Bush Poets in Australia have a long history, starting in our colonial settlement period in the 1700’s. Many came here from Britain as convicts and mostly were poorly educated.
Upon gaining their freedom, they helped settle this land as farmers, or sort the riches of goldfields, and some even drifted into Bushranging when all else failed. Many recorded their experiences and feelings in verse, and so became our first Bush Poets. Writing was not always a skill that they had accomplished, so many of their verses were put to a tune so that they could be remembered more easily.
Their stories could be humorous, sad, adventurous, or simply a record of the events of the day.
One of my favourites is titled “The Old Bark Hut”, and the author has long passed into mists of time. His name was “Anonymous”. It tells the story of a Bushranger being sought by the law, and of his wife, and their young son, Jim, whose job it was to ride through the night to warn his Father that the “traps” were coming for him; the “traps” being a colloquial name for the police. Without giving too much away, the finale will bring a tear to your eye.
If you love a rollicking yarn, some belly laughing humour, satire, pastoral description, heroism, and, of course, the heartbreak, then perhaps my little collection of some of the older poems of the time will provide you with great pleasure.