, “Mulga Bill’s Bicycle”, and “A Bush Christening”. He died of a heart attack at age 76.

Fun Fact

Did you know that A.B. ‘Banjo’ Paterson is featured on Australia’s $10 banknote? The microprint features excerpts from Paterson's poem The Man from Snowy River.

Reserve Bank of Australia