David Campbell lives way down south in Melbourne’s bayside suburb of Beaumaris. He has been married to Ellinor for 40 years and has three adult children. After a working life in various education-related fields, including twenty years as a teacher of senior mathematics and English, David is now (2009) thoroughly enjoying a retirement in which he can concentrate on his long-time hobby of writing. At the moment he divides his time at the keyboard between bush poetry, free verse, short stories and newspaper articles.
His bush poetry involvement didn’t really begin until early 2001 when, on a whim, he submitted a satirical poem in the memorable larrikin style of C. J. Dennis to The Age newspaper…and had it accepted. When two more were then published in quick succession he branched out into more serious articles and also began to enter bush poetry competitions.
His first major success came with the 2002 Eastwood/Hills Boree Log Award, and that has been followed in subsequent years by a number of other first prizes, including two Bundaberg Bush Lanterns, two Tamworth Blackened Billy awards, a Henry Lawson Society of NSW Award, another Boree Log, a North Pine Camp Oven, four successive wins in the written section of the Victorian Championships, and a NSW Championship.
David loves our great history of traditional verse and is disappointed at the extent to which it is so often ignored in mainstream literary publications despite its huge popularity, whether written or performed, at the many bush poetry festivals held throughout the year. Although he has had some success with free verse, he is keen to promote bush poetry, particularly in terms of the assistance that a mastery of rhythm and rhyme gives to any form of writing. Not only is bush verse accessible to all, it is a tremendously valuable teaching tool when working with young children. He has contributed extensively to three books of poetry for children.
In 2007 David published Skycatcher, a collection of 32 award-winning poems, and Morning Light, a book containing eleven of his short stories. He hopes to bring out a further book of poetry in the near future. Skycatcher was a finalist in the Book of the Year section of the 2008 Australian Bush Laureate Awards at Tamworth.
David Campbell's poem The Last Red Gum
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