A. B. "Banjo" Paterson, Australia's most popular bush balladist, is associated with "the Bulletin school" of the 1890s, a group of writers recognized for their articulation of a "bush legend," and for the literary construction in a period of emerging nationalism of an Australian identity (or of diverse identities) that reflects national perceptions of the cultural significance of the bush. He is recognized as well by literary historians for his short stories, sketches, and children's writing, and he is also known as a journalist, novelist, and broadcaster.

Born 17 February 1864 at Nyambla, a family property near Orange in central western New South Wales, Andrew Barton Paterson, "Barty," as he was known then, was the eldest of seven children of Scottish-born Andrew Paterson and his Australian wife, Rose, sheep and cattle graziers whose regular station home, Buckinbah, was farther west. In the posthumously published memoir "Illalong Children" (collected in Singer...