Where the Dead Men Lie: The Story of Barcroft Boake, Bush Poet of The Monaro

by Hugh Capel

Barcroft Boake’s star blazed briefly and brightly as an Australian bush poet for little more than a year before he took his own life by hanging himself by his stockwhip in 1892 on the shore of Sydney Harbour. Barcroft’s life was touched by romance, adventure and, finally, tragedy. In Where the Dead Men Lie , his story is told as an imaginative work of fiction, to bring the characters to life. Barcroft rode with Charlie McKeahnie, who is reputed to be one of the famed mountain horsemen Banjo Paterson had in mind when he wrote The Man From Snowy River . Barcroft also fell in love with Charlie’s sisters. It has been suggested he killed himself for the love of a McKeahnie girl. After Barcroft left the McKeahnie homestead in 1888, he headed north, seeking excitement and adventure as a stockman and a drover, travelling as far as the Diamantina River in Queensland. Throughout his travels he wrote regularly to his father. Luckily, a number of his original and interesting letters have been preserved and they have been woven into the story. Was it May, or was it Jean McKeahnie that he truly loved? Why did he kill himself, just as he was gaining recognition as a poet? These are the questions this book tries to answer. 

241 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 11, 2016

Reviews

[Darryl Greer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barcroft Henry Thomas Boake was a Sydney-born surveyor and boundary rider but is best remembered for his poetry, a volume of which was not published until five years after his death. "Where The Dead Men Lie" was the most famous of his poems, which described the tragedies Australians faced during the 1891—1893 depression.

Although Boake had passed the entrance examination and began work as a surveyor at age 17, he detested office work and preferred life as a stockman and drover. His travels as such – all on horseback – took him from the Southern Highlands of New South Wales to Burrenbilla near Cunnamulla in Queensland. Along the way he met and admired, perhaps even loved, one or other of May or Jean McKeahnie. He never believed, possibly erroneously, that one of the sisters could possibly love him enough to marry him.

At the end of 1891 he returned home to Sydney to find his father on the verge of bankruptcy, his grandmother invalided and his eldest sister in a failed marriage. He tried and failed to find work in Sydney. It was the gloomiest time of his short life. On 02 May 1892 he left the house, never to be seen alive again – eight days later his body was discovered in the scrub at Long Bay, hanging by his stockwhip from a tree.

Boake was only 26 when he took his own life, a tragedy worsened by the fact that, had he lived longer he might have become one Australia’s most famous bush poets, up there with Banjo Patterson.

Adopting the title of Boake’s poem "Where The Dead Men Lie", author, Hugh Capel has written a book of the same name about Boake’s short life. The book is a fictionalised version – there is no-one around to verify the dialogue and other explicit details set out in the book – but Capel has cleverly used actual correspondence to and from Boake, as well as such other information as he could glean from archives and newspapers of the time to put together an interesting account of his life. The narrative is well constructed, the dialogue believable and a collection of Boake’s most interesting poems are helpfully included in an appendix. A great read for anyone interested in Australian bush poetry, with a fascinating story thrown in to boot.

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

'This is the story of Barcroft Boake, bush poet from Australia’s colonial past.’

Barcroft Henry Thomas Boake (1866 – 1892) is most famous for his poem ‘Where the Dead Men Lie.’ It’s a poem I may have encountered earlier but which I don’t remember reading until comparatively recently. My interest in Barcroft Boake arose from his connection with the Monaro district. I’ve been reading a bit about the Monaro district and the Snowy Mountains over the past few years, and I picked this book up after reading ‘Kiandra Gold’ by the same author.

So, who was Barcroft Boake? What does his life tell us about life in the Monaro district in the late nineteenth century? Why, aged only 26, did Barcroft Boake take his own life? In this book, Hugh Capel seeks to try to answer many different questions about Barcroft Boake’s life and death: did he take his own life because of his love for a girl? And, if he did, was it one of the McKeahnie girls from Rosedale (now Bolaro Station)? And, if it was, was it Jean or May?

Is it possible, given the amount of time that has elapsed, to have definitive answers to these questions? While I think that it isn’t, I really enjoyed reading Mr Capel’s account of Barcroft Boake’s life. I kept recognising names of places I’ve been to, and names of people who feature in any history of the Monaro region. The book is presented as a novel because it includes both facts and fiction. Mr Capel has included some of the letters Barcroft Boake wrote, as well as some of his poems.

I kept wondering about how Barcroft Boake’s life might have developed had he not chosen to end it in 1892. What might he have written? I think of him when we drive past the Bolaro Station, or visit Lake Eucumbene. The Lake covers Old Adaminaby, and some of the country that Barcroft Boake would have been familiar with.

Anyone familiar with the country of the Monaro and the Snowy Mountains will recognise its influence in some of Barcroft Boake’s poetry. I’d recommend this book to anyone with an interest in either the Monaro and Snowy Mountains regions of Australia.

And, yes, I think Barcroft Boake deserves far more recognition. If you’ve not read ‘Where the Dead Men Lie’, it’s well worth reading – aloud.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith