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An Outback Marriage: A Story of Australian Life
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126 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1906
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About the author
A.B. Paterson
210 books25 followersAndrew Barton 'Banjo' Paterson was an Australian poet, ballad writer, journalist and horseman. See also Banjo Paterson.
A. B. 'Banjo' Paterson, known as Barty to his family, was born Andrew Barton Paterson at Narrambla, near Orange on 17 February 1864. His parents, Andrew Bogle and Rose Isabella Paterson were graziers on Illalong station in the Yass district.
Paterson's early education took place at home under a governess and then at the bush school in Binalong, the nearest township. From about the age of ten years he attended the Sydney Grammar School. He lived with his grandmother in Gladesville and spent the school holidays at Illalong station with his family.
After completing school the 16-year-old Paterson was articled to a Sydney firm of solicitors, Spain and Salway. He was admitted as a solicitor in 1886 and formed the legal partnership, Street and Paterson. During these years Paterson began publishing verse in the Bulletin and Sydney Mail under the pseudonyms 'B' and 'The Banjo'.
In 1895, at the age of 31 and still in partnership with Street, Andrew Barton Paterson achieved two milestones in Australian writing. He composed his now famous ballad 'Waltzing Matilda' and his first book, The Man from Snowy River, and other verses, was published by Angus & Robertson, marking the beginning of an epoch in Australian publishing. This hallmark publication sold out its first edition within a week and went through four editions in six months, making Paterson second only to Kipling in popularity among living poets writing in English. His poetry continues to sell well today and is available in many editions, some of which are illustrated.
Paterson travelled to South Africa in 1899 as special war correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald during the Boer War, and to China in 1901 with the intention of covering the Boxer Rebellion but he arrived after the uprising was over. By 1902 Paterson had left the legal profession. The following year he was appointed Editor of the Evening News (Sydney), a position he held until 1908 when he resigned to take over a property in Wee Jasper.
In 1903 he married Alice Walker in Tenterfield. Their first home was in Queen Street, Woollahra. The Patersons had two children, Grace born in 1904 and Hugh born in 1906.
During World War I Paterson sailed to Europe hoping for an appointment as war correspondent. Instead, during the course of the war he was attached as an ambulance driver to the Australian Voluntary Hospital in France and was commissioned to the 2nd Remount Unit of the AIF. He was eventually promoted to Major.
In Australia again he returned to journalism, retiring in 1930. He was created CBE in 1939. At the time of his death on 5 February 1941 his reputation as the principal folk poet of Australia was secure. His body of work included seven volumes of poetry and prose in many editions, a collection The Collected Verse of A.B. Paterson (1923), a book for children The Animals Noah Forgot (1933), and an anthology The Old Bush Songs (1905), in addition to his many pieces of journalism and reportage.
Paterson's role in Australian culture has been celebrated on the Australian $10 note.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu5byI...
A. B. 'Banjo' Paterson, known as Barty to his family, was born Andrew Barton Paterson at Narrambla, near Orange on 17 February 1864. His parents, Andrew Bogle and Rose Isabella Paterson were graziers on Illalong station in the Yass district.
Paterson's early education took place at home under a governess and then at the bush school in Binalong, the nearest township. From about the age of ten years he attended the Sydney Grammar School. He lived with his grandmother in Gladesville and spent the school holidays at Illalong station with his family.
After completing school the 16-year-old Paterson was articled to a Sydney firm of solicitors, Spain and Salway. He was admitted as a solicitor in 1886 and formed the legal partnership, Street and Paterson. During these years Paterson began publishing verse in the Bulletin and Sydney Mail under the pseudonyms 'B' and 'The Banjo'.
In 1895, at the age of 31 and still in partnership with Street, Andrew Barton Paterson achieved two milestones in Australian writing. He composed his now famous ballad 'Waltzing Matilda' and his first book, The Man from Snowy River, and other verses, was published by Angus & Robertson, marking the beginning of an epoch in Australian publishing. This hallmark publication sold out its first edition within a week and went through four editions in six months, making Paterson second only to Kipling in popularity among living poets writing in English. His poetry continues to sell well today and is available in many editions, some of which are illustrated.
Paterson travelled to South Africa in 1899 as special war correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald during the Boer War, and to China in 1901 with the intention of covering the Boxer Rebellion but he arrived after the uprising was over. By 1902 Paterson had left the legal profession. The following year he was appointed Editor of the Evening News (Sydney), a position he held until 1908 when he resigned to take over a property in Wee Jasper.
In 1903 he married Alice Walker in Tenterfield. Their first home was in Queen Street, Woollahra. The Patersons had two children, Grace born in 1904 and Hugh born in 1906.
During World War I Paterson sailed to Europe hoping for an appointment as war correspondent. Instead, during the course of the war he was attached as an ambulance driver to the Australian Voluntary Hospital in France and was commissioned to the 2nd Remount Unit of the AIF. He was eventually promoted to Major.
In Australia again he returned to journalism, retiring in 1930. He was created CBE in 1939. At the time of his death on 5 February 1941 his reputation as the principal folk poet of Australia was secure. His body of work included seven volumes of poetry and prose in many editions, a collection The Collected Verse of A.B. Paterson (1923), a book for children The Animals Noah Forgot (1933), and an anthology The Old Bush Songs (1905), in addition to his many pieces of journalism and reportage.
Paterson's role in Australian culture has been celebrated on the Australian $10 note.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu5byI...
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 30, 2020
"Banjo" Paterson was an Australian poet and writer, most famous for his poem "Waltzing Matilda" which was turned into a song, and will now probably be stuck in your head for the rest of the day -heh-heh-heh!
This book was another read-for-freebie - available here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/6119/..., a rough and tumble tale of life in the outback during the 1800's, it was really GOOD.
Here are some excerpts - judge Paterson's writing for yourself:
As they got further out, the road became less and less defined, stations fewer, and everything rougher. They left the sheep-country behind them and got out into cattle-land, where "runs" are measured by the hundred square miles, and every man is a law unto himself. They left their buggy after a time, and pushed on with pack-horses; and after travelling about two hundred miles, came to the outer edge of the settled district, where they stayed with two young Englishmen, who were living under a dray, and building their cattle-yards themselves--the yards being a necessity, and the house, which was to come afterwards, a luxury.
----------------------------
The sheep themselves, to begin with, seem always in league against their owners. Merinos, though apparently estimable animals, are in reality dangerous monomaniacs, whose sole desire is to ruin the man that owns them. Their object is to die, and to do so with as much trouble to their owners as they possibly can. They die in the droughts when the grass, roasted to a dull white by the sun, comes out by the roots and blows about the bare paddocks; they die in the wet, when the long grass in the sodden gullies breeds "fluke"and "bottle" and all sorts of hideous complaints. They get burnt in bush fires from sheer malice, refusing to run in any given direction, but charging round and round in a ring till they are calcined. They get drowned by refusing to leave flooded country, though hunted with frenzied earnestness.
------------------------------
Another striking feature was the way in which they got themselves mixed up with each other. Their names were so tangled up that no one could keep tally of them. There was a Red Mick Donohoe (son of the old publican), and his cousin Black Mick Donohoe, and Red Mick's son Mick, and Black Mick's son Mick, and Red Mick's son Pat, and Black Mick's son Pat; and there was Gammy Doyle (meaning Doyle with the lame leg), and Scrammy Doyle (meaning Doyle with the injured arm), and Bosthoon Doyle and Omadhaun Doyle--a Bosthoon being a man who never had any great amount of sense to speak of, while an Omadhaun is a man who began life with some sense, but lost most of it on his journey. It was a common saying in the country-side that if you met a man on the mountains you should say, "Good-day, Doyle," and if he replied, "That's not my name," you should at once say, "Well, I meant no offence, Mr. Donohoe."
The story revolves around a young woman who has inherited a sheep station. There exists an uneasy relationship with a ne'er do well neighbor who is forever trying to steal sheep, and surprise, surprise . . . suddenly a Donohoe appears with a claim on the station.
This book has EVERYTHING! Well, okay . . . it's a little light on swordplay and zombies, but I'd say the thrilling buffalo hunt more than makes up for that. Warning - the writing is a reflection of the times, so racism runs rampant. Also, the female characters are predictably coy and simpering, with one gal even flinging herself sobbing onto a bed, because he proposed . . . just not the way SHE WANTED him to propose. Yeah, I know . . .but read it anyway.
This book was another read-for-freebie - available here: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/6119/..., a rough and tumble tale of life in the outback during the 1800's, it was really GOOD.
Here are some excerpts - judge Paterson's writing for yourself:
As they got further out, the road became less and less defined, stations fewer, and everything rougher. They left the sheep-country behind them and got out into cattle-land, where "runs" are measured by the hundred square miles, and every man is a law unto himself. They left their buggy after a time, and pushed on with pack-horses; and after travelling about two hundred miles, came to the outer edge of the settled district, where they stayed with two young Englishmen, who were living under a dray, and building their cattle-yards themselves--the yards being a necessity, and the house, which was to come afterwards, a luxury.
----------------------------
The sheep themselves, to begin with, seem always in league against their owners. Merinos, though apparently estimable animals, are in reality dangerous monomaniacs, whose sole desire is to ruin the man that owns them. Their object is to die, and to do so with as much trouble to their owners as they possibly can. They die in the droughts when the grass, roasted to a dull white by the sun, comes out by the roots and blows about the bare paddocks; they die in the wet, when the long grass in the sodden gullies breeds "fluke"and "bottle" and all sorts of hideous complaints. They get burnt in bush fires from sheer malice, refusing to run in any given direction, but charging round and round in a ring till they are calcined. They get drowned by refusing to leave flooded country, though hunted with frenzied earnestness.
------------------------------
Another striking feature was the way in which they got themselves mixed up with each other. Their names were so tangled up that no one could keep tally of them. There was a Red Mick Donohoe (son of the old publican), and his cousin Black Mick Donohoe, and Red Mick's son Mick, and Black Mick's son Mick, and Red Mick's son Pat, and Black Mick's son Pat; and there was Gammy Doyle (meaning Doyle with the lame leg), and Scrammy Doyle (meaning Doyle with the injured arm), and Bosthoon Doyle and Omadhaun Doyle--a Bosthoon being a man who never had any great amount of sense to speak of, while an Omadhaun is a man who began life with some sense, but lost most of it on his journey. It was a common saying in the country-side that if you met a man on the mountains you should say, "Good-day, Doyle," and if he replied, "That's not my name," you should at once say, "Well, I meant no offence, Mr. Donohoe."
The story revolves around a young woman who has inherited a sheep station. There exists an uneasy relationship with a ne'er do well neighbor who is forever trying to steal sheep, and surprise, surprise . . . suddenly a Donohoe appears with a claim on the station.
This book has EVERYTHING! Well, okay . . . it's a little light on swordplay and zombies, but I'd say the thrilling buffalo hunt more than makes up for that. Warning - the writing is a reflection of the times, so racism runs rampant. Also, the female characters are predictably coy and simpering, with one gal even flinging herself sobbing onto a bed, because he proposed . . . just not the way SHE WANTED him to propose. Yeah, I know . . .but read it anyway.
February 7, 2019
I love Banjo Paterson. I love the way he writes - the characterisations, the occasional witticisms, the description of country that makes you feel like you’re there swatting flies and melting in the heat. A most enjoyable read.
August 19, 2014
Thought I'd read this as Banjo Patterson was my Australian Grandfather's favourite author. It is essentially a Story, in which characters are revealed by their actions rather than described. I assumed the principal characters were those introduced in the first chapter, but by the end I realised that all characters just served the narrative. There were two brawls and two hair raising galloping horse sessions thrown in, I suspect, to appeal to male readers like my Grandfather. The weakest characters were the women - either flimsy or overblown. However, I thought it was a great twisty tale and a colourful evocation of the hardness of Australian settler life.
March 16, 2012
A short novel about Australia and the people living there. The main 'point' is that… well, I'm not sure.
It could be Considine, because it would make sense. It's in the title. But how much of that is really occupied with him? There's a good bit of the book detailing Mary Grant and Hugh.
Basically the book's about Considine, then. The search for him, the finding, and then the plot with Gavan and the marriage and everything. An interesting book. Not a masterpiece, but it's good.
And let me tell you, the last… two pages? Fantastic.
It could be Considine, because it would make sense. It's in the title. But how much of that is really occupied with him? There's a good bit of the book detailing Mary Grant and Hugh.
Basically the book's about Considine, then. The search for him, the finding, and then the plot with Gavan and the marriage and everything. An interesting book. Not a masterpiece, but it's good.
And let me tell you, the last… two pages? Fantastic.
November 12, 2023
A hundred and twenty three years after it was first published, 'The Outback Marriage: A Story of Australian Life' is marvellously vivid still in its language and several layers of plot lines. With a great economy of words, this book has crammed so much into less then two hundred and fifty pages – a fabulously wealthy Australian, whose aristocratic English family chucked him out to fend for himself and who has made a fortune in the stock market/ digging for gold/ mined diamonds or opals/ bought a couple of farms sold cheap and on the basis of that, has a sheep run of hundreds of thousands of acres/sheep/ that make his aristocratic English family his poor relations; a station manager in love with the boss's daughter; a weaselly lawyer in love with the boss's daughter's money; a nurse jilted by the weaselly lawyer and vowing revenge; enough rustling of sheep and cattle to make Max Brand green; a buffalo hunt; a raw Englishman out for adventure of a different kind in the Outback; a search for a missing heir; bigamy or something like it – are only some of the details. Add the homey details of your choice, and a ton of humour, and find a read you won't easily tire of.
The details of Australian life in the Outback may appear outdated today, but remain in your mind long after the book has been put down. The buffalo hunt describes the long-horned beast, which in Hindu hagiography is the chosen vehicle of the God of Death – a seemingly placid animal, but utterly demonic in ferocity. It is not seen often today, as it has been hybridised with more fertile and more milk-yielding breeds, but the "sickle horns reaching back to its shoulders" were a common sight in Southern India and South East Asia some fifty years ago.
August 15, 2024
It's difficult to rate this novel. It's a 'rollicking yarn' and its twists and turns are rather silly, and, typical of its era, it's full of racist and sexist stereotyping BUT it is notable for including acknowledgement of frontier violence in early C20th Australian fiction.
So I've bumped it up from one star to two.
To read my review please visit
https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/08/15/a...
So I've bumped it up from one star to two.
To read my review please visit
https://anzlitlovers.com/2024/08/15/a...
February 4, 2021
Wonderful reading 📚
A will written romantic thriller in the Australian Outback with interesting will developed characters. The story line is entertaining with the Outback life style leading to the conclusion. I would recommend this novella to anyone looking for a fun read. Enjoy reading 🔰2021😉
A will written romantic thriller in the Australian Outback with interesting will developed characters. The story line is entertaining with the Outback life style leading to the conclusion. I would recommend this novella to anyone looking for a fun read. Enjoy reading 🔰2021😉
November 29, 2020
An insight into life in Australia at the turn of the 19th century. A clever story is woven amongst the observations of life on a station and you’ll be taken along on the ride of a witty story full of very interesting characters.
July 24, 2021
Humorous novel set in the late 19th century rural Australia. Romanticized view of the time and the culture but the author was native to the time and place, so presumably is true to their self definition. I enjoyed the lighthearted story and the description of the places.
May 12, 2024
Genuine historical fiction .. A great read!
Loved the characters, the tough rural home steader's life .. Lived to the full. The small town lawyer and larican inheritance claimants .. Such a colourful story with pioneering out back detail. Not to mention the beautifu! heiress!
Loved the characters, the tough rural home steader's life .. Lived to the full. The small town lawyer and larican inheritance claimants .. Such a colourful story with pioneering out back detail. Not to mention the beautifu! heiress!
November 6, 2025
Paterson #
Old poet Banjo writes a fairly short and succinct tale about well as the title suggests.
Some OK moments but it wasn't something I got overly excited about, but it was nice to have a read of a piece of Australian historical literature.
Old poet Banjo writes a fairly short and succinct tale about well as the title suggests.
Some OK moments but it wasn't something I got overly excited about, but it was nice to have a read of a piece of Australian historical literature.
June 2, 2022
I was in Australia and never saw Buffalo on a menu. Well, obviously I need to go back...
October 21, 2021
I know Banjo Paterson is supposed to be essential Australian literature or whatever but,,, the explicit racism really didn’t do it for me. Also for someone who apparently is a staple of Australian culture he doesn’t seem to like it too much? The only time he describes the Australian outback in a positive light is when it has “English” elements.
The story and writing style was captivating enough for me to finish it in one sitting, so it has that going for it I guess?
The story and writing style was captivating enough for me to finish it in one sitting, so it has that going for it I guess?
August 5, 2011
Decent little novel with interesting picture into Australian colonial life. Ending was very abrupt and beginning slow but middle of story was very interesting. Worth reading
October 2, 2011
Gives a good view of colonial Australia with some great characters and very good description of the landscape.
December 19, 2014
Neat book about a long time ago.
A little predictable but a neat read
A little predictable but a neat read
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews