The Bush Rangers by Edward Harrington

Four horseman rode out from the heart of the range,
Four horseman with aspects forbidding and strange.
They were booted and spurred, they were armed to the teeth,
And they frowned as they looked at the valley beneath,
As forward they rode through the rocks and the fern -
Ned Kelly, Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne.

Edward Harrington (1896 – 1966)
Read the full poem

The call of the Australian Bush 1880




1880 Northern Queensland Australia
Travelling through the bush in the Cooktown District

The road is rough - but to my feet
Softer than is the city street;
And then the trees! - how beautiful
She-oak and gum - how fresh and cool!

From The Call of the Bush by Dora Wilcox,

born Mary Theodora Joyce Wilcox (1873-1953) poet and playwright.

Poetry about bushrangers

Banjo Paterson in 1890

Andrew Barton Paterson (17 February 1864 – 5 February 1941)

"Gilbert and Hall and O'Maley, back in the bushranging days,

Made themselves king of the district - ruled it in old-fashioned ways -

Robbing the coach and the escort, stealing our horses at night,

Calling sometimes at the homesteads and giving the women a fright;

Come to the station one morning - and why they did this no one knows -

Took a brood mare from the paddock - wanting some fun, I suppose -

Fastened a bucket beneath her, hung by a strap round her flank,

Then turned her loose in the timber back of the seven-mile tank."

An excerpt from Banjo Paterson's poem In the Stable

Read the complete poem at Australian Poetry Library

Read more about Banjo Paterson and other Sydney Poets.