Song of Australia (1859), Caroline Carleton At a trivia night you might be asked, “What were the four songs Australians could vote for in the 1977 plebiscite to choose our new national anthem?” You should get ‘Advance Australia Fair’. I mean, it is the current anthem. [...]

Waltzing Matilda (1895), Banjo Paterson ‘Waltzing Matilda’ perhaps doesn’t belong in the Canon’s Poetry section and might be better placed in the Song section. It is, after all, best known as a song, Australia’s unofficial national anthem, but its author Andrew Barton ‘Banjo’ Paterson did include it [...]

A.D. Hope 1938 Until Les Murray’s work (like Noonday Axeman) began appearing in the 1980s, A.D. Hope was indisputedly Australia’s premier poet, with a singular reputation internationally. Unable to publish his debut collection, The Wandering Islands (1955), until his late 40s because some sexually explicit poems [...]

Kenneth Slessor, 1939 Kenneth Slessor (1901-1971) sits amongst names such as Francis Webb, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Les Murray, Gwen Harwood, Judith Wright, and John Forbes in the pantheon of Australia’s most important poets, with some arguing he deserves close to top billing. Recently, more than sixty Australian [...]

Bruce Dawe, 1960's Best-selling poet, Bruce Dawe (1930 – 2020) has been acclaimed as Australia’s premier bard of the suburbs. A highly respected writer and educator, Dawe’s work was described by Les Murray – arguably Australia’s most important poet of the 20th century – as “wonderfully [...]

Les Murray, 1965 During his lifetime Les Murray (1938 – 2019) was widely considered Australia’s premier poet. In death, there is an argument suggesting he was the greatest poet this country has ever produced. Nobel Prize-winning American poet Joseph Brodsky once said of Murray, “he is, [...]