Merv Webster
New Member
They came of bold and roving stock that would not fixed abide
They were the sons of field and flock since e'er they learnt to ride
We may not hope to see such men in this degenerate years
As those explorers of the bush - the brave old pioneers.
Banjo Paterson - The Pioneers
My inspiration for taking on writing bush poetry began with my love of Australian history and folk lore. In my thirties I undertook the task of tracking down my mum's family the Callaghans. As my mum's dad died in 1940 at the age of thirty six, he left my grandmother with four little girls under the age of eight. My grandmother remarried, so over the years contact with my grandfather's family waned. The task of finding them all took some eight years, but proved to be very rewarding and built up in me a deep respect for all those early pioneers. Since then, I have also researched the Sewell, Marquard, McDonald and Webster, Crump, Edwards and Newton families.
There were so many wonderful stories related to me and I felt there had to be some way I could keep them alive. I began to listen to the larrikin bush yarns and poetry of Keith Garvey and thought,"That's it!" and began to write my first poems, which became the contents of my first book, 'Tales of Uncle Jim'. Since then I have written a collection of eight books and it has been my goal to keep alive our wonderful heritage, the Aussie character and the Aussie bush humour, recording in narrative rhyming verse, or bush ballad, and not only recording it on paper, but on albums and also live performances, which, I feel, bring the stories alive. Today, I am one of a number of bush poets, who in John Laws words are ... keeping the dream alive.
P.S. I decided to take a page out of Stan Coster's book and have taken the plunge and begun singing my ballads as well.
They were the sons of field and flock since e'er they learnt to ride
We may not hope to see such men in this degenerate years
As those explorers of the bush - the brave old pioneers.
Banjo Paterson - The Pioneers
My inspiration for taking on writing bush poetry began with my love of Australian history and folk lore. In my thirties I undertook the task of tracking down my mum's family the Callaghans. As my mum's dad died in 1940 at the age of thirty six, he left my grandmother with four little girls under the age of eight. My grandmother remarried, so over the years contact with my grandfather's family waned. The task of finding them all took some eight years, but proved to be very rewarding and built up in me a deep respect for all those early pioneers. Since then, I have also researched the Sewell, Marquard, McDonald and Webster, Crump, Edwards and Newton families.
There were so many wonderful stories related to me and I felt there had to be some way I could keep them alive. I began to listen to the larrikin bush yarns and poetry of Keith Garvey and thought,"That's it!" and began to write my first poems, which became the contents of my first book, 'Tales of Uncle Jim'. Since then I have written a collection of eight books and it has been my goal to keep alive our wonderful heritage, the Aussie character and the Aussie bush humour, recording in narrative rhyming verse, or bush ballad, and not only recording it on paper, but on albums and also live performances, which, I feel, bring the stories alive. Today, I am one of a number of bush poets, who in John Laws words are ... keeping the dream alive.
P.S. I decided to take a page out of Stan Coster's book and have taken the plunge and begun singing my ballads as well.
If you need any further help in tracking down those pioneer ancestors, pop the details on the forum and we will do all that we can to help.
