ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Anyone like to help compile a list of the best Australian poems pre 1960 and a similar list post 1960?
My thoughts are pre 1960:
1. The Man From Snowy River (Banjo Paterson)
2.
3. The Sick Stock Rider (Adam Lindsay Gordon)
4.
5. My Country (Dorothea McKellar)
6.
7.
8. They'll Tell You About Me (Ian Mudie)
9.
10.

Post 1960:
1. The Death of a Kelly (Charlee Marshall)
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

OK.

Get rid of 'The Sick Stockrider' (even though it does seem to have served as the inspiration for 'Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport').

Clancy of the O/F number 2.

'Faces in the Street' at 3.

'The Play' at 4.

Other top tens:

'No Foe Shall Gather Our Harvest'

'The Play'

'Washing Day'

'The Man from Ironbark'

'Mulga Bill's Bicycle'

'The Geebung Polo Club'

Maybe 'Bellbirds'

I think Slessor has to be there, too.


After 1960:

Need something by Jenkin - probably 'The Ballad of the Birdsville Drover'.

Kath Walker should be in there somewhere, too.

Don't forget 'Where the Dead Men Lie' (Boake).

Well Stephen What you say ( may or may not be right) just because The Man From Snowy River has been recited and told read that many time
that many people have almost learnt it off by heart in the mind and that, may quite well not make it number one.

have you ever read,or better still heard, Who's ridding Old Harlequin Now By HARRY BREAKER MORANT told by Lenard Teale in his deep appealing voice, or The Sick Stock-man by ADAM LINDSAY GORDON Told by SELWIN KURTS both those poems have just as much feeling in them as many others.

Having lived and worked in the outback Australia amongst the everyday people and having seen and felt their feelings and that to me is that Australian Bush Poetry is all about their feelings and that to me is what makes AUSTRALIAN BUSH POETRY all about

Those poems you mention are of your choice not necessarily the same as many others though some of them I agree with


Bill Williams the old battler

Fair enough, Bill. I agree with you about Breaker Morant.

Vic Jefferies wrote:a list of the best Australian poems

What makes " best " ??

I don't think anyone can dispute TMFSR as number one. I do not understand Stephen's objection to The Sick Stock Rider
as I think it is a seminal poem in bush poetry history. I would like to include Anzac Cove by Leon Gellert in the pre 60s list.

Oh, don't worry about me, Vic. I had a crack at reading it a few years ago and couldn't get into it at all, but that doesn't mean anything. If it works for you, go for it. Do you agree with me about Rolf Harris, though?

Neville, 'best' as in 'good/better/best'. For example, some might say that strawberry jam is a good jam, and raspberry is better, but I think everybody would agree that blackberry is the best. Hang on to that idea, and then swing it across to poetry. It's pretty simple, really.

For what it's worth, Norman Lindsay rates his three favourite Australian poets as Hugh McCrae, Kenneth Slessor and Douglas Stewart.