ANDREW BARTON 'BANJO' PATERSON was born in Narrambla, NSW, on February 17 1864.
He lived in the city for most of his life, yet he became wildly famous in the colonies for the poems and stories he wrote about life in the Australian outback.
Just before the turn of the century he composed Waltzing Matilda, the much-loved ballad about a swagman who drowned himself in a billabong. He also wrote The Man from Snowy River, a collection of verses (including the poem by the same name) that sold out of its first edition in a week.
The stories he created about the lives and struggles of bushmen, shearers and drovers in rural farm country struck a chord with Australians.
