Mark Kleinschmidt Biography, Poet, Mark Kleinschmidt Bush Poet, Contemporary modern poet Mark Kleinschmidt
The Gateway to Contemporary & Classical (Modern & Traditional) Bush Poetry

Carrying on the traditions of AB (Banjo) Paterson, Henry Lawson, Thomas E Spencer, CJ Dennis,
PJ Hartigan (John O'Brien), Adam Lindsay Gordon, Dorothea Mackellar, Harry Breaker Morant,
Henry Kendall, Barcroft Henry Boake, Will Ogilvie, Francis Kenna and George Essex Evans.

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Mark Kleinschmidt

Mark was born in Longreach and grew up about 200 kilometres to the south-west, on the watershed of the Cooper Creek and Diamantina River systems. He grew up with a deep and abiding love of the land and rural life and, in the absence of television, he was also instilled with a love of literature by his mother, a voracious reader. The urge to record his experiences came with the recognition that so few had an understanding of what made his part of the world so very special.

He made an economic choice to give up the rural life in 1998 but maintains his links with the bush and its people through his work with a community-based natural resource management group. For eleven years from 1995 he shared his passion and abiding love of this land, through his verse and yarns, with visitors to the region. Mark’s thrice weekly, one hour, one man show became a tradition with the annual stream of ‘grey nomads’ and others who flocked to the outback to get in touch with the real Australia.

In 1997 Mark won the Australian Bush Poetry Championship (male) and represented Australia at the annual Cowboy Poets Gathering in Elko, Nevada. His collection of verse of western Queensland, Westering won the 1998 Golden Gumleaf, Bush Laureate, Book of the Year; it has since sold almost 10,000 copies. Mark’s work has been published in R. M. Williams’ personally selected Australian Bush Classics, the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria’s anthology, A Thousand Campfires, and numerous other publications. His album, The Ringer’s Note has sold over 6,000 copies.

Mark is now retired from performing but continues to write a wide variety of styles from traditional bush verse to free verse and pre-teen novels.

Mark Kleinschmidt's poem Infidelity

Contemporary Bush Poets
Bobby Miller Bruce Simpson Carmel Wooding Carol Heuchan Charlee Marshall Claude Morris Ellis Campbell Gary Fogarty Glenny Palmer Graham Fredriksen Gregory North Guy McLean Helen Avery Janine Haig	Keith Lethbridge Kerry Lee Mark Kleinschmidt Max Merckenschlager Maxine Ireland Melanie Hall Milton Taylor Neil Hulm Noel Stallard Ron Liekefett Ron Stevens Terry Regan Veronica Weal Zita Horton
Contemporary Poems

Contemporary Bush Poems
A Grave Situation A Round Tooit Chasing Your Dreams Daybreak Over The Bay Dingo Down Memory Lane Good Looker I Said Infidelity Mary Not Gone Retiring Riding with My Children Rocky Creek	Seven Miles from Sydney Small White Crosses The Bachelor The Child & the Horse The English Rose The Horses Slave The Hut The Last Pit Pony The Old Wongoondy Hall The Outback Cattle Drive The Pontiff's Eyes Valour Rode The Range Westerly You'll Win If You Can Grin