 How I got started in Bush Poetry —
My teachers at Katoomba Primary School introduced me to Australian poetry and music. I remember the great fun of "How M'Dougall Topped the Score", the wicked thrill of being able to say "Murder, bloody murder!" in "The Man From Ironbark" and not be in trouble for swearing, the spookiness of "The Geebung Polo Club" and singing along to "The Wild Colonial Boy".
Those memories were rekindled in 2003 when I came across Jim Haynes book "An Australian Heritage of Verse" (since combined into "The Book of Australian Popular Rhymed Verse by Jim Haynes) in the bookshop of Parliament House in Canberra. I was driving a tourist coach at the time and it was a great way to fill in time whilst waiting for passengers at various points of interest. I hadn't come across those poems since primary school.
Around the same time I saw Peter Berner on television recite "The Man From Snowy River". It was a stirring rendition and I remember being amazed at how he could remember something so long! With the words at hand in my newly acquired book, I thought, “Well if he can do it, maybe I can too!” I started by learning a few shorter poems like “The Geebung Polo Club” and went along to the local poetry group – the Parakeet Poets – in Katoomba. That first meeting I met the amazing Denis Kevans. He asked me, “would you like to do one, mate?” I tried out my new poem, and with a prompt or two from a bloke named Terry Regan, I got through it and it felt great. Another bloke I met that night was named Milton Taylor. The next weekend he was organising a poetry competition in Hampton and encouraged me to come along. I look back now and think how fortunate I was to meet those three wonderful reciters that night, and start great friendships with them. It is through their inspiration and encouragement that I became hooked on bush poetry.
I was late to the competition that weekend after driving a truck to Wollongong earlier in the day. I had missed the novice section, but in the open section I recited my one poem (with only one prompt) and that's how it all began.
Milton and Terry told me about the Australian Bush Poets Association and the bush poetry “circuit” and at Tamworth in January 2004 I managed to get into the final of the “Imperial Competition” reciting “Said Hanrahan”. I lost the lines about half way through in front of the biggest audience I had ever been in front of. Frank Daniel took my photograph and I started another great friendship.
With the taste for competition, I went on to Corryong's “Man From Snowy River Festival” in April 2004. I had indeed managed to learn Banjo's best known poem and managed to win the poem's recital section using fourteen different accents in my performance. Opinions were polarised. I also won the overall “Clancy's Choice” award and knew I was on to something good!
Since then, my recital of “The Man From Snowy River” in fourteen different accents has become my signature piece and brought smiles (and almost heart-attacks) to many. After being runner-up in two NSW state championships and also in the 2007 Australian championships, it was a great thrill to finally become Australian Champion in 2008.
Bush poetry has taken me to parts of this country I may never have otherwise experienced. The people I've met, the things I've learned and the fun I've had make me wish I had discovered it decades earlier.
With the increasing focus on the global village, bush poetry is something uniquely Australian. It is also great fun. Our long tradition of bush poetry deserves to continue and I'll be playing my part to see that it does.
Gregory North's poem I Said
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